Authentic and read by myself: three extraordinary books to read off the bestseller lists.
The first thing I notice is the vibrant colors: the deep turquoise blue of the book cover, the warm orange-yellow of the author’s portrait on the German edition of Mariette Navarro’s Ultramarine, the dark purple and the orange-red fox fur on matte midnight black on the German edition of Nightwalking, and the blue, yellow, green, and deep pink graphic novel style Househusband book cover. More gimmicks inside: black and white woodcuts in John Lewis-Stempel’s book, blueish drawings and emojis by Kolosowa and Soria. Only Navarro’s narrative remains minimalist, dispensing with additional images and colors.
Mariette Navarro: Ultramarine
Above the cool deep sea, bathed in sunlight and seemingly stretching endlessly, a restlessly travelling merchant captain, who has always acted calmly and rationally, seeks soul and meaning in the man-made machinery of steel and heavy oil.
The international editions of the book not only have different titles, but also differently designed covers. The minimalist German Über die See with its colorful inside cover, the English editions of Ultramarine show two different images resembling scientific drawings that symbolize physical and emotional depth, as well as the contrast between cool and warm, letting go and keeping control. The French edition features a more cheerful graphic design, and its original title, Ultramarins, can also be understood as a play on words referring to “ultra sailors.”
Foreign Worlds and Personal Experiences
Ultramarine is the book that eludes my personal experience the most. A fruitless search for vivid images shows all the more clearly how far removed from common clichés and experiences life on a cargo ship must be. I know more about living as a part-time househusband in home office, about prejudice and neighborhood, and I have walked through forests, fields, and parks at night, meeting foxes, squirrels, hearing cat cries and nightingales’ “jazz”. I remember a friend mistaking the underground gurgling of a rainwater retention basin for the distant sounds of a secret Goa party.
Wlada Kolosowa: The Househusband
Meanwhile, on the supposedly solid ground of the big city, creative minds are searching for inspiration and career opportunities. If the book Der Hausmann had been written just a little later, AI would have had to play another supporting role here, in the literary hidden picture puzzle that ironically and lovingly describes and mocks our modern life.
Today, I’ve got The Good Mood
As a mixture of a novel, chat history, and a graphic novel by Raúl Soria with its different fates, perspectives, and prejudices, The Househusband (Der Hausmann) is the most colorful in every respect and sets the tone, so to speak, when the new neighbor struggles with German grammar and hipster ideals in his diary entries.
Kolosowa, I read, writes sensitively and nuancedly about masculinity and everyday life, but unfortunately this often comes across as self-centered, self-pitying, and clichéd. Nevertheless, and no matter if this book was meant to be semi-fictional, autobiographical, or purely fictional, this book stands out creatively from the usual in so many ways that it deserves a recommendation.
John Lewis-Stempel: Nightwalking
The diary-style accounts of mostly nocturnal experiences of nature in rural England are a form of escapism, but perhaps also a rediscovery of the real world. As a writer and a farmer, John Lewis Stempel writes seemingly timeless, dreamy, and poetical, quotes old poems, delights himself and his readers country life details, dances with his horses, and shears sheep to do his neighbor a favor.
Stempel´s short chapters about Nightwalking cover the four seasons and hide their social criticism in marginal comments. I´m especially grateful how translator Sofia Blind, who is also a book author, managed to translate the playful lightness of the English original into German (Wandern bei Nacht) in such a fluid and poetic way.
The original cover images shines in bright turquoise moonlight.
Nachtwalking without Screens and Light Pollution
Lewis-Stempel is not only concerned with nighttime, but also with darkness, twilight, and natural lighting conditions. Never he’d tolerate a street lamp in front of your front door, he wrote.
I am used to it. I like the city lights, the cozy windows, the cool urbanity of clubs and shop windows, and the plants and animals of parks and gardens. But I also like the twilight of the fields and the darkness of the forests. I took these two nocturnal pictures myself: one night in a wintry city, another night on a lonely campsite while travelling in summer.
Do you enjoy the sounds of the night, the endlessness of the ocean, and the swarming cities? Maybe you prefer the suspense of a classic crime novel, as a series to stream on the internet?
Thanks and Recommendations
Nightwalking was a birthday present. The Househusband and Ultramarine I owe to the book podcast Zwei Seiten by Mona Ameziane and Christine Westermann, who both speak their minds. Their renewed recommendation encouraged me, after a critical side note in my review of Vernon Subutex,to give The Househusband the attention it probably deserves.
I hope this article inspires you to read, hike, and explore.
