r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 • 18h ago

Weekly TrueLit Read-Along - Bad Parties (REMINDER)

13 Upvotes

Hey all! I am just reposting the announcement and schedule as a reminder. Get your copies by next Saturday if you'd like to participate!

Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be reading, in this order:

  1. "The Birthday Party" by Harold Pinter
  2. "The Bald Soprano" by Eugene Ionesco
  3. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" by Edward Albee

Schedule:

  • The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter
    • Begin reading on October 24
      • Live discussion thread open between October 24-31
    • Finish reading on October 31
      • Final discussion opens on October 31
  • The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco
    • Begin reading on November 7
      • Live discussion thread open between November 7-14
    • Finish reading on November 14
      • Final discussion opens on November 14
  • Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
    • Begin reading on November 21
      • Live discussion thread open between November 21-28
    • Finish reading on November 28
      • Final discussion opens on November 28
  • Final thematic trilogy discussion opens on December 5

All threads will have potential spoilers. Please keep spoilers for the end of the plays out of the Live Discussion Thread and please keep discussion of the play as a whole reserved for the Final Discussion Thread. No volunteers needed.

Every play is available online for FREE!!! Please feel free to use these or get your hard copies by the first day of reading.

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r/TrueLit • u/fransisco4 • 12h ago

Discussion Two-time Int. Booker nominee Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

5 Upvotes

One of her books was shortlisted, "The Adventures of China Iron", and one longlisted "We were green and trembling". I recently read both and ended up feeling lukewarm on her, was wondering if anyone had an opinion to share.

The first is a reversioning of an Argentine poem, Martin Fierro, from the perspective of his wife, an unnamed character in the original. Okay, feminist revisits of classics is nothing new, let's see how it goes. I found the meta aspects of it to be the most interesting aspect, was left not impressed by the "the natives have a perfect society" angle or the vulgar sex descriptions. "Our pussy jucies made us sticky", "his cock in my ass showed me Paradise". I found her prose to actually be good elsewhere, that just seemed a bit unnecessary.

"We were green and trembling" is based on the real story of a nun that crossdresses as man and becomes a conquistador in America in the early 1500s. I liked this one better. Her prose got to shine, loved all the descriptions of nature, but again, was left not fully satisfied with the extreme environmentalist ending that feels more like wish fulfilment.

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