'Every decision in favour of a sentence is a decision against countless other sentences. Every decision in favour of a story passes up countless other stories. One word destroys another word. Writing means obliterating.'
Judith Hermann examines the paths not taken in We Would Have Told Each Other Everything, translated by @Katyderbyshire in Granta 165., due 23 November.
#BookReview Narrated by H., a portrait painter, José Saramago's first novel depicts an artist's struggle to capture the real person behind the face and the frustration of being unable to do so.
H. has no illusions about the kind of work he turns out. His portraits show his clients as they want to be portrayed, but when S., a businessman, commissions a portrait H. also paints a secret second portrait to show the real S., but is dissatisfied with that one too. He then turns to words to capture S. as he is.
He begins by writing about their interactions and quickly expands to writing about his own life, politics, and artistic philosophy. What's most fascinating about this book is watching a great writer in the process of unfurling his new writerly butterfly wings.
First published in 1977, Manual of Painting and Calligraphy was published in the US in 2012 translated by Giovanni Pontiero.
#CfP for the "Graduate Student Conference on #Translation Studies", which will be themed "Trace and Transformation" and take place at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (#UMassAmherst) on April 20-21, 2024.