Xi'an's Og

Read—in French—The Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓), written by Nosaka Akiyuki in 1967, and which inspired the eponimous Ghibli Studio anime by Takahata. A very vivid reporting on the slow deaths of the young narrator and of his sister, in the final days of WW II that left them to try to cope by themselves from the lack of food. I was quite surprised by the style, raw and oral, with hardly any punctuation, that reminded me of the early Céline. The book contained a second short story, Amerika Hijiki (or American weeds), also related to the WW II trauma suffered by the author. Recommended, if not for young readers. I also read The Wrong Unit, by Rob Dircks, a science-fiction novel set in the 2800’s, which follows a humanoïd robot caring after a child with a particular destiny. Not as fun as Murderbot, and not particularly deep in its human-AI-robot relationship, even less in its scenario and its creation of a 2800’s environment where everything sounds 2020’s, except for teleportation (!), but definitely readable.

Just as during my previous, private, visit to Venezia, I cooked there a large dish of (spinach) gnoccheti with anchovies that lasted the week, plus had the possibly best-ever squid dish I ever tasted at Da’a Marisa. Where else?!

Watched Jo Nesbo‘s Harry Hole’s Devil Star series on Netflix. With mixed feelings. On the one hand, the rendering of a gritty, harsh, unromantic, fantastic, Olso and of a unequal, corrupted, crumbling, society far from the usual postcards is riveting. With the actor playing Harry Hole fitting the role brilliantly. (Maybe not the most adequate adjective for an alcoholic, Camels chain smoking, (hyper)violent, insubordinated, police officer!) On the other hand, the scenario is very weak and with too many red herrings and convenient coïncidences and global conspiracies. Given the last scene, there may be another season in the near future…