The Nautical Chart
Registered by penngos of San Francisco, California USA on 6/12/2003
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
Not my favorite Perez-Reverte. I liked "Flanders Panel" and the "Club Dumas", but something about this dull narrative fell flat.
Someone once said of Peter DeVries, "I love his book. I read it every time he writes it." Arturo Perez-Reverte has cemented his claim to such backhanded praise with this release, "The Nautical Chart".
This book follows the standard Perez-Reverte formula, one that became almost tiresome after "The Flanders Panel" was released.
Here we are offered Coy, a down-on-his-luck sailor with barely enough knowledge to get the job done, a man who thinks and acts with his fists as opposed to his wits, Tanger Soto, a single-minded femme fatale who echoes Hammett's Bridget O'Shaughnessy (from "The Maltese Falcon", which this book references and echoes)and a pair of villains as cruel and unlikely as Gutman and Joel Cairo. The group are all in search of a vast treasure buried beneath the sea centuries ago. That's pretty much all there is to the story.
It's not the repeat of the old formula that bothers me so, rather it is the change in writing style that seems to have sucked the joy out of my reading of Perez-Reverte, and I don't know whether to blame this on the author or his translater. Former translator Sonia Soto had a flair for language and helped ease The Club Dumas and The Flanders Panel into the American consciousness by imbuing these books with a fluid formality that seemed just right for the content. New translator Margaret Sayers Peden has a wooden ear, seemingly translating some sections exactly as written (which makes them seem odd and flat to an English speaker) and others by trying to inject modern slang and make the book sound more contemporary.
It is a fact that, unless we read the original language, we are at the mercy of the translator when reading foreign literature. A good one can make the work sing and a bad one will make it squawk. Sadly, without a strong, fresh framework from Perez-Reverte, this translation merely squawks.
Someone once said of Peter DeVries, "I love his book. I read it every time he writes it." Arturo Perez-Reverte has cemented his claim to such backhanded praise with this release, "The Nautical Chart".
This book follows the standard Perez-Reverte formula, one that became almost tiresome after "The Flanders Panel" was released.
Here we are offered Coy, a down-on-his-luck sailor with barely enough knowledge to get the job done, a man who thinks and acts with his fists as opposed to his wits, Tanger Soto, a single-minded femme fatale who echoes Hammett's Bridget O'Shaughnessy (from "The Maltese Falcon", which this book references and echoes)and a pair of villains as cruel and unlikely as Gutman and Joel Cairo. The group are all in search of a vast treasure buried beneath the sea centuries ago. That's pretty much all there is to the story.
It's not the repeat of the old formula that bothers me so, rather it is the change in writing style that seems to have sucked the joy out of my reading of Perez-Reverte, and I don't know whether to blame this on the author or his translater. Former translator Sonia Soto had a flair for language and helped ease The Club Dumas and The Flanders Panel into the American consciousness by imbuing these books with a fluid formality that seemed just right for the content. New translator Margaret Sayers Peden has a wooden ear, seemingly translating some sections exactly as written (which makes them seem odd and flat to an English speaker) and others by trying to inject modern slang and make the book sound more contemporary.
It is a fact that, unless we read the original language, we are at the mercy of the translator when reading foreign literature. A good one can make the work sing and a bad one will make it squawk. Sadly, without a strong, fresh framework from Perez-Reverte, this translation merely squawks.
Journal Entry 2 by penngos at --Somewhere In San Francisco -- in San Francisco, California USA on Thursday, June 12, 2003
Released on Thursday, June 12, 2003 at Drumm & Sacramento, Chinese Restaurant, 2nd Floor in San Francisco, California USA.
I'm going to leave it on a table. I hope the waitress doesn't throw it away.
I'm going to leave it on a table. I hope the waitress doesn't throw it away.
