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A carregar... Deranged As I Ampor Ali Zamir
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Set on the island of Anjouan, Comoros, Deranged As I Am follows the story of a humble dock worker. With his ramshackle cart and patched-up clothes, he spends his days trying to find enough work to feed himself. This whirlwind of a novel takes place over just a few days, yet Ali Zamir's poetic and energetic prose transports readers to the docks, its noises, colors, and smells. This lively and often darkly humorous story does not draw away from the more serious themes of class, poverty, and exploitation that Zamir explores. A rich and significant text that questions literature and language itself, Deranged As I Am confirms the very original place that Zamir occupies in French literature. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — A carregar... GénerosSistema Decimal de Melvil (DDC)843.92Literature French French fiction Modern Period 21st CenturyClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos EUA (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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Review of the Fum d'estampa paperback edition (November 25, 2022) translated by Alice Banks from the French language original "Dérangé que je suis" (January 3, 2019)
This was quite a rollercoaster of a ride which follows the life of a haulage worker on the docks of Mutsamudu port in the Comoros, a tiny island nation north of Madagascar. [Readers with World Country reading challenges may want to add this short novella to their TBRs]. The title character, nicknamed 'Deranged', leads a scuffling existence hauling goods by hand with his wheeled cart nicknamed 'CaRleWis'. He is in constant rivalry with a trio of similar workers nicknamed the "PiPiPi" for Pirate, Pistol and Pity (and their fancier labelled carts 'Usain Bolt', 'LaShawn Merritt' and 'Michael Johnson'). A competition to haul the goods of a rich man results in a bet to run a race around the town of Mutsamudu. The rich man's wife is holding the stakes, but she also has other plans in mind for Deranged. Can he win the race, outfox the wife and beat off his neighbour's chickens who shit on his laundry every morning? The odds are against him, but Deranged is a survivor, and I don't count him out, even if it ends in seemingly dire circumstances.
See photograph at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Mutsamudu_port1.jpg
A view of Mutsamudu and its port on the island of Anjouan in the Comoros. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
This may initially strike you as difficult reading with its long paragraph style and dialogue embedded without punctuation. It is novella length though and once you are immersed in it, it will carry you along in its underdog's journey and its comic tragic scenarios and set pieces.
The translation by Alice Banks was outstanding and read very easily and naturally.
I read Deranged as I Am through my subscription to Fum d'Estampa Press. It was "founded in 2020 by translator Douglas Suttle to bring exciting, different Catalan language literature to an English speaking audience. Though small, the press quickly established itself as an ambitious publisher of high quality titles. Since then, we have been long- and short-listed for some of the most important literary prizes in the UK and abroad, and have recently started to publish fantastic literature in translation from languages other than Catalan." ( )