Coffee Letter #004: When the Body Says No, But Who’s Gonna Listen
I barely had time to breathe.
Do you know that moment when your schedule is packed and you are having fun but maybe, just maybe, you should rest? But you are you, so you go to work, go to the book club, and then you spend a few hours reorganising the bookshelves because who needs rest after being up from 6 AM? Definitely not you.
But that’s when your body decides that, actually, you really need to rest so what does it do? *drum rolls please* It catches the flu. Maybe this was actually my sign to finally read When the Body Says No by Gabor Mate.
On the bright side I finished the bookshelves reorganisation — all the books are in a spreadsheet now and I have two book towers ready to be sold on Vinted or given away. On the not so bright side… I missed the second book club (the one about Lapvona and I was so damn curious to hear what everyone else thought about it).
At first I thought all my plans for the week will be cancelled. But I'm more stubborn than my body, so I’m writing this letter from Iași, from FILIT — International Festival of Literature and Translation — I am not a translator, I’m probably butchering the name.
I don’t even know how to start talking about how amazing and surreal being at this festival was! So I won’t.
I need time to process everything and I am still a bit in awe (and a bit jealous we don’t have something similar in Cluj). I’ll share my stories over some real coffee, or who knows, maybe in the next letter. That being said, I am really grateful to my friend Bogdana, who asked me to join her on this adventure and who introduced me to so many awesome humans.
~ read
Let’s start with the horror books for the book clubs:
Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh. I really wished I liked it because I enjoyed the writing style and the way Moshfegh chose to reveal things in the story, but overall I felt like it was quite pointless. Lapvona follows a mediaeval village throughout the seasons and it focuses mainly on a shepherd’s little boy as he struggles with faith after an event changes his entire worldview.
An exercise in the grotesque that could’ve worked better as a short story; I found myself bored of it in a long form novel. But I definitely want to read more Moshfegh in the future. There was a lot of potential in Lapvona too — plenty of themes to be explored, touched upon only superficially. The cover is gorgeous, the inside is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea so check your TWs.
The other horror novel of the week was Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix, the book for our little book club (the book club discussion was delicious as always). Now this was the fun kind of horror. The novel is about an IKEA-like shop where strange things happen at night, so a supervisor and two employees partners stay overnight to investigate.
I absolutely adored the first half of the novel, it was more focused on corporate satire and I wish the same comedic vibes were kept throughout the novel. Unfortunately the second part of it turns quickly into a classic horror adventure.
The design of the book is splendid — it looks just like an IKEA catalogue, but the story disappointed me in the end. The suspense and tension weren’t properly balanced. Each chapter was episodic, things were solved way too fast. Apart from a couple of scenes, I wasn’t actually scared at all. Fortunately I heard that Hendrix’s other novels are much better than this one and I am excited to further explore his works (I already bought two more novels on a Kindle sale).
While at FILIT I focused on Romanian authors, so I’ve been reading a lot of short stories and I even finished three poetry volumes — I am not a big reader of contemporary poetry hence my reviews will be all over the place:
Cât mai departe de tot ce cunosc by Cristina Alexandrescu. I really loved this book and I wanted to highlight every single line and share them all over. It’s a very tender collection and I discovered a little piece of me in almost all of them. It reminded me of Rupi Kaur in a way, and I know she is not everyone’s cup of tea, but sorry, not sorry, I’m a sucker for that tumblr-like poetry — although Cristina’s volume is strictly superior.
Muzeul convorbirilor întrerupte by Anda Docea. I read only a poem from Anda’s volume in the bookstore and I instantly had to buy it and retreat to a café to read the entire book. I devoured it. It was so powerful and vulnerable at the same time and it honestly made me want to read more poetry. I fell in love with Anda Docea’s words (and Anda herself).
Spune-mi unde să apăs mai tare by Ramona Boldizsar. Ramona’s volume is focused on maternity and I honestly didn’t expect it to touch me, but her writing is so honest and versatile that it captured me. I loved the mix of languages, I found snippets of my childhood, and in the end it did not matter that I wasn’t familiar with the theme — plus it’s also about womanhood.
I feel so lucky that I got to meet all three authors at the festival and so many other cool people who love books and reading (again, thank you, Bogdana). There was a magical energy in the air that I cannot put into words yet, and there were many moments when I had tears in my eyes.
I could only read this much in three days full of events, but fear not, I will return with even more Romanian authors to share. This was just the apéritif. My appetite for contemporary Romanian literature is open now.
Currently I’m on the train back home and I’m reading The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk because I have yet another book club tomorrow evening.
~ watch
This week I didn't have time for films or TV series. I stopped in the middle of yet another vampire film so maybe I'll tell you more about it next time — if I end up liking it (or who knows, if I want to complain about it).
I'm almost done with Emily in Paris but that was just the background show while I reorganised my books — the only thing I care about when it comes to Emily in Paris is the city. I just never warmed up to Emily and my love for Sylvie is not enough, plus I feel the show has this bad habit of ruining other characters just to make Emily more palatable, and that’s not good writing imho.
~ and other things I did last week
Music: Parachutes by Coldplay. The soundtrack of the week. Also the only album from Coldplay I have on vinyl (it’s my favourite album) — if you check LastFM, it’s everyone and their mother’s comfort album and I tend to agree.
Food: I did not cook this week but there’s a yummy highlight, or two — a café from Iași has created a special croissant for the festival and we had to try it. A bit too much vanilla custard for my liking, but the croissant itself was divine. Oh, and I tried my first canelé and it was bloody delicious! I need one on a daily basis now — I’m strongly considering buying a canelé tin to bake some myself.
Other things consumed last week:
Again, only video essays — it is what it is.
The Death of the Artist: How Roan and Rooney Saved Culture by Alice Chappelle. A subject I'm very interested in — this, and separating the art from the artist when it comes to problematic authors, which I still don't know what to think about and it’s a subject that’s been on my mind for more than a decade now. In this video essay Alice Chappelle talks about artists actually setting boundaries (and more).
Wuthering Heights: Race & Plausible Deniability by Fashionable Crow. Since it was announced that Emerald Fennell will adapt the novel with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as the protagonists the internet has exploded with opinions, especially on Heathcliff and his appearance. And this video explores exactly that. I admit that I imagined Heathcliff as Romani when first reading the novel, but whether that was Emily Brontë’s intention is not as easy to tell. Even so, I still find the casting a bit weird and my favourite thing about Wuthering Heights is still Kate Bush’s song about it.
I am not sure what my plans are for the rest of the week. I have no plans for Halloween either. I just want to chill with my cat on the couch and watch vampire films. So I guess this week I will finally rest.
There’s just one more book club and… oh, and I’m a beta-reader so I need to read the book and send in my notes by November 1st. Gotta go!
Thank you for reading!