The #1954Club
For several years, Simon at Stuck in a Book, has been organizing club years, in which he encourages everybody to read books published in the same year.
This time, he chose 1954.
I think the main idea is to draw a literary portrait of that year.
If you are curious, you can check which books were published during that year, on this Goodreads list or on this one (less complete, but you can compare with the books you have read), or on this wikipedia page.
Before focusing on The 1954 club, it seems I had read 7 books published that year:
- The Bridge over the River Kwai, by Pierre Boulle
- Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
- The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia, #5), by C.S. Lewis
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, by J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, by J. R. R. Tolkien
- Bonjour Tristesse, by Françoise Sagan
And more recently, with a review:
The Sound of Waves, by Yukio Mishima
For the #1954club, I read the following:
Death Going Down,
by María Angélica Bosco
Published in 1954
as La muerte baja en el ascensor
Translated from the Spanish
by Lucy Greaves
November 24, 2016 by Pushkin Vertigo
160 pages
Mystery
Goodreads
As I currently try to focus on my TBR, I looked on my Goodreads TBR shelf, and there was only one book published in 1954.
It’s a mystery, a genre of classics I usually enjoy. And this book also qualifies for my Books in Translation Challenge.
I had never read anything by Argentinean author María Angélica Bosco (1917–2006).
She won the “Emecé Literary Prize” (Premio Emecé Argentina) in 1954 (the year of its creation) thanks to this novel.
First, I have to say I really enjoyed the title, even though we quickly realize its meaning. Still, I found it more attractive than the original in Spanish, which I found too explanatory: La muerte baja en el ascensor.
Though it is indeed what happens.
Pancho Soler comes home in Buenos Aires completely drunk one August night at 2am. He calls the elevator. He opens the door and finds a dead woman in it. Who is she? Who killed her? How? Why?
Definitely the type of discovery that might help you sober up quickly:
“He felt a desperate need to shout in protest. Why did this have to happen to him?”
I really liked the opening of the book a lot, with its neat descriptions of Soler and his discovery. Obviously, he is the first suspect. Did he do it?
The officers then focus on each person living in the apartment building. So it is a type of variation on the locked room mystery genre.
Each of these inhabitants could really be the guilty party, as they all have something to hide, in their past (many immigrants made their way to Argentina after WWII), their activity, or their relationships.
Bosco has some interesting turns of phrases or images, such as this one about Superintendent Ericourt:
“He had nothing of the prowling predator, but all the fearsome patience of an elephant scanning the ground with its trunk for the piece of food it has dropped”.
Or
“Lahore squirmed gently in his seat, like a cat that feels someone is tying a dog to its tail.”
I also liked the clever ending, which I realize I should have guessed much earlier on.
My year 1954 recap:
Beside María Angélica Bosco, I didn’t have time to read any other book for this event. Still, 1954 has an impressive list of biggies, world wide.
HERE IS THE LINK TO ALL THE BOOKS REVIEWED
FOR THE #1954CLUB
HAVE YOU READ ANY OF THESE?
CLICK ON THE 1954 CLUB LOGO TO DISCOVER MANY MORE REVIEWS
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BOOK PUBLISHED IN 1954?
Words And Peace 