“Loving Sabotage” by Amélie Nothomb
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The Japanese word “tsundoku,” according to the OxfordWords blog, means “the act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piling it up together with other such unread books.” I specialize in tsundoku. My house brims with unread novels, biographies, anthologies and histories.
Last week, I glanced at my bookshelf and thought, "What the heck is 'Loving Sabotage' by Amélie Nothomb?”
I have no memory of acquiring the novella. But at some point in the past, I made a wise move.
The narrator is the elementary-school-aged daughter of a diplomat serving in early-1970s China. She recounts the feral battles among the children of the neighborhood, our heroine's unrequited love for a glossy-haired Italian girl, and pointed observations on living abroad, ugly cities and the hopelessness of adults.
It is very funny.
"Nothing inflates a person's importance as much as the casually uttered words, 'I've just come back from China,’" writes Nothomb. "Even today, when I feel I'm not being treated with due admiration, I'll drop the indifferent sounding 'When I lived in Peking...'"
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. But if you have a tsundoku problem, instead of acquiring this new addition for your piles, crack open a dust-covered, unread book you already own. You could discover a gem on your own bookshelves. — Stephanie Curtis | 