{"id":1765,"date":"2012-10-20T16:23:53","date_gmt":"2012-10-20T15:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1389"},"modified":"2016-02-05T19:45:07","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T18:45:07","slug":"sex-and-the-cities-reviewed-by-katie-blagden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=1765","title":{"rendered":"Sex and the Cities<\/em>, reviewed by Katie Blagden"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSex and the Cities\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Katie Blagden <\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday 19th<\/sup> October<\/strong><\/p>\n

International Anthony Burgess Institute<\/strong><\/p>\n

697 words<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

When first given the ticket to review \u2018Sex and the Cities\u2019 my heart sank. I had horrible premonitions of having to listen to four ageing socialites talking about their latest sexual adventures in New York City. Thankfully, Sarah Jessica Parker and her harem were nowhere to be found; instead we were treated to three young international women writers discussing their work with an insight and warmth that left the eponymous television show in the dust.<\/p>\n

\n

Anjali Joseph, Grazyna Plebanek and No\u00e9mi Sz\u00e9csi were the writers in question and together they brought a wide range of nationalities, styles and subjects to the table.\u00a0 Hosted by local writer Sherry Ashworth, the writers were asked to read aloud a section from their novels before Ashworth quizzed them on their work and themes.<\/p>\n

\n

Anjali Joseph, whose book Another Country<\/em> followed a twenty-something girl in her exploration of London, Paris and Bombay, apologised for her cold \u2013 \u2018If there\u2019s one thing worse than someone with a cold, it\u2019s someone with a cold and a microphone.\u2019\u00a0 The audience didn\u2019t seem to mind as, within a few beautifully crafted pages of description, Joseph introduced us to Leela, a woman searching for fulfilment. Joseph\u2019s writing deftly created the sense of living space and claustrophobia in Leela\u2019s Paris apartment and the throw-away sentence encompassing Leela\u2019s morning masturbation revealed a depth of approach to female sexuality not often seen in literature.<\/p>\n

\n

Grazyna Plebanek followed, apologising for her Polish accent and rather charmingly describing her book Illegal Liaisons<\/em> as \u2018a story about a triangle\u2019. However, this is not the next Flatlands<\/em>, but rather a story of a love-triangle, set in Brussels and told from the point of view of the male protagonist Jonathan. Plebanek\u2019s treatment of male eroticism, something that was discussed at more length during the Q&A session, was handled with a delicacy and understanding in the extract, leading to a poetic and poignant moment of intimacy in a church.<\/p>\n

\n

No\u00e9mi Sz\u00e9csi was the last to read aloud from The Finno-Ugrian Vampire<\/em>. Sz\u00e9csi explained the context of her vampires with a straightforwardness that was refreshing \u2013 a vampire who doesn\u2019t want to be one is being pressured by her vampiric grandmother, because vampirism is \u2018the family business\u2019. In the extract, Sz\u00e9csi\u2019s comedic tone came to the fore as the grandmother, too tired to climb the stairs, turns into a bat, only to be beaten with a broom by the janitor. Sz\u00e9csi\u2019s portrayal of a family argument incurred by the above incident is flawless \u2013 the absurdity of the context subverts the otherwise normal family spat.<\/p>\n

\n

Sherry Ashworth enthusiastically led the Q&A session, highlighting the importance of publishers such as Stork Press, who are translating and publishing international writers into English. Ashworth valiantly endeavoured to cover both cities and sex in her questions; however these two main topics only loosely tied together three very different books and authors.<\/p>\n

\n

From Anjali Joseph\u2019s attempts to depict the dislocation and miscommunication of Leela\u2019s life across three different cities, to No\u00e9mi Sz\u00e9csi\u2019s somewhat hesitant attempts to incorporate Budapest as a key theme in her fantasy-urban setting, it became clear that the three writers were not necessarily on the same page. Several questions almost managed to uncover some more important issues, but never quite succeeded.\u00a0\u00a0 For example, Grazyna Plebanek\u2019s descriptions of how she attempted to write men and find \u2018a language for the body and give it dignity\u2019 weren\u2019t followed up by Ashworth to the degree they could have been. However, the lack of depth to any one topic allowed for a wide-ranging discussion, especially when the questions were opened up to the floor.<\/p>\n

\n

Covering ethnicity, autobiographical inspiration, Bram Stoker, the privilege of English writers and the \u2018looming spectre of America\u2019, the audience kept the writers on their toes. Despite a few struggles with foreign name pronunciation and Mancunian accents, the audience was given a wonderful insight into the processes and issues with which these three very different writers constantly grapple. As Sherry Ashworth rather smugly put it, it was \u2018a fantastically right and interesting evening\u2019.<\/p>\n

A great opportunity for British readers to discover new and exciting international writers.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Thankfully, Sarah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[16,283],"tags":[171],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nSex and the Cities, reviewed by Katie Blagden - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=1765\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sex and the Cities, reviewed by Katie Blagden - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cSex and the Cities\u201d Reviewed by Katie Blagden Friday 19th October International Anthony Burgess Institute 697 words When first given the ticket to review \u2018Sex and the Cities\u2019 my heart sank. 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