{"id":1419,"date":"2020-04-08T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T11:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/?p=1419"},"modified":"2020-04-08T12:00:07","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T11:00:07","slug":"review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Beauty of the Death Cap, Catherine Doustessyier-Khoze"},"content":{"rendered":"

Translated from French by Tina Kover (Snuggly Books, 2018)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This\u00a0is the final instalment in a trilogy of reviews of translations by women I met at the Translating Women conference<\/a> last year (see my reviews of Bellevue<\/a> and Not My Time To Die<\/a> for the first two), and it’s also the first of my shorter-format lockdown reviews, a shift I discussed in my open letter<\/a> a couple of weeks ago. Thank you to all those who wrote to me in response to that letter – it was deeply moving to receive your replies.<\/p>\n

The Beauty of the Death Cap<\/em>\u00a0is a murderous romp through rural France, and quite unlike anything else I\u2019ve read. Fans of crime fiction will no doubt enjoy the modern pastiche of an old-fashioned isolated genius with delusions of grandeur and nefarious intent; equally if, like me, you\u2019ve read very little crime fiction, then this is an entertaining place to begin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Meet Nikonor. He is an elderly and well-to-do resident of Charlanne and inheritor of its chateau, a self-proclaimed \u201cgreat man\u201d beneath whose refined exterior lies a calculated murderer. Yet this word is never mentioned: Nikonor recounts his crimes in the same way he recounts his everyday life – though the two are inseparable, for Nikonor’s everyday life is consumed by elaborate scheming to rid himself (and the world at large) of all those unworthy imbeciles who have frustrated him. Does this country gentleman sharpen his daggers? Load his pistols? Stock up on arsenic? No, for Nikonor abhors a clich\u00e9. He is a mycologist, a specialist in mushroom science, and he knows exactly how much of which species of mushroom will cause an untraceable death. Enemies of Nikonor, beware!<\/p>\n

The characterisation and the narration maintain a tongue-in-cheek irony throughout, and though Nikonor is entirely loathsome, I couldn\u2019t help but follow his carefully laid and executed plans with a kind of sadistic glee. If I\u2019m honest, I prefer reading narratives that have strong female characters in the lead role (it\u2019s not as though the literary world is lacking Machiavellian male anti-heroes…) This meant that I didn\u2019t relish Nikonor\u2019s relentless self-aggrandisement, and I confess that the use of phrases such as \u201cBoys will be boys\u201d or describing women as \u201chysterical\u201d set my teeth on edge. However, I accept that this is a question of characterisation rather than misogyny – we’re not supposed to like Nikonor, after all – and in terms of characterisation it was entirely appropriate, from Nikonor\u2019s condescending footnotes and opinions on the best cheese to his postulating on his own superiority in all things: \u201cAll those poets who have penned mawkish tributes to flowers, women and birds since the classic era are vapid fools \u2013 dreadful louts suffering from an acute atrophy of the aesthetic gland\u201d; \u201cit was utter madness and completely unthinkable that I would sacrifice my youthful freedom to such drivel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tina Kover translates Doustessyier-Khoze\u2019s debut with a superb blend of darkness and levity, revelling in Nikonor\u2019s affected manner of speaking and rendering his monologue in the tone of a perfect gentleman. Despite Nikonor\u2019s languorous and sometimes florid manner of speaking, there is still a certain urgency to the narrative, which he is committing to paper \u201cbefore events catch up with me\u201d and he arrives at \u201cthe final watershed moment of my life.\u201d He addresses himself consciously to his reader, which is engaging and conspiratorial; his acerbic sense of humour also lends itself brilliantly to English translation, and is communicated with insouciant energy in Kover\u2019s prose. If you\u2019re looking for some amusing yet erudite escapism right now, The Beauty of the Death Cap <\/em>is a good place to start.<\/p>\n

\"\"

A trio of Translating Women conference books: L-R Catherine Doustessyier-Khoze, THE BEAUTY OF THE DEATH CAP, tr. Tina Kover; Yolande Mukagasana, NOT MY TIME TO DIE, tr. Zoe Norridge; Ivana Dobrokovov\u00e1, BELLEVUE, tr. Julia Sherwood and Peter Sherwood.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Translated from French by Tina Kover (Snuggly Books, 2018) This\u00a0is the final instalment in a trilogy of reviews of translations by women I met at the Translating Women conference last year (see my reviews of Bellevue and Not My Time To Die for the first two), and it’s also the first of my shorter-format lockdown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[187,365,853,911,991],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReview: The Beauty of the Death Cap, Catherine Doustessyier-Khoze - Translating Women<\/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:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: The Beauty of the Death Cap, Catherine Doustessyier-Khoze - Translating Women\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Translated from French by Tina Kover (Snuggly Books, 2018) This\u00a0is the final instalment in a trilogy of reviews of translations by women I met at the Translating Women conference last year (see my reviews of Bellevue and Not My Time To Die for the first two), and it’s also the first of my shorter-format lockdown […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Translating Women\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-08T11:00:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/files\/2020\/04\/beauty-death-cap.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Helen Vassallo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Helen Vassallo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/\",\"name\":\"Review: The Beauty of the Death Cap, Catherine Doustessyier-Khoze - Translating Women\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/601\/2020\/04\/beauty-death-cap.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-08T11:00:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-08T11:00:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#\/schema\/person\/f6b5a23680f8533c3894aef4e6018f68\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/601\/2020\/04\/beauty-death-cap.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/601\/2020\/04\/beauty-death-cap.jpeg\",\"width\":450,\"height\":450},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Review: The Beauty of the Death Cap, Catherine Doustessyier-Khoze\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/\",\"name\":\"Translating Women\",\"description\":\"INTERNATIONAL | INTERSECTIONAL | ACTIVIST | FEMINIST\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#\/schema\/person\/f6b5a23680f8533c3894aef4e6018f68\",\"name\":\"Helen Vassallo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c32871912708eb310775deb9561113ed?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c32871912708eb310775deb9561113ed?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Helen Vassallo\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/author\/hmv201\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: The Beauty of the Death Cap, Catherine Doustessyier-Khoze - Translating Women","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: The Beauty of the Death Cap, Catherine Doustessyier-Khoze - Translating Women","og_description":"Translated from French by Tina Kover (Snuggly Books, 2018) This\u00a0is the final instalment in a trilogy of reviews of translations by women I met at the Translating Women conference last year (see my reviews of Bellevue and Not My Time To Die for the first two), and it’s also the first of my shorter-format lockdown […]","og_url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/","og_site_name":"Translating Women","article_published_time":"2020-04-08T11:00:07+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/files\/2020\/04\/beauty-death-cap.jpeg"}],"author":"Helen Vassallo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Helen Vassallo","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/","name":"Review: The Beauty of the Death Cap, Catherine Doustessyier-Khoze - Translating Women","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/601\/2020\/04\/beauty-death-cap.jpeg","datePublished":"2020-04-08T11:00:07+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-08T11:00:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#\/schema\/person\/f6b5a23680f8533c3894aef4e6018f68"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/601\/2020\/04\/beauty-death-cap.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/601\/2020\/04\/beauty-death-cap.jpeg","width":450,"height":450},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/2020\/04\/08\/review-the-beauty-of-the-death-cap\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Review: The Beauty of the Death Cap, Catherine Doustessyier-Khoze"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/","name":"Translating Women","description":"INTERNATIONAL | INTERSECTIONAL | ACTIVIST | FEMINIST","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#\/schema\/person\/f6b5a23680f8533c3894aef4e6018f68","name":"Helen Vassallo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c32871912708eb310775deb9561113ed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c32871912708eb310775deb9561113ed?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Helen Vassallo"},"url":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/author\/hmv201\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/translatingwomen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}