Week #09 - A Meal In Winter ¦ Broods

A Meal In Winter is a very brief crisp book. I understand that this is the first of  Hubert Mingarelli's novel to be translated into English. I pray it is not the last.

Three soldiers Emmerich, Bauer and the narrator wrangle there way off base for the day under the guise of hunting down jews in the frozen wasteland around where they are stationed. The writing is so astute we feel the cold as we walk with these three, looking but not too hard for anything in the bleakness.

In the bitter Polish they find a jewish man in a hole in the frozen forest and as they march him back to camp, to be shot, they happen upon an old abandoned home. It is hear that they make soup, their meal. While the soup is slowly cooking a Polish man enters the house and the tensions between the five men builds. The three soldiers have no lust or will for the killing of the jewish man and only choose this mission to get away from the base where the killings take place.

As I said it is short book but that does not distract from the vivid pictures and tension that is built in the pages. It is so staggering in its simplicity, so beautiful its prose I welcome all to read it.

4.5/5

Broods are a sister-brother duo from Auckland, New Zealand. Broods is their debut release and its very strong. In fact all six songs are good. Very good. Bridges, their first single, is probably the weakest song on the EP and Bridges is a great song.

There of course will be comparisons with Lorde as these are a new NZ band, I guess very young as well as having the same co-writer in Joel Little. I cannot give an opinion on Lorde as I only heard Royals which hasn't inspired me to hear her voice for awhile again.

Broods are good and could be big if the Lorde comparisons don't overshadow what great music they make.

4/5