robshpprd's review against another edition
2.0
I struggle to understand how so many people had such positive experiences with this novel. It's honestly one of the dullest things I've ever read.
To be sure, Vollmann has some elements of genius. The overall structure is very impressive. In the end, we do feel some tragedy in Shostakovich's story.
But overall, the whole thing feels aloof and cold. Vollmann understands his characters deeply but there's always a clinical distance between the narrator and our characters. Some of the most interesting passages are those that feel like autobiographical slips. We catch little glimpses of a man who has been divorced and is still raw from it.
The language is uneven at best. When describing music and sex, there are flashes of lyrical mastery, but for the most part Vollmann's prose alternates between barely-there and stilted and forced. He is obsessed with this notion of big overarching metaphors drawn between major themes of the novel. In a novel about music and war, nearly every instance of figurative language involves either music or war. This is cute at first but tedious after a few hundred pages.
To be sure, Vollmann has some elements of genius. The overall structure is very impressive. In the end, we do feel some tragedy in Shostakovich's story.
But overall, the whole thing feels aloof and cold. Vollmann understands his characters deeply but there's always a clinical distance between the narrator and our characters. Some of the most interesting passages are those that feel like autobiographical slips. We catch little glimpses of a man who has been divorced and is still raw from it.
The language is uneven at best. When describing music and sex, there are flashes of lyrical mastery, but for the most part Vollmann's prose alternates between barely-there and stilted and forced. He is obsessed with this notion of big overarching metaphors drawn between major themes of the novel. In a novel about music and war, nearly every instance of figurative language involves either music or war. This is cute at first but tedious after a few hundred pages.
jonbrammer's review against another edition
3.0
I thought the section about Gerstein, the conflicted supplier of gas to death camps was the best part. After were the tales of Paulus and Vlasov, the generals who were captured and switched allegiences. Unfortunately, Vollman spends more time on Shostakovich, the composer involved in a love triangle.
withonestone's review against another edition
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
megapolisomancy's review against another edition
4.0
A series of parables about life in the USSR and Germany in the middle of the century. Dmitri Shostakovich is kind of the main character, but not really, although like him all of the central characters are collaborators in one way or another.
Sometimes the narrators are explicitly Vollmann, sometimes they're anonymous agents in the intelligence agencies, sometimes they're omniscient, sometimes they're not.
He has some great stuff to say about the suffering of people trying to go against the tides of history, so to speak, and some of it is really touching and fascinating, but it's Vollmann, so it's way, way too long and has some creepy gender stuff at times-the women (except for the first two chapters, which I believe were the only ones to center on women) are all either fetishized sexual muses or angelic moral compasses.
Sometimes the narrators are explicitly Vollmann, sometimes they're anonymous agents in the intelligence agencies, sometimes they're omniscient, sometimes they're not.
He has some great stuff to say about the suffering of people trying to go against the tides of history, so to speak, and some of it is really touching and fascinating, but it's Vollmann, so it's way, way too long and has some creepy gender stuff at times-the women (except for the first two chapters, which I believe were the only ones to center on women) are all either fetishized sexual muses or angelic moral compasses.
francoisvigneault's review against another edition
5.0
A big, weighty book that takes a sort of sideways looks at the events of World War II through the lives of historical and fictional characters. Some truly brutal moments, not for the faint of heart, but moving and terrible. I am sure I will read it again someday.
bhoggard's review against another edition
5.0
William T. Vollman's historical novel Europe Central is at times a long, dark slog, but definitely worth the effort. His research into Nazi and Soviet history is impressive, particularly on musical topics -- don't miss the notes at the end. What other contemporary novel is likely to spend so much time with not only Dmitri Shostakovich, but less-famous composers such as Moisey Vainberg and Galina Ustvolskaya?
The only thing I disliked about the book was when the chapters about Shostakovich imitated the verbal tics he developed as he got older, due to the extreme mental stress he suffered under the Soviets.
I understand the importance of conveying how he communicated later in his life, and a letter by Isaiah Berlin about his sad visit to Oxford in 1958 certainly documents that, but it's painful to read one hundred consecutive pages written in that style.
The long passages about the harrowing conditions for Soviet and Nazi soldiers on the Eastern Front, civilians in Leningrad, Dresden, and 1944-45 Berlin, as well as chapters set in East Germany after the war, serve as a strong antidote to the ridiculous idea that the USA saved Europe single-handedly in World War II. The Soviets and the countries of Eastern Europe lost millions of people -- soldiers and civilians -- as the West allowed them to grind down much of the strength of Nazi Germany. The people of central Europe were then abandoned to the sinister realities of Stalinism once victory was declared.
The novel is overlong, and could have used some more editing, but its empathy for the people of Europe Central is a worthy accompaniment to the works of Anna Akhmatova and Shostakovich regarding this dark period of our "civilized" 20th century.
The only thing I disliked about the book was when the chapters about Shostakovich imitated the verbal tics he developed as he got older, due to the extreme mental stress he suffered under the Soviets.
I understand the importance of conveying how he communicated later in his life, and a letter by Isaiah Berlin about his sad visit to Oxford in 1958 certainly documents that, but it's painful to read one hundred consecutive pages written in that style.
The long passages about the harrowing conditions for Soviet and Nazi soldiers on the Eastern Front, civilians in Leningrad, Dresden, and 1944-45 Berlin, as well as chapters set in East Germany after the war, serve as a strong antidote to the ridiculous idea that the USA saved Europe single-handedly in World War II. The Soviets and the countries of Eastern Europe lost millions of people -- soldiers and civilians -- as the West allowed them to grind down much of the strength of Nazi Germany. The people of central Europe were then abandoned to the sinister realities of Stalinism once victory was declared.
The novel is overlong, and could have used some more editing, but its empathy for the people of Europe Central is a worthy accompaniment to the works of Anna Akhmatova and Shostakovich regarding this dark period of our "civilized" 20th century.
readabookdamnit's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.75
jeremyhornik's review against another edition
4.0
This was quite good. The subject matter is heavy (the corrosive nature of ideology and war) and the approach sounds pretentious (biographical sketches of major artists and military figures from Germany and Russia) but dang if there wasn't a great deal of humor. Also, piles of violence and a lot of sex. (Dmitri Shostakovich... playa.)
Heavy, I said. Let's see... many of the worst places in the history of the world appear in this book: Siberia, Babi Yar, Stalingrad, Belzec, Auschwitz, Dresden, East Berlin, Vorkuta. How does one live in this world? How can you live with yourself, when you end up betraying or murdering people? Shostakovich, Kathe Kollwitz and SS traitor Kurt Gerstein are the troubled and compromised heroes of this book. The failures are endless.
From a section about Gerstein: "He was present, trying to laugh with his comrades, when they stripped the Jews naked, beat them and shot them. An old man, needing to relieve himself, squatted down in the bushes and got overlooked by his murderers. Gerstein whispered in his ear, urging him to hide in the forest -- No, thank you, Herr Obersturmfuhrer, the Jew said coldly, in perfect German. I prefer the company of my wife and children."
Look... you have to know you're getting into 750 pages (not counting the footnotes) of heavy: history, ethics, morals, and the deep divide between "duty" and "responsibility". Read it anyway. It's good.
Heavy, I said. Let's see... many of the worst places in the history of the world appear in this book: Siberia, Babi Yar, Stalingrad, Belzec, Auschwitz, Dresden, East Berlin, Vorkuta. How does one live in this world? How can you live with yourself, when you end up betraying or murdering people? Shostakovich, Kathe Kollwitz and SS traitor Kurt Gerstein are the troubled and compromised heroes of this book. The failures are endless.
From a section about Gerstein: "He was present, trying to laugh with his comrades, when they stripped the Jews naked, beat them and shot them. An old man, needing to relieve himself, squatted down in the bushes and got overlooked by his murderers. Gerstein whispered in his ear, urging him to hide in the forest -- No, thank you, Herr Obersturmfuhrer, the Jew said coldly, in perfect German. I prefer the company of my wife and children."
Look... you have to know you're getting into 750 pages (not counting the footnotes) of heavy: history, ethics, morals, and the deep divide between "duty" and "responsibility". Read it anyway. It's good.
emdogh's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Death, Genocide, Mental illness, Racism, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Gun violence and Sexual content
Minor: Racial slurs