sherbertwells's review
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
The story of poet and translator Jakob Beer, from his rescue by a Greek geologist during WWII until after his death in 1993. The structure is listless and the prose, while suitably haunted, fails to distinguish the book from the throngs of 21st-century literary fiction.
“I tried to bury images, to cover them over with Greek and English words, with all the geologic eras. With the walks Athos and I took every Sunday into the ravines. Years later I would try a different avalanche of facts: train schedules, camp records, statistics, methods of execution. But t night my mother, my father, Bella, Mones, simply rose, shook the earth from their clothes, and waited” (93)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide and Grief
Moderate: Antisemitism, Sexual content, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death and Vomit
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