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miriamschlundt's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
janaroos's review against another edition
4.0
Book club read, posting the review here as well.
I didn't like the title (a bit too on the nose I'd say) but that can be blamed either on the publisher or the translator, since the German title is different. So I'll graciously let that go.
A bit difficult to break this one down into categories but I'll do it that way anyway.
1) Characters: excellent. The minor characters are subtle and fully formed even though we often only see a few instances of them, and I think this is achieved through the 'singular We' mechanic. I definitely bought the fact that all the characters were equally broken down by camp life until they could barely be differentiated anymore, and that made them relatable even though the book was written from a first person perspective (which I often think is limiting).
I'm also always impressed when an author writes a main character of their opposite gender very well, but now I'm wondering whether this was actually that. Not that Leo was badly written, not at all, but considering the author's close collaboration with the poet who inspired the story, perhaps this was not that much of a stretch.
2) Language and writing: I think that the translation becomes an obstacle in some places because of the emphasis on connections between German and Russian homophones and the emotional baggage that certain words have for the narrator. Can't help feeling that I missed meaning in the whole 'hase-vey' thing. German compound words are (awesome and) difficult to translate, so when I saw 'onedroptoomuchhappiness' I can't help but feel a little meh because I'm sure German has a word for that but in English we have to make do with removing the spaces.
In general I appreciated the author's writing style. I often don't like when authors don't differentiate dialogue (like Jose Saramago's The Cave, what a chore) but here I think it serves a purpose. Same with the lack of question marks for questions--I think it was effective in depicting the mental haze of a camp dweller.
The same goes for the actual prose, but only up to a point. There were some places where I felt the style crossed into indulgence. I marked the (overly long) passage about the boredom of different things, and the literal list of adjectives in the 'On camp happiness' section. Unnecessary, in my opinion.
3) Themes: Honestly the whole 'hunger angel' thing did get a little tired for me, and at some points I felt the metaphor was stretched beyond recognition. I do however allow for it, because I think that that kind of hunger does take over one's entire life and thought.
I'm unsure what to make of that fact that the narrator was gay. I get that it makes him more of an outsider and influences his relationships with and perceptions of others, but that seemed to be kind of it. I suppose I'm so used to sexual orientation being a plot point or a major 'thing' in a story or for a character that I kept waiting for something more to be made of it, when it's not really necessary for that to happen. So that was actually good.
I liked that Muller added a substantial part at the end after Leo's return from the camp (this is not a spoiler, he says at the start he comes back). That was really interesting and actually made the book for me--the near-impossibility of readjusting to a normal life, and the difficulty of everyone else in dealing with his unexpected and kind of inconvenient return.
All in all a very interesting read, though not an easy one, and perhaps not one I see myself revisiting in future (this matters because I am a compulsive re-reader).
I didn't like the title (a bit too on the nose I'd say) but that can be blamed either on the publisher or the translator, since the German title is different. So I'll graciously let that go.
A bit difficult to break this one down into categories but I'll do it that way anyway.
1) Characters: excellent. The minor characters are subtle and fully formed even though we often only see a few instances of them, and I think this is achieved through the 'singular We' mechanic. I definitely bought the fact that all the characters were equally broken down by camp life until they could barely be differentiated anymore, and that made them relatable even though the book was written from a first person perspective (which I often think is limiting).
I'm also always impressed when an author writes a main character of their opposite gender very well, but now I'm wondering whether this was actually that. Not that Leo was badly written, not at all, but considering the author's close collaboration with the poet who inspired the story, perhaps this was not that much of a stretch.
2) Language and writing: I think that the translation becomes an obstacle in some places because of the emphasis on connections between German and Russian homophones and the emotional baggage that certain words have for the narrator. Can't help feeling that I missed meaning in the whole 'hase-vey' thing. German compound words are (awesome and) difficult to translate, so when I saw 'onedroptoomuchhappiness' I can't help but feel a little meh because I'm sure German has a word for that but in English we have to make do with removing the spaces.
In general I appreciated the author's writing style. I often don't like when authors don't differentiate dialogue (like Jose Saramago's The Cave, what a chore) but here I think it serves a purpose. Same with the lack of question marks for questions--I think it was effective in depicting the mental haze of a camp dweller.
The same goes for the actual prose, but only up to a point. There were some places where I felt the style crossed into indulgence. I marked the (overly long) passage about the boredom of different things, and the literal list of adjectives in the 'On camp happiness' section. Unnecessary, in my opinion.
3) Themes: Honestly the whole 'hunger angel' thing did get a little tired for me, and at some points I felt the metaphor was stretched beyond recognition. I do however allow for it, because I think that that kind of hunger does take over one's entire life and thought.
I'm unsure what to make of that fact that the narrator was gay. I get that it makes him more of an outsider and influences his relationships with and perceptions of others, but that seemed to be kind of it. I suppose I'm so used to sexual orientation being a plot point or a major 'thing' in a story or for a character that I kept waiting for something more to be made of it, when it's not really necessary for that to happen. So that was actually good.
I liked that Muller added a substantial part at the end after Leo's return from the camp (this is not a spoiler, he says at the start he comes back). That was really interesting and actually made the book for me--the near-impossibility of readjusting to a normal life, and the difficulty of everyone else in dealing with his unexpected and kind of inconvenient return.
All in all a very interesting read, though not an easy one, and perhaps not one I see myself revisiting in future (this matters because I am a compulsive re-reader).
tbchic's review against another edition
2.0
I can definitely appreciate this book for talking about a topic that not a lot of people know about (I didn't know about it myself), but otherwise it was a very dreary and boring book. If it was just casual reading, I'd have dropped the book at about 50 pages in, but sadly I had to read it 'til the end, which is kind of why I hated it so much. Anyway, I could've live without reading this.
blairmahoney's review against another edition
5.0
A quite stunning novel by the Nobel Prize-winning Müller. She originally started working on it with the poet Oskar Pastior, based on his experiences in a forced labour camp in the Soviet Union after WWII, and then continued it on her own after his death. Müller's own mother spent five years in a similar camp. The novel is episodic and impressionistic, with elliptical glimpses at the hardships suffered by the novel's main character, a young gay Romanian of German heritage. Although similarly grim it had a very different prose style to the other Müller novel I've read, The Appointment.
blueyorkie's review against another edition
2.0
Despite the seriousness of the subject, I did not manage to imagine the content of this story chopped into naively childish sparks to approach an existential experience that one can hardly imagine unitary.
martenalan's review against another edition
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.75
Ich hatte das Gefühl, dass ich dem Buch nicht wirklich gerecht werden konnte.
doseogwan's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
carrie_bize's review against another edition
4.0
Das Buch hat mich echt berührt. Die Gefühle sind sehr greifbar und eindringlich. Der Schreibstil ist verdammt gut.
amikael's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5