so-soIt's frustrating, because this book has such potential for greatness and so many strong insights about a whole slew of important themes, but it focuses mainly on a toxic love affair. And I am so tired of books about barely adult women in unhealthy relationships with older men.
#WomensPrize #WomensPrize25
Hard to pick just one quote from this book, appallingly timely in its observations applied to current events, 90 years later.
“With his oily hair falling into his face as he ranted, he had the look of a man trying to seduce the cook. I got the impression of basic stupidity, the same kind of his crony Papen - the kind of stupidity which equates statemanshio with cheating at a horse trade.”
pickPage 304 cemented this as a five star read. Historically based on the houses that “bore and raised” children for Hitlers Germany. The secrets that were everywhere for people to survive. Excellent historical fiction. Alina the mother and survivor.
pickJust finished this beautiful story. A three-timeline plot, set before, during, and immediately after WWII in Germany, it follows two sisters and the woman who comes across a book tied to them. It‘s heart wrenching and uplifting at the same time. So glad I read this.
pickMy highest praise. It is written as diary entries, what is happening to him & society as Hitler rises to power. He sees the stupidity,the cruelty,the arrogance.How such a regime destroys everything in its wake .The past ,the present,the future.Unfortunately, It is too relevant in this particular moment. Very moving, so glad I read it. I had heard of it years ago, then Tim Miller mentioned it in The Bulwark podcast.Beautiful writing,sharp insights
pickBefore anyone gets hot under the collar, the Passion in question is Bach's St Matthew (and music more generally). 🙂
I love Bach and, completely unreasonably, expected reading this book to feel like listening to his music. Well... it wasn't that, although the rehearsing and first performance of the StMP was truly evocative. Otherwise it tends towards overlong and has saggy-middle-syndrome. JSB comes across as tiresome but I loved all the context.
pickWhile I was in Berlin, I met a British tour guide who referenced this specific book as a great introduction to the advent and dissolution of East Germany or the German Democratic Republic. Funny enough, I was already reading it. Hoyer does a particularly nice job with the format relating individual experiences of citizens of various locales, backgrounds, industries, dissenters and true believers and builds the historical narrative off this device.
Someone recommended this book to Tim Miller of The Bulwark, he added to footnotes, I borrowed it. Originally published in 1947, Reck details the rise of Hitler and Nazism with appropriate horror. I‘m only a bit into it , this paragraph !
