Reviews and Comments

An intense book. If you started this book because you heard about the smut (or saw the movie with lots of skin), you will be disappointed.

What is really intense is all the misery, the misery of the family, the misery of this love that exists only in a grotesque parody, the misery of the boarding schools. Above all and defining all this, the misery of colonialism. Colonialism that heaps misery on the local people, but also onto the people sent there to "administer" that colony or who try to get their personal gain in this all and simply find their banal inconsequential life.

A lot of "stream of consciousness" writing. It took me a while to keep me from trying to "keep in mind" what exactly was happening and when, and instead let myself drift in the stream. I found the book to be ending on a slightly positive thought ... but honestly that could be disputed.

An intense book. If you started this book because you heard about the smut (or saw the movie with lots of skin), you will be disappointed.

What is really intense is all the misery, the misery of the family, the misery of this love that exists only in a grotesque parody, the misery of the boarding schools. Above all and defining all this, the misery of colonialism. Colonialism that heaps misery on the local people, but also onto the people sent there to "administer" that colony or who try to get their personal gain in this all and simply find their banal inconsequential life.

A lot of "stream of consciousness" writing. It took me a while to keep me from trying to "keep in mind" what exactly was happening and when, and instead let myself drift in the stream. I found the book to be ending on a slightly positive thought ... but honestly that point could be disputed.

Noticed this book in my feed. I've read it almost 20 years ago. Bought it in a bookshop in Panepistimiou street in Athens, and the image of the low table with stacks of books where it lay is still in my head.

I didn't like it completely. I remember it carried me on, but there was something deeply negative in the story.

Can't get more classic than this ... judging from a short test read, this translation (by Samuel Butler) is excellent.

Wow... I'm done... incredible feeling. I might write a review, but a bit later. This was a crazy journey.

I really liked the setup and the message of this book. Even the idea with the silver could be an interesting "visualisation" of the power dynamics of colonialism. But I don't know why, don't know if it's just me, but it seems all to be executed very superfluously to me. I don't feel people's feelings, don't get their motivation (apart from thinking that according to the plot, they are bound to have some). I'm stopping for now, maybe I'll get back to it later.

Intense. Sometimes this book is crushing, dark, brutal in Grossman's descriptions of the horrors of war and the Holocaust. Occasionally he is flat and almost bloodlessly repeating hearsay, but most of the times... that feeling of hearing someone who was an actual witness to the times was intentse. All the things he saw and lived through. This huge amount of sincerity, brutal honesty. There were times when I could not continue reading, especially in the evening. I did not enjoy reading this book, even though it is very well written, but it felt right to read this book.

How can the words of Vassily Grossman exist in the same universe as the new perpetrators of racist and far right ideology?

Not sure I'll get to collect my courage and read this, and even more unsure that I'll make it through it... but I would like to read this.

Das Kapitel, in dem Annas Mann mit ihr reden will... das ist sehr beeindruckend und gleichzeitig war es mir sehr deprimierend. Wollte fast nicht weiterlesen, das Buch weglegen.

Dieses Ding, dass der Autor den Figuren in die Seele schauen kann ("der allwissende Autor"), hier, von so einem Meister durchgeführt, bemerke ich das gar nicht, da ist es einfach die Geschichte, die ich miterlebe.

Nein, nicht mein Ding. Das vor sich her dröhnen der altmodischen Sprache könnte ich noch ertragen, aber da ist einiges was mich halt einfach nicht motiviert, es mir nicht interessant macht. Die in Rezensionen erwähnten Lustigkeiten gegenüber Leuten, Gruppen, und Literaturformen seiner Zeit kommen bei mir halt nicht so an.

Die Anthropomorphisierung ist natürlich im Konzept gegeben, funktionierte für mich als Leser aber dann doch nicht.

Ich gebe auch den zweiten Versuch auf, auch wenn's schade ist.

Hadn't been reading for a few days, watched stupid movies instead.