book data
40 ratings, 3.08 average rating, 8 reviews
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published
2006
by W. W. Norton
binding
Paperback, 208 pages
setting
Unknown
literary awards
2006 Booker Prize Longlist
isbn
0393329089
(isbn13: 9780393329087)
description
"Superb….Every page of this narration bears examples of Lasdun's own poetic mastery….Shockingly vivid."—Time Out
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 71)
Read in May, 2006
Stefan Vogel, who narrates this work, grew up in post-WWII East Berlin. Falsely put forward by his mother as a developing poet, he has to, with his building superintendent's help, plagiarize the works of Western poets printed in a forbidden book to which he gains access. After being sprung from an Eastern prison by the West German Government, who wishes to use him as some kind of culture hero for its own political mileage against the East, he decides to emigrate to the US. In both his German and...more
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Not in a horror-flick-gone-wild kind of way, rather in a chilling, squicky fashion. The story is like a particularly horrible, yet riveting car crash. Something verging on obscene, yet radiating a twisted human essence.
There's East Germany post-Stalin. With all it's recursive layers of surveillance.
There's the protagonist, Stefan Vogel. So explanatory. So lacking intent. So very quick to do the unthinkable for reasons warped-ly almost-understandable.
There's Stefan's...more
There's East Germany post-Stalin. With all it's recursive layers of surveillance.
There's the protagonist, Stefan Vogel. So explanatory. So lacking intent. So very quick to do the unthinkable for reasons warped-ly almost-understandable.
There's Stefan's...more
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Don't really like it. But his another book The Horned Man is kind of good one.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2008
I thought this book was very well written and enjoyed the story as well. Although I can see how some would characterize the story as depressing, I really didn’t find it that. From the beginning I understood and accepted the fact that, no matter what the action, it had already happened and so, like the protagonist, my reaction was not emotional but I was allowed to enjoy the prose. I also thought it painted a realistic (not that I know) portrait of life and paranoia in East Germany.
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Lasdun is king of really tense, tight potboilers, this one involving the East German secret police, beatnik writers, and decisions you might want to take back. It begins with a glass of wine thrown in the protagonist's face at some fancy gallery opening and works its way backward. It's not a spy thriller; it's a character study. That seems to have disappointed some reviewers, but Lasdun's writing is always exquisite.
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Read in January, 2007
I could not like this book at all even though I finished it. The main character has got to be the most apathetic character I've ever read in a book. I didn't see the point why anybody would write story about somebody who never really makes his own decisions but simply roll with whatever's easiest. I gave it away as soon as I finished it.
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Read in February, 2007
A fascinating novel about an East German poet who builds his reputation on plagiarism and other lies. I'm struggling to remember the details now, but the overall strength and vast interior landscape of the book impressed me.
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