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The History of History

3.24 of 5 stars 3.24 · rating details · 133 ratings · 47 reviews

A ferociously intelligent debut novel about a young amnesiac’s descent into madness in contemporary Berlin, and a country wrestling with its dark past.

A young woman named Margaret stumbles one morning from a forest outside Berlin, hands dirty, clothes torn. She can remember nothing of the night in the woods, nor—she soon realizes—anything of the previous months. She return...more

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published January 18th 2011 by Knopf (first published January 1st 2011)

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The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré

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Aug 26, 2012 Daisy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Daisy by: Osho

Shelves: germany, berlin-read-summer-2012, out-of-towners, around-the-world-challenge-2012

A singular, fictional perspective on the Holocaust, guilt, innocence, revenge, love, family, modern Germany -- East and West...
I am a pretty literal reader and had to push myself past the fantasy in this novel. The symbols were not easy for me. I'd love to discuss this with someone. If I belonged to a book group maybe. Yeah, this would be a great book for a group to dissect. There are some amazing scenes here, especially being stuck in the doctor's office.
If this is at all your area of interest...more A singular, fictional perspective on the Holocaust, guilt, innocence, revenge, love, family, modern Germany -- East and West...
I am a pretty literal reader and had to push myself past the fantasy in this novel. The symbols were not easy for me. I'd love to discuss this with someone. If I belonged to a book group maybe. Yeah, this would be a great book for a group to dissect. There are some amazing scenes here, especially being stuck in the doctor's office.
If this is at all your area of interest, if you've ever been in an old European city and wondered whose feet wore down the stairs of the apartment building you visit, whose fingers trailed the bannisters, whose elbows leaned on those open windows, then this will be satisfying in many ways. But that's simply put. It's a complicated, elegant, detailed story. I can't pretend to understand all of it though by the end, much of it is clearer. It makes me ponder a lot of things I've never thought about before.

Once you've met something unimaginable you can never unmeet it again.

She stood in the mirror portrait very near Margaret, close next to her, good as a mother or a friend.

Going around in life using German, which Margaret had learned only a few years before, was like walking around in high heels--although it drove up the aesthetic rush of going out on the town, it was dreadfully uncomfortable after a while, and there were certain places you couldn't go. (Now, I confess I've never worn high heels but I have learned German and this is so accurate.)

... and these are things that make children welcome: home and non-disappearance of people.

Even if you cannot forgive yourself, and by some poor luck you cannot forgive anyone else either, and there is no vengeance to be had in this baneful world that is slowly suffocating on its own past, there might still be a paradox of goodness.

Not that this story reminded me of the following books, but I did think of them while I was reading this:

The Master and Margarita
Everything is Illuminated (less)

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Jan 11, 2012 Tabitha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The way I see it, there are two kinds of books in this world. The first kind are entertainment. This is a broad category, filled with strange bedfellows. There are the fluff books we read for laughter, romance, thrills, escapism. But there are also books that we read, usually non-ficition, that expand our horizons. These are Malcolm Gladwell books, or Tony Horowitz's A Voyage Long and Strange, or A World Lit Only By Fire. We learn from them, and they are certainly not fluff, but they still fall...more The way I see it, there are two kinds of books in this world. The first kind are entertainment. This is a broad category, filled with strange bedfellows. There are the fluff books we read for laughter, romance, thrills, escapism. But there are also books that we read, usually non-ficition, that expand our horizons. These are Malcolm Gladwell books, or Tony Horowitz's A Voyage Long and Strange, or A World Lit Only By Fire. We learn from them, and they are certainly not fluff, but they still fall into the same category of entertainment, they are an enjoyable pasttime. The second category of books are very different from these. They are often not enjoyable. They make us uncomfortable, they bring us to the brink of what is bearable, and sometimes they pass beyond that line. We are unsettled by them, and reducing them to a number of stars out of five seems almost impossible.

Books in this category, for me, are those that I often hated to read. Lolita is certainly one. A Streetcar Named Desire is another. Books that detail a character's descent into madness are always difficult for me to read--perhaps because they make me realize how close we all can be to tottering on the edge. Or, to quote Margaret from The History of History, they make us realize that we have more madness within us then we ever knew. While I often hate these books, and loathe their plots or one or more of their characters, I read them because they are the epitome of what literature can be. Literature should expose our zones of comfort, and move us beyond those boundaries of comfort. Not all literature, surely, should fit this definition, or I suspect the madhouses would overflow. But this kind of literature, while difficult to read, is absolutely necessary. We need those books that challenge us to move beyond our norms, if only for us to re-examine why we have the boundaries we do, and why they exist for us in certain places.

It is only after those thoughts that I can begin to 'review' The History of History. Online blurbs, or the description inside flap of the jacket, don't really do justice to what the reader enters. Yes, a woman wakes up in the forest outside of Berlin and cannot remember the past several months. Yes, the story involves her trying to remember what happened to her, while exploring the tragic history of her city. These descriptions, however, are too straight-forward to adequately describe the novel. The book is not so direct, and Margaret's descent into madness follows the other-worldly paths found in 1970s U.S. films with strange headtrips, in which the viewer always must ask if they can trust what is happening on screen. It is a bit of Fear and Loathing in Berlin, but with World War II tightly wrapped within the narrative.

I did not enjoy this book, per se. But, I did tell more people about what I was reading, and discuss it with more people, than I normally do with my reading material. It is a book that necessitates discussion, if only to pull the reader out of Margaret's world and back into the sunlight. Would I recommend this book? Absolutely, but only to those that find value in books that inhabit the second category for books, those firmly planted outside the realm of pasttime and entertianment, and see books as doorways to worlds we may not like. (less)

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Sep 21, 2012 Judith rated it 1 of 5 stars

There is a scene at the beginning of this book that I can't get out of my mind. Margaret, a young American living in Berlin, has had a period of amnesia, but having received a reminder in the mail of her yearly gynecological exam, she proceeds to the doctor's office. Although she does not recognize the doctor, ( a rather bizarre older woman) she cooperates with the process. Undressed, with her feet in the stirrups and the speculum clamped into place, she become nervous when the doctor then stumb...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Marc Nash rated it 4 of 5 stars

A dizzying trip through Berlin and its recent history as the heroine tries to get inside the mind of two women who killed their families, one a Jewess and one being Magda Goebbels in Hitler's bunker. Both take their decisions to prevent their children from suffering, but the two women strike very different chords. Winding in between these two historical women, is the strange, slightly hallucinogenic experiences of the heroine in modern day Berlin. This aspect reminded me of both Kafka and Elias...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Julie rated it 2 of 5 stars

The sad thing about this work is that Hattemer-Higgins is potentially a powerhouse writer. When she writes with focus, the page is on fire and the story gallops along like a madwoman escaping the asylum. She is brilliant. You just can't get enough of what she's going to say next, where she's going to take you. Unfortunately, there are just not enough of those pages to redeem the novel.

First of all, she tries too hard, and it is painfully evident in numerous passages. I felt, at times, that I was...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Jim Leckband rated it 3 of 5 stars

The subtitle is "A Novel of Berlin", but it could also be "A Novel of Freudian Vienna" because of the intense psychological and symbolic turmoil in the book. Margaret Taub, The very unreliable narrator (heck, the point of the narrator's quest is to find out *why* she is unreliable), wakes up in the forest outside Berlin with no memory of the last two years and tries to piece everything back together. Except she is kind of whacked-out and doesn't do it like a normal person would.

Part of her probl...more

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May 04, 2011 Jasmine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: american

okay so I didn't really check what this book was about before I read it. I thought that it was a book about world war 2 by a german author. it is... well... not so much about that at all. or it is kind of about that but only in the manner in which the past insinuates itself in the present. This is one of those books where you aren't positive what it's about until the very end, but I kind of like that. As opposed to sort of genre novels with a beginning, middle and end, it more is a book about th...more

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May 12, 2011 Julia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oh, how I was touched and gripped by this very strange and wonderful novel. The passion with which this talented young author chooses her words and winds her character's tale is truly awe-inspiring.

Though I've never been to Berlin, Hattemer-Higgins brings that city literally to life in a way that can't be ignored.

The main character seems on the surface to be so odd and so crazy that there might be no way to relate to her. But in the end, it's her very real and familiar struggle with passionate l...more

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Feb 18, 2012 Vesna rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was such an enjoyable read. Having visited Berlin a few months ago, I did all the typical sites like checkpoint charlie, the place has a veneer of fact/fiction/real/unreality that has been masterfully captured. Likewise its citizens. I totally believed Margaret's obsessions and was surprised by how stunning it was to read. Its bold exuberance of language glided its way to convey difficult and at times, harrowing content. The theme of madness is seen through a surreal landscape where hints a...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Claire rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Claire by: Slate: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2011/12/best_books_of_2011_bossypants_the_pale_king_a_dance_with_dragons_and_our_other_favorites_reviewed_.html

The History of History was the type of book that made me want to flip right back to the first page after I'd finished reading it. Hattemer-Higgins intertwines so many subplots, themes, and half-fictive, half-historical characters that I'm certain one could approach this book several times and notice a new thread running through each reading. This imaginative and unsettling novel tells the story of Margaret, a twenty-something American in Berlin grappling with gaps in her recent memory as the c...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Joanne Merriam rated it 5 of 5 stars

[Full disclosure: I know the author slightly from the Poets & Writers Speakeasy forum. We've never met.]

I read this book several months ago and am still thinking about it and going back to my Kindle to reread passages. It's a haunting book, and best read all at once. Most of it is very mysterious until the end, when much that was confusing earlier becomes clear. I've never been to Berlin, but found it easy to imagine given the lush descriptions of Margaret Taub (the protagonist) whose Berlin...more

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Dec 08, 2011 Rebecca Makkai rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was my favorite debut novel of 2011. It's probably not for everyone, but it's definitely for me -- the layering of personal and family and German history, the extremely unreliable narrator, the fabulous payoff of the revelations at the end... and sharp, original prose.

The closest thing I can liken the book to is Murakami, but I actually hate Murakami. I always feel like I've been listening to whole-tone jazz with no tonic, and his novels seem to end arbitrarily, no better than if they'd end...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this book very quickly while traveling, and it was a very entertaining read. As a History teacher myself, living in Europe, I found the questions on the city's "perfect pregnancy" and the expectations that people have in the study of history very poignant and interesting.

I was drawn into the narrative(s) and much appreciated the changing narrative voices. I also found myself wondering at points if Margaret was really insane or if these visions were really appearing to her...and was happy...more

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Apr 21, 2011 Greg Zimmerman rated it 5 of 5 stars

The History of History, Ida Hattemer-Higgins' debut novel, is, simply put, an awe-inspiring piece of fiction. The genius of this fiercely intelligent novel — other than the fact that Hattemer-Higgins' prose is absolutely gorgeous — is that it's an unconventional, postmodern (fractured narrative, bizarre dream sequences, unreliable narrator) tale that still crackles with mystery and page-turning intrigue. It's the kind of novel you really only should read 20 to 30 pages at a time and then put dow...more The History of History, Ida Hattemer-Higgins' debut novel, is, simply put, an awe-inspiring piece of fiction. The genius of this fiercely intelligent novel — other than the fact that Hattemer-Higgins' prose is absolutely gorgeous — is that it's an unconventional, postmodern (fractured narrative, bizarre dream sequences, unreliable narrator) tale that still crackles with mystery and page-turning intrigue. It's the kind of novel you really only should read 20 to 30 pages at a time and then put down aside to digest and puzzle out the significance of what you've read. Normally, with "difficult" fiction, that's easy to do. Not here — it's a story with a magnetism that won't let you leave it.

Margaret Taub is a mid-20s American living in Berlin, Germany in the early 2000s. As the novel opens, Margaret stumbles out of a forest, not remembering how she got there. Fast-forward two years — Margaret has settled back into her life in Berlin as a history student and English-language tour guide, but still has a significant gap in her memory before and after emerging from the woods. One day, she receives a mysterious note addressed to Margaret Täubner, summoning her to an appointment with a Dr. Arabscheilis. Despite the fact that she thinks it's a mistake, Margaret goes, hoping for some clues about her missing memory.

Then, the novel really starts rolling. Margaret soon becomes obsessed with the story of Magda Goebbels, the wife of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. As the Russians were nearing in the final stages of World War II, Magda murdered her six children in Hitler's bunker before she and her husband committed suicide themselves. Margaret, who is haunted by visions of Magda all around Berlin, wants to try to understand why. Was it an act mercy, or an act of evil? In the course of her research, she stumbles across a clipping about a Jewish couple who also killed their three children before being deported to a camp. To Margaret, that seems to be more an act of mercy, when compared with Goebbels'. But when is killing your own children ever morally justifiable?

Intrigued by Dr. Arabscheilis' wisdom after their first meeting, and becoming increasingly unmoored, Margaret returns frequently to the doctor who becomes her spiritual guide/guru. The doctor, an old woman with a giant head, is a wonderful character, imparting advice and constantly speaking in dichotomy (difference between story and memory, difference between anestheticizing memories vs. aesthetizing them). At one point, Dr. Arabscheilis tells her:

"You, my pet, are having an identity crisis that has become moral despair. It is impossible for the human animal to remember his or her own life without cleaving a line, a line of some kind, however capriciously zigzag, lazy, narcissistic, arrogant or, on the other hand, self-blaming and unforgiving, between right and wrong, credit and blame."

The novel's intricate plotting and Margaret's obsession with history allows it to deal with a number of heady moral and philosophical issues, all the while bringing us along at a pretty fast pace as Margaret tries to figure out what happened to her...or what it was that she did. Throughout the book, we're constantly wondering about Margaret's sanity. Are her visions — Berlin's buildings turned to flesh, Magda Goebbels in the form of "hawk-woman," playing a weeks-long game of Hearts with a ghost — a product of her declining mental faculties, or simply beautiful dreams? "And a sense of beauty, my pet, to each his own, is the weir that staunches the flow of madness," the doctor tells Margaret in the later stages of the novel. The degree of Margaret's madness is the riddle Hattemer-Higgins presents her readers, and even at the novel's shocking, stupefying conclusion, that's never really clear.

Sadly, this novel — published in January 2011 — remains obscure to most readers. Most likely, that's attributable to the fact that many readers hear "difficult" and run screaming towards Dan Brown. But this novel isn't difficult in the Gravity's Rainbow or Ulysses sense. In fact, it's not difficult at all — it's just that it does require a fair amount of thought and concentration to get the most return on the reading investment. And even then, it almost certainly requires a second reading to decipher all the symbolism and philosophizing. Still, this is high-concept fiction of the highest order, and therefore, highly, highly recommended! (less)

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Jul 11, 2012 Natalie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical, literary-fiction, abandoned

I really, really tried to lose myself in this book. So many of the reviews were great, and the prose itself was, technically, quite lovely. However, the harder I tried to enjoy the book, the less I did. It was simply not my speed, not my "bag," and I wish I could explain why. It wasn't the writing style so much as...maybe the pace of the book? Maybe its mystical elements, at least in the beginning chapters I read? Not sure. I just couldn't rev myself up to keep going with this one, and I ended u...more

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Jun 18, 2011 Angela rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: did-not-finish

I tried so hard to keep with this book - it had a couple of really good reviews and some great snippets on its dustcover. But after two weeks and 100 pages, it just could not keep my attention no matter what I did. I thought that maybe because of the mystical part of the story, it would start to engage if I read for 30 minutes without interruption. Didn't help. There was only one short chapter which was based in the present that I thought "Wow, now here we go." Then we went back to bizarre. I ha...more

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Apr 22, 2011 Carmen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: popular-fiction

A young woman suffers from amnesia. As she is trying to figure out who she is, she keeps going back to a time during World War II. It's as if she lived during that time, but of course that is not possible. While living in Berlin, she discovers more than she wanted to know about herself and her family. This is like no other book I have read. The author weaves the two timeperiods together very well, even changing the language to reflect the changing times.

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Dec 10, 2011 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an interesting one, about an American living in Berlin that experiences the emotions and sights of 1940's Germany taking over her mind. Hallucinatory images are everywhere as buildings turn into breathing skin, people transform into birds, etc. It's got a lot of brilliant moments and the emotions are strong, but the protagonist doesn't have much you can identify with. It holds the power of the story at an arm's length, but this is still a fascinating journey.

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Sep 08, 2011 Annabelle Allouch rated it 3 of 5 stars

Roman halluciné sur l'oubli et la mémoire nazie de Berlin. Quelques trouvailles (L'héroine est suivie par Magda Goebbels en femme-faucon), mais aussi beaucoup de répétitions visant à donner au lecture une impression hallucinogène un peu attendue et donc barbante.
Ma seule lecture de la rentrée littéraire, conseillé par Le Monde des Livres et acheté à la librairie Gutenberg de Strasbourg, sur une sublime place ensoleillée dont j'ai déjà oublié le nom.

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Mar 16, 2013 Nora rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have never read anything like this. I generally have very little patience for surrealism, but I found this craaaaaaaaazy good. I mean, I am kind of done reading Holocaust novels but they keep sneaking onto my reading list somehow. I wouldn't call this a Holocaust novel anyway, exactly, even though it is very much about the Holocaust. An original take on guilt and memory and love. Whatever. NOT for everyone. Also the language was very strange at times, almost as if it had been translated, which...more

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Apr 21, 2011 Mark rated it 2 of 5 stars

Meh. It's trying to hard to be satirical and serious in a roughly Joycean fashion, but as if Pynchon were writing a Vonnegut novel, and the mix simply doesn't work. There's rich material here buried in prose simultaneously dense and simplistic, which may be the point, but the author intrusions kicked me out far too often.

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Mar 09, 2011 Diane S. rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is wonderfully written and excessively strange. Not a book one can rcae through, actually had to stop and think after each chapter. A young tour guide in Berlin comes out of the woods torn and in clothes she doesn't recognize, nor can she rememeber what happened. Her descent into madness takes the form of the third reich, Hitler and Goebels in particular.

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Jan 11, 2012 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked this up on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. Surreal, clever and lean (I'm looking at you 1Q84). The story of a young women in Berlin researching several tragedies of WWII, while also losing her mind. It all comes together very nicely - well maybe not nicely, it is in Germany after all.

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May 27, 2011 Joane rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am still trying to decide on this one! WOW - I did NOT see the ending coming!! I was confused the entire book as to where the various strings would lead - and almost put the book down a number of times. I am still not sure whether or not I am glad that I did. Incredibly THOUGHT PROVOKING!!!

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Aug 19, 2011 Tobias rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read2011

The above rating is incredibly arbitrary; there are parts of this novel that utterly floored me, and other parts that I'm not sure worked at all. I suspect I may end up raising said rating upwards after a while, but I'm not sure. Must find someone to discuss this book with before too long...

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Dec 05, 2012 Natalie marked it as to-read

Shelves: put-aside-for-now

I couldn't finish it right now: in one way it's brilliant and in another way it all just falls through. It is ambitious - perhaps too ambitious - but not executed well.

I will say one thing though, the woman can write.

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Oct 22, 2011 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is almost too much. Maybe it is too much: surreal, disturbing, disrupting, uncomfortable, hard... I don't even know that I would recommend reading it. But somehow it is one of the best things I have read in a long while.

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Jul 25, 2011 Adrianne Mathiowetz rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm not really sure how to review this book, for two reasons:

1.) It took me like 3 months to read it, when it should have taken me a week. This is not the fault of the writing: it's a fast-paced, surreal mystery combined occasional forbidden romance combined with NAZIS. But I get all weird with hardcover signed books and only read them in bed, and I don't take them traveling. Which hasn't worked out so well for me lately.

2.)The author went to elementary school with my booooooyfriend! They're all...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Susan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels, loathed

In this odd novel linguistic playfulness matches a darker whimsey. Gothic, Kafkaesque, like a Grimm folktale, this subjective nightmare of the holocaust is disturbing but unlike the classics, without rewards.

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Feb 14, 2011 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book blew me away. IH-H weaves a bizarre story and tells it grippingly. I expect I'll get more out of the book during re-reads as it is filled with symbolisms that I'm sure I missed the first time. I recommend this book to those who want to try to understand the psyche of Nazis and those who lived during their rise to power.

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About Ida Hattemer-Higgins

Ida Hattemer-Higgins was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied German and Chinese literature in New York, then left the United States in 2001. In the time since, she has lived in Japan, India, and Sweden, and for the past seven years has been a student of literature in Berlin, where she has also worked as a walking-tour guide and translator. She now divides he...more

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Quotes from The History of History

“Going around in life using German, which Margaret had learned only a few years before, was like walking around in high heels--although it drove up the aesthetic rush of going out on the town, it was dreadfully uncomfortable after a while, and there were certain places you couldn't go” — 1 person liked it

“She stood in the mirror portrait very near Margaret, close next to her, good as a mother or a friend.” — 1 person liked it

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