book data
77 ratings, 3.84 average rating, 11 reviews
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published
March 2001
(first published 2002)
by French & European Pubns
binding
Paperback, 152 pages
literary awards
Premio Nobel de Literatura 2002
isbn
0785946217
(isbn13: 9780785946212)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 137)
Read in October, 2008
recommended to Kirsten by:
Rowan Tepperrecommends it for: ww2 lit afficianados, philosophy buffs
This is basically a 95 page rant. The style is very lyrical and manic. Even in my head it's hard to read the words without going at a fervent pace.
The subject matter itself deals with divorce, being a survivor of Auschwitz, the collapse of his marriage, and not wanting to carry on the lineage of the damaged Jew.(Which is not to say that I think every Jewish person is damaged. I'm speaking more of the people who have felt the aftershock of Nazism.) A subject that was touched upon, one that I ...more
The subject matter itself deals with divorce, being a survivor of Auschwitz, the collapse of his marriage, and not wanting to carry on the lineage of the damaged Jew.(Which is not to say that I think every Jewish person is damaged. I'm speaking more of the people who have felt the aftershock of Nazism.) A subject that was touched upon, one that I ...more
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This is one of the most profound, and most moving, and most profoundly moving works I have read in my life--and certainly within the last year. It's one long run-on paragraph (with many sentences, thank goodness) of a man who is tortured by his relationship with his past: "a tale of identity and memory--the story of a middle-aged man taking stock of his life in the ever-present shadow of the Holocaust." It's extraordinary, and it will not take you long to read...to boot.
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Read in October, 2007
Calling this a novel is a bit of an overstatement ... or an inaccuracy, as overstatement implies that it is something less than a novel, or that it is (was) brought about as an attempt to create a novel, or that it is a novel in miniature. It is none of this. A monologue, 90 some pages, less circuitous than proceeding by fits and starts ... or by refinements constantly rethought, negated, and re-offered. It says very little, says it very precisely, and worries myriad possibilities in arriving at...more
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Read in July, 2008
A very potent philosophical reflection of the narrator’s Jewishness spanning his childhood, survival at Auschwitz, and childless adult life. As with Fatelessness, Kertesz does not write emotionally. Though in this novel so much despair and feeling is conveyed. The repetition of phrases and images enhances the sentiment without using hyperbolic language.
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Read in July, 2008
Another excellent book in the Kertesz tetralogy. This one is similar in style to Notes from Underground. To read my full review:
http://mookse.wordpress.com/20...
http://mookse.wordpress.com/20...
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Hard to get into, but I LOVED this book. I wanted to close it and go straight back to the beginning and start it again. I was fascinated by this character and his reaction to his past.
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"for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history..." Imre Kertész is a boss.
=)
=)
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Every paragraph starts with a 'No'. But there aren't many paragraphs and many no's. One paragraph is 65 pages paragraph. He won the Nobel prize in 2002.
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A difficult read, but very good. You are immersed in the mind of a holocaust survivor who can't bear to bring a child into the world.
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