What do you think?
Rate this book
Trọn vẹn con người tôi
Năm 1923, khi đến Munich thăm người em họ Dora, Ruth Becker gặp được tình yêu của đời mình, Hans Wesemann – một phóng viên trẻ đầy sức hút. Họ sát cánh nhau, hòa mình vào các hoạt động sôi nổi đấu tranh cho hòa bình. Mười năm sau, khi Hitler được bầu làm thủ tướng Đức, hai vợ chồng Ruth và Hans cùng Dora và người tình của cô, Ernst Toller – một nhà cách mạng kiêm kịch tác gia nổi tiếng, bỗng chốc trở thành những kẻ bị truy nã, phải trốn sang London. Tại đây, mang trong lòng niềm đau đáu nhớ về quê hương, bất chấp cuộc sống đầy rẫy hiểm nguy nơi đất khách, họ sẵn sàng đánh cược cả sinh mạng của mình, để cho thế giới biết được những gì đằng sau những ý đồ của Hitler…
Trọn vẹn con người tôi là một hành trình vừa đẹp đẽ vừa bi thương khám phá những chiều sâu của lòng dũng cảm cùng cái giá của nó, về niềm tin và sự bội phản, về những ước mong và tham vọng, những mạo hiểm và hy sinh. Đồng thời, đây cũng là một câu chuyện xúc động tột cùng được khai thác tài tình dưới nhiều lăng kính khác nhau, về tình yêu, tình thân cùng lòng ái quốc, về những mảnh đời lưu vong giữa dòng chảy khốc liệt của lịch sử.
Cuốn hút, chân thực và truyền cảm, cuốn tiểu thuyết đầu tay đặc sắc của Anna Funder mang đến một câu hỏi vẫn luôn ám ảnh các nhân vật chính:
“Liệu thế giới có quên đi rằng chúng tôi đã từng vất vả nỗ lực để cứu lấy nó?”
Trọn vẹn con người tôi là một hành trình vừa đẹp đẽ vừa bi thương khám phá những chiều sâu của lòng dũng cảm cùng cái giá của nó, về niềm tin và sự bội phản, về những ước mong và tham vọng, những mạo hiểm và hy sinh. Đồng thời, đây cũng là một câu chuyện xúc động tột cùng được khai thác tài tình dưới nhiều lăng kính khác nhau, về tình yêu, tình thân cùng lòng ái quốc, về những mảnh đời lưu vong giữa dòng chảy khốc liệt của lịch sử.
Cuốn hút, chân thực và truyền cảm, cuốn tiểu thuyết đầu tay đặc sắc của Anna Funder mang đến một câu hỏi vẫn luôn ám ảnh các nhân vật chính:
“Liệu thế giới có quên đi rằng chúng tôi đã từng vất vả nỗ lực để cứu lấy nó?”
514 pages, Paperback
First published August 29, 2011
794 people are currently reading
10376 people want to read
About the author
Anna Funder
13 books699 followersAnna Funder was born in Melbourne in 1966. She has worked as an international lawyer and a radio and television producer. Her book Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, won the 2004 Samuel Johnson Prize. She lives in Sydney with her husband and family.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,251 reviews
March 31, 2016
My story “is reconstructed from fossil fragments, much as you might draw skin and feathers over an assembly of dinosaur bones, to fully see the beast."
So says Ann Funder in the afterword of her novel. I’m not sure it matters if you read this novel as pure fiction or fictionalised biography. I went into this book knowing nothing about the real life characters portrayed and found it worked equally well as elegant literary fiction and page turning thriller.
All That I Am is about a group of German dissidents who are forced to leave Hitler’s Germany and take up residence in London where they are impoverished and hunted. It soon becomes clear London offers no guarantee of safety, especially when it’s known they have at least one traitor in their midst. The novel has two narrators – Ernst Toller, the playwright and Ruth Blatt, whom Funder got to know late in her life and no doubt sparked the inspiration for this novel – but the character who fascinates Funder and who this novel is essentially about is Dora Fabien. To both Tiller and Ruth, the passionate and independent Dora is an indispensable flame of their wellbeing. A few times I questioned why Funder needed two narrators, especially because there’s an unevenness about their narratives – mostly it’s Ruth who tells the story with Toller appearing briefly in interludes and sometimes you wonder why Toller is there at all as a voice, especially as Funder takes liberties with what Ruth could know – when necessary Ruth will provide information she could not have known at the time. And also because as voices Funder makes no effort to distinguish them stylistically. But this was a minor misgiving and what the dual narrative lacks in artistry it makes up for in supplying dramatic tension.
It’s certainly refreshing to read about female heroism in a more everyday and therefore more moving guise. WW2 heroines have begun to be turned by novelists into super powered comic book characters –The Nightingale springs to mind. For example, when you read accounts of female SOE agents it’s not any facility with weapons you admire, it’s the extraordinary grace under pressure they often show when passing through a Gestapo check with something fatally incriminating on their person. Funder, though perhaps guilty of romanticising Dora for added dramatic effect, evokes this courage brilliantly through Dora. Dora doesn’t perform a single showy courageous act and yet one is moved by her steadfast mental courage throughout the course of the novel.
Basically, though sometimes lacking in exciting artistry, Funder gets all the basics right in this novel – it’s pacey, it’s exciting, it’s moving and it’s also a novel written with lots of heart.
So says Ann Funder in the afterword of her novel. I’m not sure it matters if you read this novel as pure fiction or fictionalised biography. I went into this book knowing nothing about the real life characters portrayed and found it worked equally well as elegant literary fiction and page turning thriller.
All That I Am is about a group of German dissidents who are forced to leave Hitler’s Germany and take up residence in London where they are impoverished and hunted. It soon becomes clear London offers no guarantee of safety, especially when it’s known they have at least one traitor in their midst. The novel has two narrators – Ernst Toller, the playwright and Ruth Blatt, whom Funder got to know late in her life and no doubt sparked the inspiration for this novel – but the character who fascinates Funder and who this novel is essentially about is Dora Fabien. To both Tiller and Ruth, the passionate and independent Dora is an indispensable flame of their wellbeing. A few times I questioned why Funder needed two narrators, especially because there’s an unevenness about their narratives – mostly it’s Ruth who tells the story with Toller appearing briefly in interludes and sometimes you wonder why Toller is there at all as a voice, especially as Funder takes liberties with what Ruth could know – when necessary Ruth will provide information she could not have known at the time. And also because as voices Funder makes no effort to distinguish them stylistically. But this was a minor misgiving and what the dual narrative lacks in artistry it makes up for in supplying dramatic tension.
It’s certainly refreshing to read about female heroism in a more everyday and therefore more moving guise. WW2 heroines have begun to be turned by novelists into super powered comic book characters –The Nightingale springs to mind. For example, when you read accounts of female SOE agents it’s not any facility with weapons you admire, it’s the extraordinary grace under pressure they often show when passing through a Gestapo check with something fatally incriminating on their person. Funder, though perhaps guilty of romanticising Dora for added dramatic effect, evokes this courage brilliantly through Dora. Dora doesn’t perform a single showy courageous act and yet one is moved by her steadfast mental courage throughout the course of the novel.
Basically, though sometimes lacking in exciting artistry, Funder gets all the basics right in this novel – it’s pacey, it’s exciting, it’s moving and it’s also a novel written with lots of heart.
September 15, 2019
A book where the characters and the plot lacked and the constant time-shifts became more irritating as the book went on. This is a story based on mostly real characters and while I was a little interested in their lives the structure of the story was poor and quite frustrating to read.
This should have been my perfect fit but lacked on quite a few levels for me. The characters didn't feel real even though its based on real people and I think this for me was down to the author fictionalising conversations between these people and I just couldn't understand what was fact and what was fiction until the end and even then I felt it was too little too late.
The Novel is based on the true story of some of these people who opposed the Nazis rise to power and when in exile they tried to warn the World to the evils that Hitler and the Nazi Party was going to inflict on Jewish community. It’s more a story about their relationships, love and devotion for each other and while the prose is elegant and Funder does expose how ordinary people swept up in war try to make their mark and risk their lives in trying to make the world sit up and take notice, I didn't feel I got the true sense of these people in the telling of this story. I think I would have preferred a non fiction account to satisfy my curiosity. I did a little Google searching after finishing the book and this was quite interesting and did satisfy my curiosity.
I listened to this one on Audio and while the narration was good, the flash forwards and flashbacks might have been easier to follow in hardcopy. There is no “Author’s Note” at the end of the audio version and this was a huge letdown for me.
An ok read but I didn't feel and emotion or passion for either the characters or the story and while I have read a lot of books about this period in history this one certainly will not make my favourites shelf.
This should have been my perfect fit but lacked on quite a few levels for me. The characters didn't feel real even though its based on real people and I think this for me was down to the author fictionalising conversations between these people and I just couldn't understand what was fact and what was fiction until the end and even then I felt it was too little too late.
The Novel is based on the true story of some of these people who opposed the Nazis rise to power and when in exile they tried to warn the World to the evils that Hitler and the Nazi Party was going to inflict on Jewish community. It’s more a story about their relationships, love and devotion for each other and while the prose is elegant and Funder does expose how ordinary people swept up in war try to make their mark and risk their lives in trying to make the world sit up and take notice, I didn't feel I got the true sense of these people in the telling of this story. I think I would have preferred a non fiction account to satisfy my curiosity. I did a little Google searching after finishing the book and this was quite interesting and did satisfy my curiosity.
I listened to this one on Audio and while the narration was good, the flash forwards and flashbacks might have been easier to follow in hardcopy. There is no “Author’s Note” at the end of the audio version and this was a huge letdown for me.
An ok read but I didn't feel and emotion or passion for either the characters or the story and while I have read a lot of books about this period in history this one certainly will not make my favourites shelf.
November 9, 2011
"None of us - teacher or taught- realised how an imagined life can sustain you as a possibility, a hope, and remain just that. Like parallel train tracks, it runs alongside, but will never meet the life you are living."
This book took me absolutely ages to get into and I have no idea why. You know when you know a book is going to be good and the writing is fantastic and the story is brilliant but there is just something stopping you from tearing through it?
I think the main problem that I had was that I seemed to have missed the one sentence that explained the date when each narrator was so I was getting all muddled.
But that’s not really my fault because no one told me that when you read a book you actually have to … you know, read it.
Anyway, this book was fascinating. I loved the era, I loved the story. The characters, well, I could’ve done with a bit more connection to them.
It seems, from other reviews on here, that I’m not the only person who felt this book would have been so much better if it was a non-fiction. I’ve never read Funder’s Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall but from the merits of this book, I really want to. It is clear that Ms Funder knows this era and is passionate about it.
I swear I could almost smell the cigarette smoke in the bars that Dora, Ruth and Toller visited. It was impeccably researched and I loved the cameos of prominent figures like Auden and Isherwood.
In my third year at uni I took a module of British Writers in the 1930s so I read Auden’s poems and Isherwood’s Mr Norris Changes Trains (and it was possibly my favourite module of my uni time, with the possible exception of Detective Fiction) I think this book would be a great one to read for that module. Hmm, maybe I should send my lecturer an e-mail.
Sorry, where was I?
The main problem I had was that even though I liked the main characters, I didn’t really feel emotionally connected to them. Which is strange because the subject of the events that inspired this story is full of emotional intensity. The characters all just seemed so… removed, which I know was the point and I loved Funder’s exploration of memory and perception and reconstructing the past. It seemed very evocative of The Blind Assassin in that way, but not as in depth.
“Sometimes the imitation is brighter than the real.”
I think out of the two narrators, my favourite (read: the one that broke my heart the most) was Toller. I’ve never read anything of his so it was fascinating to learn more about him and even if it was fictionalised story.
In All That I Am, Ms Funder produced a fascinating book telling a story that I was admittedly extremely ignorant about. It is a story of determination and fighting for what you believe in an era when it would have been easier, and safer, to sit back and do nothing. It’s definitely encouraged me to read more about the true people who resisted Hitler and the Nazis and sought to tell the world about his plans, because it truly is an inspiring tale.
An advanced copy of this book was kindly provided by Viking.
This review is part of my Poppies & Prose feature.
This book took me absolutely ages to get into and I have no idea why. You know when you know a book is going to be good and the writing is fantastic and the story is brilliant but there is just something stopping you from tearing through it?
I think the main problem that I had was that I seemed to have missed the one sentence that explained the date when each narrator was so I was getting all muddled.
But that’s not really my fault because no one told me that when you read a book you actually have to … you know, read it.
Anyway, this book was fascinating. I loved the era, I loved the story. The characters, well, I could’ve done with a bit more connection to them.
It seems, from other reviews on here, that I’m not the only person who felt this book would have been so much better if it was a non-fiction. I’ve never read Funder’s Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall but from the merits of this book, I really want to. It is clear that Ms Funder knows this era and is passionate about it.
I swear I could almost smell the cigarette smoke in the bars that Dora, Ruth and Toller visited. It was impeccably researched and I loved the cameos of prominent figures like Auden and Isherwood.
In my third year at uni I took a module of British Writers in the 1930s so I read Auden’s poems and Isherwood’s Mr Norris Changes Trains (and it was possibly my favourite module of my uni time, with the possible exception of Detective Fiction) I think this book would be a great one to read for that module. Hmm, maybe I should send my lecturer an e-mail.
Sorry, where was I?
The main problem I had was that even though I liked the main characters, I didn’t really feel emotionally connected to them. Which is strange because the subject of the events that inspired this story is full of emotional intensity. The characters all just seemed so… removed, which I know was the point and I loved Funder’s exploration of memory and perception and reconstructing the past. It seemed very evocative of The Blind Assassin in that way, but not as in depth.
“Sometimes the imitation is brighter than the real.”
I think out of the two narrators, my favourite (read: the one that broke my heart the most) was Toller. I’ve never read anything of his so it was fascinating to learn more about him and even if it was fictionalised story.
In All That I Am, Ms Funder produced a fascinating book telling a story that I was admittedly extremely ignorant about. It is a story of determination and fighting for what you believe in an era when it would have been easier, and safer, to sit back and do nothing. It’s definitely encouraged me to read more about the true people who resisted Hitler and the Nazis and sought to tell the world about his plans, because it truly is an inspiring tale.
An advanced copy of this book was kindly provided by Viking.
This review is part of my Poppies & Prose feature.
May 17, 2013
I am very ashamed to admit that I could not finish this book, the most awarded and lauded Australian book of 2012. And another AWW! Was I too tired? Am I too frivolous? Or was the book just too slow and self-aware for my tastes? It should have ticked all my boxes. Historical fiction - yay! Set in Nazi Germany - yay! About a brilliant, independent woman mostly forgotten by history - yay! I really, really wanted to love this book, but it just put me to sleep every night. I've left it on my bedside table and will hopefully return to it once I'm not so tired. Maybe in my next life.
June 17, 2012
The main effect this book had on me was a deep sense of my own lack of similar courage. I was moved almost to tears by the fate of Ruth Blatt/Becker, and the knowledge that this is basically a true story made it all the more gripping. This book is an excellent example of how best true stories can be converted into novels, without sacrificing either authenticity or readability. All too often I've seen obviously autobiography simply relabelled as "a novel", when in truth the writer has not made an attempt to create a narrative arc or to develop characters so that we can identify with them and follow them on a journey that has a beginning, a middle and an end.
This book made me realise in what privileged and easy times we live today -- and how little we are challenged to face the real life-and-death issues which are still there, even though they are invisible. I have no desire to live through a time of war, but reading this book showed me how hard times can challenge us to the very edge of our endurance -- and we are better humans for it. A devastating book -- for all the right reasons.
This book made me realise in what privileged and easy times we live today -- and how little we are challenged to face the real life-and-death issues which are still there, even though they are invisible. I have no desire to live through a time of war, but reading this book showed me how hard times can challenge us to the very edge of our endurance -- and we are better humans for it. A devastating book -- for all the right reasons.
September 19, 2012
This is the kind of historical fiction I so very much love. You learn history and at the same time feel the emotions of the people who live through the historical events. I would suggest reading Sebastian Barry’s A Long Long Way and then continuing with this book by Anna Funder. Barry’s book takes you to the trenches of Belgium during WW1. WW1 is the basis for what happens in Germany leading up to Hitler and WW2.The people who are the prime protagonists in Funder’s book lived through WW1 and were shaped by it. They were pacifists and became socialist activists who sought to prevent Hitler’s rise to power. You cannot understand one event without understanding what came before. You have to feel in your gut what those who lived through WW1 felt. Funder’s book of historical fiction is based on true events and real people. The author has gone beneath the events and depicted the emotional underpinnings of these people’s lives. It is the emotions that Funda has imagined, drawing from her in-depth study of the known facts. I cannot recommend these two books more highly.
When I read a wonderful book of historical fiction I need to know exactly what is true and what imagined. Half-way through I was going crazy because search in Wikipedia did not provide all the answers. My GR friend Jennifer helped me find the link about Dora. She pointed out an interview with the author, where she speaks of what she intended to achieve with this novel. Please take the time to read this interview. This interview is worth reading: http://www.readings.com.au/news/q-a-w...
Funder’s book revolves around the lives of five people:
Playwright Ernst Toller: Information about Ernst Toller is accessible at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_To...
Information about the German Revolution of 1918-1919 may be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_R...
Activist Dora Fabian(1901-1935): http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1...
Ruth Becker: This figure is based on the real person, Ruth Blatt (née Koplowitz) (1906-2001). She was a friend of the author. In the book Ruth is fictitiously said to be Dora’s cousin. http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/I...
Hans Wesemann (1895-1971) was a real person too. See the second section of this link: https://www.amherst.edu/aboutamherst/...
As was Berthold Jacob (1898-1944): http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthold...
The three central characters are Toller, Ruth and Dora. Dora, she was loved by both Toller and Ruth. What they share is not only their love for Dora but also common political beliefs. There are two narrators, Toller speaking from NY in 1939, and Ruth from Sydney in 2011. It is these two people who tell you about Dora and what their fellow activists did. You will find out what they did, why, and how and who was betrayed….. and by whom. The events are very exciting. As mentioned, the time periods are different, and there are flash backs. You do have to pay attention, if only because you are so drawn in that you want to pay close attention. You want to understand what actually happened and you want to understand how these people felt, what motivated them and why they chose to make the decisions they made. You care because the events are gripping and the author has excellently imagined their internal, emotional struggles.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by two people Judy Bennett for Ruth and Saul Reichlin for Toller. This makes it easier to understand who is speaking. Ruth is an elderly, frail woman in her nineties, and she sounds it. Toller’s narration is equally superb. When the two narrators impersonate another person, this is equally convincing. I have zero quibbles with the narration. However, there was no author’s note at the end of the book. I am not sure if this is lacking only from the audio version or if it also is lacking from the paper book. This is why the links above are essential, at least from my point of view. In addition, I was not patient enough to wait to the end to even find out if there was an author’s note!
To be clear: the events are extremely interesting and exciting. The relationships between the figures feel so real. There is love, real love portrayed in this book. The love relationships are messy….. There is betrayal and disappointment and fear. I believe the author has succeeded with what she intended to do, as described in the interview above! She succeeds because she is a talented writer. I have also read, enjoyed and learned from her book Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall. That is one reason why I picked this book up!
And how does she succeed in making these characters into real people that live and breathe? Of course, it is through her prose, through her choice of words. The characters are believable and fascinating. This is due to the author’s ability to intrigue us with what they do and say and think. Ruth, as a child, is living with Dora’s family as she recuperates from scarlet fever. Dora has a box camera. In this home, which is not home, Ruth is tantalized by this camera:
It fascinated me: a box with an eye. I held it to my chest and looked down into the small glass. Everything was contained there, in round miniature . Her (Dora’s) steel-framed bed and white counterpane. A tottering pile of books on the floor next to it. I sensed the instant layer of protection between me and the world. I could be looking down but seeing straight ahead. Most of all I liked the way it gave me a reason to be looking.
And what she snaps on that camera is interesting too:
I got cook’s floury hands on the ceramic mixing bowl. And once, Dora’s face so close I caught the flickering mahogany lights of her iris. A pigeon on my window-ledge turned into a gray blur of speed on the print.
These words so well illustrate how Ruth felt living there in her relatives’ house, her sense of being an outsider no matter how kind they were to her. I am drawn to books where the writer intrigues me with such images. I prefer such subtleties over blatant ordinary descriptions.
What the protagonists are concerned with interests me. Listen to these thoughts of Ruth:
In those days we believed of freedoms of every kind. So many boys had died in the war that we knew that life was short and cheap. There was no point not loving when the occasion arose. Those hippies of the 60s and 70s seemed so tame and vane to me. So derivative! They marched for peace but had never really known war. They confused the freedom simply to have sex with the freedom for one’s sex not to matter.
I am doubly interested when I hear this. I have been reading about WW1. There is so much in this book that relates to that experience. What followed the war? How did the war change people’s behavior afterwards? Also, I am a child of the hippie era. Her thoughts are so true here too. We didn’t fight in any war! We knew nothing of it. It is true too that we fought primarily for the right to have sex, when and where we pleased. The freedom for sex not to matter, that came later.
There are glorious lines like this:
We lied on sand so clean it squeaked.
Or
…too busy exhausting myself by not sleeping.
Or
I don’t know how much freedom the heart can bear.
A book with such lines will always draw me in, regardless of the central theme. Here that theme is the political climate between the two wars, real people who shaped history and their fight to make Hitler’s intentions known outside Germany. What more can you ask for? Superb characterizations. Well, you get that too.
When I read a wonderful book of historical fiction I need to know exactly what is true and what imagined. Half-way through I was going crazy because search in Wikipedia did not provide all the answers. My GR friend Jennifer helped me find the link about Dora. She pointed out an interview with the author, where she speaks of what she intended to achieve with this novel. Please take the time to read this interview. This interview is worth reading: http://www.readings.com.au/news/q-a-w...
Funder’s book revolves around the lives of five people:
Playwright Ernst Toller: Information about Ernst Toller is accessible at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_To...
Information about the German Revolution of 1918-1919 may be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_R...
Activist Dora Fabian(1901-1935): http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1...
Ruth Becker: This figure is based on the real person, Ruth Blatt (née Koplowitz) (1906-2001). She was a friend of the author. In the book Ruth is fictitiously said to be Dora’s cousin. http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/I...
Hans Wesemann (1895-1971) was a real person too. See the second section of this link: https://www.amherst.edu/aboutamherst/...
As was Berthold Jacob (1898-1944): http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthold...
The three central characters are Toller, Ruth and Dora. Dora, she was loved by both Toller and Ruth. What they share is not only their love for Dora but also common political beliefs. There are two narrators, Toller speaking from NY in 1939, and Ruth from Sydney in 2011. It is these two people who tell you about Dora and what their fellow activists did. You will find out what they did, why, and how and who was betrayed….. and by whom. The events are very exciting. As mentioned, the time periods are different, and there are flash backs. You do have to pay attention, if only because you are so drawn in that you want to pay close attention. You want to understand what actually happened and you want to understand how these people felt, what motivated them and why they chose to make the decisions they made. You care because the events are gripping and the author has excellently imagined their internal, emotional struggles.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by two people Judy Bennett for Ruth and Saul Reichlin for Toller. This makes it easier to understand who is speaking. Ruth is an elderly, frail woman in her nineties, and she sounds it. Toller’s narration is equally superb. When the two narrators impersonate another person, this is equally convincing. I have zero quibbles with the narration. However, there was no author’s note at the end of the book. I am not sure if this is lacking only from the audio version or if it also is lacking from the paper book. This is why the links above are essential, at least from my point of view. In addition, I was not patient enough to wait to the end to even find out if there was an author’s note!
To be clear: the events are extremely interesting and exciting. The relationships between the figures feel so real. There is love, real love portrayed in this book. The love relationships are messy….. There is betrayal and disappointment and fear. I believe the author has succeeded with what she intended to do, as described in the interview above! She succeeds because she is a talented writer. I have also read, enjoyed and learned from her book Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall. That is one reason why I picked this book up!
And how does she succeed in making these characters into real people that live and breathe? Of course, it is through her prose, through her choice of words. The characters are believable and fascinating. This is due to the author’s ability to intrigue us with what they do and say and think. Ruth, as a child, is living with Dora’s family as she recuperates from scarlet fever. Dora has a box camera. In this home, which is not home, Ruth is tantalized by this camera:
It fascinated me: a box with an eye. I held it to my chest and looked down into the small glass. Everything was contained there, in round miniature . Her (Dora’s) steel-framed bed and white counterpane. A tottering pile of books on the floor next to it. I sensed the instant layer of protection between me and the world. I could be looking down but seeing straight ahead. Most of all I liked the way it gave me a reason to be looking.
And what she snaps on that camera is interesting too:
I got cook’s floury hands on the ceramic mixing bowl. And once, Dora’s face so close I caught the flickering mahogany lights of her iris. A pigeon on my window-ledge turned into a gray blur of speed on the print.
These words so well illustrate how Ruth felt living there in her relatives’ house, her sense of being an outsider no matter how kind they were to her. I am drawn to books where the writer intrigues me with such images. I prefer such subtleties over blatant ordinary descriptions.
What the protagonists are concerned with interests me. Listen to these thoughts of Ruth:
In those days we believed of freedoms of every kind. So many boys had died in the war that we knew that life was short and cheap. There was no point not loving when the occasion arose. Those hippies of the 60s and 70s seemed so tame and vane to me. So derivative! They marched for peace but had never really known war. They confused the freedom simply to have sex with the freedom for one’s sex not to matter.
I am doubly interested when I hear this. I have been reading about WW1. There is so much in this book that relates to that experience. What followed the war? How did the war change people’s behavior afterwards? Also, I am a child of the hippie era. Her thoughts are so true here too. We didn’t fight in any war! We knew nothing of it. It is true too that we fought primarily for the right to have sex, when and where we pleased. The freedom for sex not to matter, that came later.
There are glorious lines like this:
We lied on sand so clean it squeaked.
Or
…too busy exhausting myself by not sleeping.
Or
I don’t know how much freedom the heart can bear.
A book with such lines will always draw me in, regardless of the central theme. Here that theme is the political climate between the two wars, real people who shaped history and their fight to make Hitler’s intentions known outside Germany. What more can you ask for? Superb characterizations. Well, you get that too.
Read
October 6, 2024I had high hopes going into this one, but at the halfway mark reluctantly concluded that reading it was a chore. There were some great scenes of 1930's Berlin here; we've all read about how decadent the nightlife was, and we visit an after-hours club here that brought this home really well. Not because the decadence was so completely out of bounds, but because it was finely observed, and the desperation and self-hatred that often accompanies decadence was glimpsed around the edges.
The book concerns four actual historical Nazi resisters; noble people, obviously, willing to take risks for the greater good. There is no historical evidence that these people knew each other, but Funder's fictional treatment makes them friends and/or lovers. Perhaps the problem is that nobility is not a terribly exciting literary quality, and having established that they are very good and noble people resisting a truly terrible set of bad actors, there's not much more to say. Reading this reminded me of my childhood self, squirming in church, wishing I were outside getting dirty in the woods behind my house.
Other readers may find more to love.
The book concerns four actual historical Nazi resisters; noble people, obviously, willing to take risks for the greater good. There is no historical evidence that these people knew each other, but Funder's fictional treatment makes them friends and/or lovers. Perhaps the problem is that nobility is not a terribly exciting literary quality, and having established that they are very good and noble people resisting a truly terrible set of bad actors, there's not much more to say. Reading this reminded me of my childhood self, squirming in church, wishing I were outside getting dirty in the woods behind my house.
Other readers may find more to love.
October 3, 2015
This novel was a book club choice that I’d never heard of but which gave me some new and interesting insights into a period of German (and ultimately European) history that I knew little about, namely that leading up to World War II when the world was refusing to listen to German refugees who tried to warn everyone about the dangers of the new regime.
Most of the characters in the novel were real people at the time, and we hear the story from two characters’ points of view, Ruth and Toller, who are looking back upon their lives, Ruth as an old woman in Australia, Toller, also much older, in New York. The story is structured around their reminiscing and was for a long time confusing to me, partly because they take turns narrating from a first person perspective, and I had to go back and check the chapter headings to figure out who was who. It took me quite a while to really get into the story; the first 80-100 pages were a mediocre 3-star read to me.
Then the real main character of the story, Dora Fabian, began to stand out more clearly, and the plot thickened as regards pre-war Germany. Dora – based on a real woman - was feisty, opinionated, smart and part of a group of free-speaking Socialists who saw the writing on the wall long before anyone else thought that Hitler was anything but a charismatic leader. She was a feminist at a time when few women were. She was the love of Ernst Toller’s life and the most important person in her cousin Ruth’s life. Little by little the group had to flee Germany as the Nazi hold of the country tightened. But the tendrils of the Nazi regime reached into other European countries without leaving a trace, and so the group’s warnings went largely unheeded by e.g. the British; assassinations were treated as suicides or accidents.
Embedded in the political story are a number of complex love stories, a deep friendship and the ultimate betrayal – also based on facts. I was almost in tears when some of these events unraveled.
I became increasingly enamored with Anna Funder’s style and deeply humanistic insights. To some extent the universality of them is what convinced me to give the novel four stars. A selection of phrases:
I am now near enough to one hundred years old, which means it is only twenty times my life span since Christ walked the earth.
I know it’s possible to fall in love with someone by falling in love with their writing, because I already had.
None of us – teacher or taught realised how an imagined romantic life can sustain you as a possibility, a hope, and remain just that. Like parallel train tracks it runs alongside, but will never meet, the life you are living.
When seeing a guy dressed as an ape, and someone makes a remark about our supposed inner beast, Ruth disagrees and has a thought that flies in the face of the forthcoming ethnic cleansing: I wondered whether it wasn’t the other way around; whether inside all of us there might just be a cleaner, purer, more hairless version too naked for the world.
Later, she has this thought, which is beginning to dawn on me at this stage of my life: We don’t understand one another, we may not ever give each other just what we need. All that remains is kindness.
A disturbing and ultimately moving novel about the capacity of human beings to fight for what is right – and about the power of political regimes to squash that clean, pure, hairless and innate part of our beings. (The truthfulness of these contradictory facts in what came to be the DDR can be experienced in the absolutely amazing movie Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), which I happened to watch last night after finishing this novel. If you haven’t seen it already, be sure you do).
Most of the characters in the novel were real people at the time, and we hear the story from two characters’ points of view, Ruth and Toller, who are looking back upon their lives, Ruth as an old woman in Australia, Toller, also much older, in New York. The story is structured around their reminiscing and was for a long time confusing to me, partly because they take turns narrating from a first person perspective, and I had to go back and check the chapter headings to figure out who was who. It took me quite a while to really get into the story; the first 80-100 pages were a mediocre 3-star read to me.
Then the real main character of the story, Dora Fabian, began to stand out more clearly, and the plot thickened as regards pre-war Germany. Dora – based on a real woman - was feisty, opinionated, smart and part of a group of free-speaking Socialists who saw the writing on the wall long before anyone else thought that Hitler was anything but a charismatic leader. She was a feminist at a time when few women were. She was the love of Ernst Toller’s life and the most important person in her cousin Ruth’s life. Little by little the group had to flee Germany as the Nazi hold of the country tightened. But the tendrils of the Nazi regime reached into other European countries without leaving a trace, and so the group’s warnings went largely unheeded by e.g. the British; assassinations were treated as suicides or accidents.
Embedded in the political story are a number of complex love stories, a deep friendship and the ultimate betrayal – also based on facts. I was almost in tears when some of these events unraveled.
I became increasingly enamored with Anna Funder’s style and deeply humanistic insights. To some extent the universality of them is what convinced me to give the novel four stars. A selection of phrases:
I am now near enough to one hundred years old, which means it is only twenty times my life span since Christ walked the earth.
I know it’s possible to fall in love with someone by falling in love with their writing, because I already had.
None of us – teacher or taught realised how an imagined romantic life can sustain you as a possibility, a hope, and remain just that. Like parallel train tracks it runs alongside, but will never meet, the life you are living.
When seeing a guy dressed as an ape, and someone makes a remark about our supposed inner beast, Ruth disagrees and has a thought that flies in the face of the forthcoming ethnic cleansing: I wondered whether it wasn’t the other way around; whether inside all of us there might just be a cleaner, purer, more hairless version too naked for the world.
Later, she has this thought, which is beginning to dawn on me at this stage of my life: We don’t understand one another, we may not ever give each other just what we need. All that remains is kindness.
A disturbing and ultimately moving novel about the capacity of human beings to fight for what is right – and about the power of political regimes to squash that clean, pure, hairless and innate part of our beings. (The truthfulness of these contradictory facts in what came to be the DDR can be experienced in the absolutely amazing movie Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), which I happened to watch last night after finishing this novel. If you haven’t seen it already, be sure you do).
June 10, 2014
I feel somewhat ambivalent when recognising I’m in the process of reading a masterpiece – and make no mistake, Anna Funder’s All That I Am is a masterpiece. The reason for my ambivalence is because, although I'll begin to slow down, take my time with every page, to soak it up, to wallow, call it what you will, the book must still, eventually, come to an end. Just to reiterate: Anna Funder’s All That I Am is such a book.
There’s my own, personal story behind it, too. A couple of years ago, I was on the local university campus, Norwich’s UEA to be exact, having just attended a ‘Fiction in Translation’ presentation – it was, indeed, my teacher of German at the UEA who’d recommended her first work, Stasiland, true stories from those who'd worked for the Stasi behind the Berlin wall, and a book for which Anna received great acclaim. Straight after which, with a friend, I called into the campus’ Waterstones; we browsed a few of the studied books in translation and so on. In time, I happened to come across Anna Funder’s “masterpiece”, out on a table. I tapped the book and whispered to my friend: ‘She’s good!’
‘She’s standing there, at the counter,’ said my friend, muffling a laugh. She meant Anna Funder.
‘No time like the present,’ I thought: I bought the book and asked her to sign it. And she was lovely about it, as you’d expect.
But what with all the books to read in the world, I’d get round to All That I Am in my own time: two years later.
If I could change anything about the above encounter, I’d have it that I’m already two thirds through the book, and am thus enthralled; the book, then, also happens to be in my pocket. I now bump into Anna Funder, and I tell her what it means to me, and what it will mean to me when signed.
Either way, it means a lot.
The effort to have gone into this work is there for all to see, all is based on mind-blowing fact, what we might call faction. Even so, that’s only one thing. For once the information is compiled, the book must then be written; and to be a success, it must pull us in, be compelling. For that, an author must be a writer, too. And, oh how Anna Funder writes!
I don’t want to say too much about the subject matter – please, go and find out for yourselves. What I will say is that it covers love and hate, good and evil, courage and cowardice – life, in other words, or lives, those lived in their extremes, in real, “mind-blowing” circumstances.
It’s enough to gain insight into Anna Funder’s erudite world. But to add all this to her literary style is something else.
The “masterpiece” lives.
There are three reasons why I will reread this book, with or without its personal signature: a, because, for me, Anna’s philosophy of life drips from every other page like amber nectar; I concur with everything she implies – I feel I’ve find a soul sister; b, it’s the kind of book that has you feel that if you do read it again, even when knowing what will be, you might still, somehow, be able to change something; and c, it is just so beautifully written.
Thanks, Anna Funder
There’s my own, personal story behind it, too. A couple of years ago, I was on the local university campus, Norwich’s UEA to be exact, having just attended a ‘Fiction in Translation’ presentation – it was, indeed, my teacher of German at the UEA who’d recommended her first work, Stasiland, true stories from those who'd worked for the Stasi behind the Berlin wall, and a book for which Anna received great acclaim. Straight after which, with a friend, I called into the campus’ Waterstones; we browsed a few of the studied books in translation and so on. In time, I happened to come across Anna Funder’s “masterpiece”, out on a table. I tapped the book and whispered to my friend: ‘She’s good!’
‘She’s standing there, at the counter,’ said my friend, muffling a laugh. She meant Anna Funder.
‘No time like the present,’ I thought: I bought the book and asked her to sign it. And she was lovely about it, as you’d expect.
But what with all the books to read in the world, I’d get round to All That I Am in my own time: two years later.
If I could change anything about the above encounter, I’d have it that I’m already two thirds through the book, and am thus enthralled; the book, then, also happens to be in my pocket. I now bump into Anna Funder, and I tell her what it means to me, and what it will mean to me when signed.
Either way, it means a lot.
The effort to have gone into this work is there for all to see, all is based on mind-blowing fact, what we might call faction. Even so, that’s only one thing. For once the information is compiled, the book must then be written; and to be a success, it must pull us in, be compelling. For that, an author must be a writer, too. And, oh how Anna Funder writes!
I don’t want to say too much about the subject matter – please, go and find out for yourselves. What I will say is that it covers love and hate, good and evil, courage and cowardice – life, in other words, or lives, those lived in their extremes, in real, “mind-blowing” circumstances.
It’s enough to gain insight into Anna Funder’s erudite world. But to add all this to her literary style is something else.
The “masterpiece” lives.
There are three reasons why I will reread this book, with or without its personal signature: a, because, for me, Anna’s philosophy of life drips from every other page like amber nectar; I concur with everything she implies – I feel I’ve find a soul sister; b, it’s the kind of book that has you feel that if you do read it again, even when knowing what will be, you might still, somehow, be able to change something; and c, it is just so beautifully written.
Thanks, Anna Funder
July 19, 2012
This is an important story, beautifully written, about selflessness, determination, intimacy, collaboration, separation, exile. Told in two voices, it's an interesting juxtaposition of times in history: Ruth's story with her cousin Dora told from the present day and Toller's story of his relationship with Dora told from New York in 1939.
Knowing all we know now, reading about the tense and frightening days when Hitler was new to power, and about the brave intellectuals and exiles who fought against his regime, and attempted to warn the world, even before the very worst happened, makes all the more sickening that Hitler ruled at all. The eve of World War II, the politics, the lawfulness and lawlessness, the Independent Social Democrats who became the Socialist Workers Party, a bridge between the Communists and the Social Democrats. This novel is as taut as a thriller, as detailed as a period piece, and as graceful as a love story. Skilled and unforgettable.
When Hitler came to power I was in the bath. A great first line.
His only mode, with everyone, was intimacy. (abt. Toller)
But I must say it has been, in general, a boon not to have been a beautiful woman. Because I was barely looked at, I was free to do the looking. (Ruth: photographer, observer)
Hugo had no special voice for children. When he spoke to you he made you into your best self.
The camera's shutter... made a long, soft, metal sound, the sound of capture and theft.
There's a lot more going on in this novel than the next sample might offer, but on its own, it's wonderful:
I am not a pitiful old woman hanging on to her mind while her body shuts down. I am a woman on her way to eat cake.
I wonder, now, about interrogation chambers: why do they think bright light brings the truth out of people? They should try the seduction of shadows, where you cannot watch your words hit their target.
There were always points at which we had to decide whether the danger someone was in was worth the work they did for the cause. We became responsible for the peril we let each other assume. There should be a syndrome name for this too.
We could grow to swap stories of pedestrian disorientation and bedroom disappointment and taxidermy and I would never, ever be as safe as she.
And it is exactly the businesslike, professional nature of their thousand tendernesses that is the magical thing... (about nurses)
Though it is the hardest thing, to work out one's weight and heft in the world, to whittle down all that I am and give it a value.
Knowing all we know now, reading about the tense and frightening days when Hitler was new to power, and about the brave intellectuals and exiles who fought against his regime, and attempted to warn the world, even before the very worst happened, makes all the more sickening that Hitler ruled at all. The eve of World War II, the politics, the lawfulness and lawlessness, the Independent Social Democrats who became the Socialist Workers Party, a bridge between the Communists and the Social Democrats. This novel is as taut as a thriller, as detailed as a period piece, and as graceful as a love story. Skilled and unforgettable.
When Hitler came to power I was in the bath. A great first line.
His only mode, with everyone, was intimacy. (abt. Toller)
But I must say it has been, in general, a boon not to have been a beautiful woman. Because I was barely looked at, I was free to do the looking. (Ruth: photographer, observer)
Hugo had no special voice for children. When he spoke to you he made you into your best self.
The camera's shutter... made a long, soft, metal sound, the sound of capture and theft.
There's a lot more going on in this novel than the next sample might offer, but on its own, it's wonderful:
I am not a pitiful old woman hanging on to her mind while her body shuts down. I am a woman on her way to eat cake.
I wonder, now, about interrogation chambers: why do they think bright light brings the truth out of people? They should try the seduction of shadows, where you cannot watch your words hit their target.
There were always points at which we had to decide whether the danger someone was in was worth the work they did for the cause. We became responsible for the peril we let each other assume. There should be a syndrome name for this too.
We could grow to swap stories of pedestrian disorientation and bedroom disappointment and taxidermy and I would never, ever be as safe as she.
And it is exactly the businesslike, professional nature of their thousand tendernesses that is the magical thing... (about nurses)
Though it is the hardest thing, to work out one's weight and heft in the world, to whittle down all that I am and give it a value.
November 8, 2023
Prior to World War II, liberal activists in Germany fought Hitler's rise to power. Their stories are largely tragic; many were among the first concentration camp victims and the world turned a deaf ear to their warnings. They carried a critical message, but few listened.
Anna Funder novelizes the struggle of these activists in All That I Am. This is a story worth telling; full of distinctive, powerful characters and shrewd psychological insights, but this wisdom is obscured behind a split narrative and meandering plotlines.
Most notably, this historical novel includes dual perspectives. The primary narrator, Ruth Becker, is a canny young woman who "hides behind the typewriter" at activist meetings but sees the strength and pain of those around her and describes them with a deft, human hand.
The other narrator, Ernst Toller, is an accomplished German playwright. He's long fought for liberal causes until the Nazis imprisoned him and broke his spirit. Ernst has little to do but provide the occasional pithy quote. His chapters tend to drag.
The distraction of the Toller chapters is compounded by the novel's dual time frames. Ruth looks back on the prewar days as an old woman in 2001, while Toller remembers the same period from 1939. This proves too elaborate for a plot that's complex already, with elements of mystery writing disguising what's really going on. The early chapters include intentionally-vague wording to help conceal a big surprise down the line. The twist ain't bad, but required too much literary fog to get there.
This novel does contain one expertly drawn character contrast, between Toller's great love Dora and Ruth's husband Hans. Dora is a petite, practical hedonist who grows in importance as fortune turns against the resistance; her determination and personal connections serve her well when the going gets dangerous. Hans charts an opposite course; he's a debonair gentleman and a clever writer who lambastes Hitler in the press but shrinks in power when the Nazis strip his creative freedom away.
All That I Am is a satisfying character study and an interesting history lesson obscured behind some awkward structural decisions. Worth a read if you have the patience.
Edited 11/8/2023
Anna Funder novelizes the struggle of these activists in All That I Am. This is a story worth telling; full of distinctive, powerful characters and shrewd psychological insights, but this wisdom is obscured behind a split narrative and meandering plotlines.
Most notably, this historical novel includes dual perspectives. The primary narrator, Ruth Becker, is a canny young woman who "hides behind the typewriter" at activist meetings but sees the strength and pain of those around her and describes them with a deft, human hand.
The other narrator, Ernst Toller, is an accomplished German playwright. He's long fought for liberal causes until the Nazis imprisoned him and broke his spirit. Ernst has little to do but provide the occasional pithy quote. His chapters tend to drag.
The distraction of the Toller chapters is compounded by the novel's dual time frames. Ruth looks back on the prewar days as an old woman in 2001, while Toller remembers the same period from 1939. This proves too elaborate for a plot that's complex already, with elements of mystery writing disguising what's really going on. The early chapters include intentionally-vague wording to help conceal a big surprise down the line. The twist ain't bad, but required too much literary fog to get there.
This novel does contain one expertly drawn character contrast, between Toller's great love Dora and Ruth's husband Hans. Dora is a petite, practical hedonist who grows in importance as fortune turns against the resistance; her determination and personal connections serve her well when the going gets dangerous. Hans charts an opposite course; he's a debonair gentleman and a clever writer who lambastes Hitler in the press but shrinks in power when the Nazis strip his creative freedom away.
All That I Am is a satisfying character study and an interesting history lesson obscured behind some awkward structural decisions. Worth a read if you have the patience.
Edited 11/8/2023
June 6, 2012
I wanted to read this book before the Mile’s Franklin award for 2012 is announced as I’m predicting this book will win. All That I Am by Anna Funder is told from the perspective of Ruth Becker and Ernst Toller in alternate chapters. Both Ruth and Toller are remembering life in 1930’s Germany as political activists. Both characters, along with Ruth’s husband Hans and Toller’s lover Dora, publically speak out against Hitler and everything he stands for, advocating independence and freedom of speech for Germany.
This book starts out very heavy; trying to cover all the relevant back story of Germany in the 1930’s while still trying to drive the story along. This is a delicate balance to manage but I think Anna Funder did a good job at managing this. I know people may disagree with me but I think with the subject matter and the back story that needs to be covered, the author still manages to keep the reader turning the page, and for me, that never felt boring. I love the fact that this story is more about the politics and the effect Hitler’s rise to power will have on the German people rather than dealing with the holocaust.
The simple fact that this book tries to deal with the social impacts of the changing Germany has been the biggest contributing factor to my enjoyment of the book. I couldn’t care less about Toller who is writing his autobiography or Ruth, who after reading Toller’s writing, is remembering her side of the story. I know they risk a lot to speak out and I knew Hitler’s regime were actively trying to stop political opposition so I probably should care more for the characters, but the fictionalised German history was more interesting for me.
All That I Am would be a tough book to write and while at times it was heavy and at other time I might not have cared too much of the story; Anna Funder did do an excellent job at writing this novel. The book reminded me of the 2002 movie Max for some weird reason; mainly because it also was a fictionalised account of Hitler rising to power and how he dealt with the political opposition. For those who don’t know the movie Max starred John Cusack as a fictional Jewish art dealer and a young Austrian painter, Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor). The interesting thing about the movie was it explores Hitler and the view’s that shaped Nazi ideology, while also taking a look at the artistic designs of the Third Reich.
Anna Funder must have done a lot of research in preparing to write this book. I know she has a non-fiction book called Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall but I think that was more about East Germany, but in the course of researching that book she might have gotten all the information needed for All That I Am. I’m glad to have read this novel; I think it offers an interesting insight into a world I was never a part of. It is an interesting piece of history and sociology. Anna Funder has won the Australian Independent Booksellers Indie Book Award for Literary Fiction and has been shortlisted for Miles Franklin Award for this book. I’d be interested to see if this book will stand the test of time.
This book starts out very heavy; trying to cover all the relevant back story of Germany in the 1930’s while still trying to drive the story along. This is a delicate balance to manage but I think Anna Funder did a good job at managing this. I know people may disagree with me but I think with the subject matter and the back story that needs to be covered, the author still manages to keep the reader turning the page, and for me, that never felt boring. I love the fact that this story is more about the politics and the effect Hitler’s rise to power will have on the German people rather than dealing with the holocaust.
The simple fact that this book tries to deal with the social impacts of the changing Germany has been the biggest contributing factor to my enjoyment of the book. I couldn’t care less about Toller who is writing his autobiography or Ruth, who after reading Toller’s writing, is remembering her side of the story. I know they risk a lot to speak out and I knew Hitler’s regime were actively trying to stop political opposition so I probably should care more for the characters, but the fictionalised German history was more interesting for me.
All That I Am would be a tough book to write and while at times it was heavy and at other time I might not have cared too much of the story; Anna Funder did do an excellent job at writing this novel. The book reminded me of the 2002 movie Max for some weird reason; mainly because it also was a fictionalised account of Hitler rising to power and how he dealt with the political opposition. For those who don’t know the movie Max starred John Cusack as a fictional Jewish art dealer and a young Austrian painter, Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor). The interesting thing about the movie was it explores Hitler and the view’s that shaped Nazi ideology, while also taking a look at the artistic designs of the Third Reich.
Anna Funder must have done a lot of research in preparing to write this book. I know she has a non-fiction book called Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall but I think that was more about East Germany, but in the course of researching that book she might have gotten all the information needed for All That I Am. I’m glad to have read this novel; I think it offers an interesting insight into a world I was never a part of. It is an interesting piece of history and sociology. Anna Funder has won the Australian Independent Booksellers Indie Book Award for Literary Fiction and has been shortlisted for Miles Franklin Award for this book. I’d be interested to see if this book will stand the test of time.
February 20, 2022
Un romanzo a due voci, quella di Ruth e di Ernst, che raccontano di loro e del gruppo di cui facevano parte, un gruppo di giovani tedeschi di origini ebree vicini al partito comunista, in una Germania a terra appena uscita dalla prima guerra mondiale, negli anni pesanti della Repubblica di Weimar che portarono all’avvento del nazionalsocialismo: un gruppo di giovani intellettuali ed attivisti pacifisti, divenuti a mano a mano da semplici contestatori tenuti d’occhio dalla polizia a pericolosi sovversivi, quando Hitler salì al potere, costretti a rifugiarsi in Gran Bretagna. La vita del rifugiato è descritta in modo preciso e spietato: a)sei tedesco ed ebreo, sei il nemico numero uno della Germania di Hitler, quindi, anche se ti trovi su un suolo neutrale, devi stare con gli occhi ben aperti perché i nazisti arrivano dappertutto; b) vivi in un paese democratico, sei libero, puoi uscire e camminare per le strade, incontrare i tuoi compagni, frequentare amici, puoi anche innamorarti. Ma non sei inglese, hai una libertà di soggiorno limitata, devi stare bene attento a quello che fai e a quello che dici, la Gran Bretagna non è ancora nemica di Hitler, la guerra non è ancora scoppiata, il regime nazista non è ancora visto come il regime del male, la Gran Bretagna ti ospita ma tu non puoi fare attivismo politico contro il tuo paese, non puoi urlare, come vorresti, davanti a tutti, chi è e cosa è il regime nazista, chi è Hitler e cosa vuole fare, altrimenti rischi, come accade ad alcuni del gruppo, di essere riconsegnato alle autorità tedesche.
Nel gruppo spicca Dora Fabian, una donna giovane e bella, cugina di Ruth, amata da tutti, uomini -Ernst Toller per primo- e donne, una donna moderna, libera e consapevole, coraggiosa e forte come una leonessa, che il regime nazista non può tollerare in alcun modo. Ed il romanzo è, alla fine, un modo per ricordare al mondo un episodio di storia vera, la storia di Dora Fabian e di chi le ha voluto bene, di chi l’ha amata e mai dimenticata.
Mentre scrivo questo commento, sento crescere il valore e l’importanza di quest’opera, mi sento coinvolta così come lo ero leggendo le ultime cento pagine del libro, sentivo un coltello infilzato nelle viscere, una sofferenza che non si riesce ad esprimere a parole, una nausea soffocante, un livore forte, che ti fa venir voglia di gridare. Sotto questo profilo ritengo che il romanzo sia una importantissima testimonianza, da non farsi scappare. Però c’è anche il limite di questa opera, un limite che, come ho detto, me l’ha fatta sentire in pieno soltanto nelle ultime cento pagine: il racconto a due voci con i continui salti temporali disordinati mi hanno disorientato nella prima parte del romanzo, non l’ho pertanto apprezzata nel modo che avrei dovuto ed ho avuto difficoltà a seguire le vicende narrate. Ma il finale mi ha fatto vincere le incertezze che avevo. Bello.
Nel gruppo spicca Dora Fabian, una donna giovane e bella, cugina di Ruth, amata da tutti, uomini -Ernst Toller per primo- e donne, una donna moderna, libera e consapevole, coraggiosa e forte come una leonessa, che il regime nazista non può tollerare in alcun modo. Ed il romanzo è, alla fine, un modo per ricordare al mondo un episodio di storia vera, la storia di Dora Fabian e di chi le ha voluto bene, di chi l’ha amata e mai dimenticata.
Mentre scrivo questo commento, sento crescere il valore e l’importanza di quest’opera, mi sento coinvolta così come lo ero leggendo le ultime cento pagine del libro, sentivo un coltello infilzato nelle viscere, una sofferenza che non si riesce ad esprimere a parole, una nausea soffocante, un livore forte, che ti fa venir voglia di gridare. Sotto questo profilo ritengo che il romanzo sia una importantissima testimonianza, da non farsi scappare. Però c’è anche il limite di questa opera, un limite che, come ho detto, me l’ha fatta sentire in pieno soltanto nelle ultime cento pagine: il racconto a due voci con i continui salti temporali disordinati mi hanno disorientato nella prima parte del romanzo, non l’ho pertanto apprezzata nel modo che avrei dovuto ed ho avuto difficoltà a seguire le vicende narrate. Ma il finale mi ha fatto vincere le incertezze che avevo. Bello.
Read
May 30, 2012I'm not going to give this a rating as that would be unfair based on how much of it I read.
However, it would be a 1 star rating for what I have read.
This book was totally not for me. I picked it for a reading challenge and because it was based in Germany.
Let me say, Ms Funder writes very nice. That isn't that problem with the book for me.
I had two main problems:
One: The changing from character to character and present to past per character was annoying for me. It was bad enough keeping track of who was talking let alone what period it was in.
Second: As I am from German and Prussian heritage, with parents that were in World War II, grandparents in World War I, who lived and grew up in the areas (such as Charlottenburg), I found the inaccuracies within the first 7% of the book driving me insane. As such, I have abandoned reading it. It not enjoyable to read a book when all you are doing is dreading more inaccurate details as you read.
However, it would be a 1 star rating for what I have read.
This book was totally not for me. I picked it for a reading challenge and because it was based in Germany.
Let me say, Ms Funder writes very nice. That isn't that problem with the book for me.
I had two main problems:
One: The changing from character to character and present to past per character was annoying for me. It was bad enough keeping track of who was talking let alone what period it was in.
Second: As I am from German and Prussian heritage, with parents that were in World War II, grandparents in World War I, who lived and grew up in the areas (such as Charlottenburg), I found the inaccuracies within the first 7% of the book driving me insane. As such, I have abandoned reading it. It not enjoyable to read a book when all you are doing is dreading more inaccurate details as you read.
December 28, 2011
I purchased this book from my local bookstore a few months ago on the strength of the author’s name, having read and appreciated her non-fiction work, Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, which, as its title indicates, is an account of life in the former East Germany.
This is Funder’s first novel and a most impressive piece of work. Although it is fiction, it deals with real people and real events; that is, the activities of German socialist activists who were expelled or who escaped from Germany in 1933 and who thereafter worked to make Great Britain and Europe aware of what was happening under the Nazi regime. Central amongst the characters are left-wing playwright Ernst Toller and political activist Dora Fabian.
The novel is in the form of two inter-connected first person narratives. The narrators are separated in place and time. The first is Ruth Becker, an elderly woman living in Sydney in 2011. The other narrator is Ernst Toller, adding to his autobiography in New York in 1939. The narratives weave in and out of one another, dealing with many of the same events from the different perspectives of the narrators. The link between the narrators – apart from their political views – is their love for Dora Fabian, known from the beginning of the novel to have died in London in the mid-1930s. Within each narrative are time shifts. Sometimes the narrators refer to their present lives. At other times they are recalling events of the recent past (in the case of Ernst Toller) or the distant past (in the came of Ruth Becker).
The narrative structure has the potential to be confusing. The alternating chapters are headed with the name of the respective narrator, which minimises actual confusion. However, at least at the beginning of the novel the narrators’ voices are not sufficiently different to easily distinguish one from the other. However, as the novel progresses, this becomes less of an issue. I found that the alternating narratives drew me into the stories of Toller, Ruth and Dora in a way I don’t think would have occurred had the novel been in linear third person narrative form.
Overall, I found this to be a thoroughly engrossing work. It drew me into a world I knew nothing about and has made me want to read more about the people and events with which it is concerned. In my view, that should always be the effect of good historical fiction.
November 30, 2022
Ironico come io abbia scelto questo libro mentre, nel corso di letteratura tedesca, ci occupavamo della letteratura “nach Auschwitz” (dopo Auschwitz, ma anche riguardante Auschwitz).
Per quanto certi aspetti della vicenda siano volutamente romanzati (di sicuro per giustificare l'inserimento diretto di così tante informazioni), l'ho trovata parecchio vivida, talmente chiara che con facilità potevo figurarmi ogni singola scena. Il libro, senz'ombra di dubbio, getta uno sguardo attento sugli anni più febbrili mai attraversati dalla Germania, quelli antecedenti la seconda guerra mondiale, e lo fa con una sincerità disarmante, tutt'altro che stucchevole.
Ho voltato l'ultima pagina con la consapevolezza che la figura di Dora Fabian sarà impossibile da dimenticare.
Per quanto certi aspetti della vicenda siano volutamente romanzati (di sicuro per giustificare l'inserimento diretto di così tante informazioni), l'ho trovata parecchio vivida, talmente chiara che con facilità potevo figurarmi ogni singola scena. Il libro, senz'ombra di dubbio, getta uno sguardo attento sugli anni più febbrili mai attraversati dalla Germania, quelli antecedenti la seconda guerra mondiale, e lo fa con una sincerità disarmante, tutt'altro che stucchevole.
Ho voltato l'ultima pagina con la consapevolezza che la figura di Dora Fabian sarà impossibile da dimenticare.
February 13, 2013
The betrayal in this book was enough to make me feel sick. Ugh.
Four friends find their lives intertwined just before Hitler gains control of Germany. In a sense they were outlaws even before being outlawed from their country: young Jewish activists who were working to reveal what they saw Hitler's Nazis doing underground. They wrote articles, hosted rallies, wrote plays, gave speeches, but soon it was late. Some of them were jailed for speaking out, some forced to escape into exile, their families placed in concentration camps while the war ensues. In exile they work underground to inform the international community about what is really taking place, but they learn that they still haven't escaped spies abroad.
This is where the story unfolds.
Though the narrative style was a bit strange at the beginning, this book kept me captivated mostly because of Dora, the untethered, uninhibited, simply fascinating character who was a nonconformist at a time when women were not. The book was written around her bravery. Her friends all seemed in awe of her, and it sure helped the book that her love affair with Toller (one of the narrators) was so insoluble it created curiosity.
There are two narrators and they are both older looking back, but sometimes narrating with the present tense.
Ruth (Dora's cousin-sister) narrates when she is an older woman living exile and suffering from "the beginning of deficit accumulation-aphasia, short-term memory loss." She goes to the past when she talks about her life with Dora (except that she remains in present tense), but you know when she is back to her life in the present because of the character Bev, who helps take care of her. I immediately liked Ruth's narration at first because the voice was clear, unapologetic and slightly sarcastic.
Toller is the 2nd narrator, Dora's lover, and famous writer in exile now who pens a memoir about Dora. He starts to write his memoir in the present tense at first. Until Clara, his secretary helping him type the memoir, asks him,
"..Why, when you talk about the war, or the revolution, you use the present tense?"
Toller struggled with the answer and thinks inwardly:
"I need the present tense like magic. I want Dora's voice in my ear and her scent in my face. I need for her to live on, outside of the limitations of my scribbling."
Afterwards, he changes to the past tense (which could be bothersome to some readers).
Though I didn't get him at times because he was a character struggling with his emotions, I liked that Toller's narration was a love letter of sorts, dedicated to Dora: "For me there was no going back from Dora; every other woman was less than real. She gave me access to things my striving nature would not otherwise have let me see...without her I was only half the man, and half the writer."
The good thing is that both narrators pick up where the other left off, so the story continues.
The love story and the story of exile and censorship is what I liked about this book. Funder is a good writer, there were moments where she spelled out fear and anxiety so clearly, I felt it and empathized with the characters. There were parts of the historical context that I thought dragged a bit, parts that read like nonfiction and I wondered why not take more freedom with characters and with the story...it's fiction after all. Though the novel wasn't one of my favorites from the era and place (like: "Invisible Bridge"for instance), there are parts of it that will remain with me.
Four friends find their lives intertwined just before Hitler gains control of Germany. In a sense they were outlaws even before being outlawed from their country: young Jewish activists who were working to reveal what they saw Hitler's Nazis doing underground. They wrote articles, hosted rallies, wrote plays, gave speeches, but soon it was late. Some of them were jailed for speaking out, some forced to escape into exile, their families placed in concentration camps while the war ensues. In exile they work underground to inform the international community about what is really taking place, but they learn that they still haven't escaped spies abroad.
This is where the story unfolds.
Though the narrative style was a bit strange at the beginning, this book kept me captivated mostly because of Dora, the untethered, uninhibited, simply fascinating character who was a nonconformist at a time when women were not. The book was written around her bravery. Her friends all seemed in awe of her, and it sure helped the book that her love affair with Toller (one of the narrators) was so insoluble it created curiosity.
There are two narrators and they are both older looking back, but sometimes narrating with the present tense.
Ruth (Dora's cousin-sister) narrates when she is an older woman living exile and suffering from "the beginning of deficit accumulation-aphasia, short-term memory loss." She goes to the past when she talks about her life with Dora (except that she remains in present tense), but you know when she is back to her life in the present because of the character Bev, who helps take care of her. I immediately liked Ruth's narration at first because the voice was clear, unapologetic and slightly sarcastic.
Toller is the 2nd narrator, Dora's lover, and famous writer in exile now who pens a memoir about Dora. He starts to write his memoir in the present tense at first. Until Clara, his secretary helping him type the memoir, asks him,
"..Why, when you talk about the war, or the revolution, you use the present tense?"
Toller struggled with the answer and thinks inwardly:
"I need the present tense like magic. I want Dora's voice in my ear and her scent in my face. I need for her to live on, outside of the limitations of my scribbling."
Afterwards, he changes to the past tense (which could be bothersome to some readers).
Though I didn't get him at times because he was a character struggling with his emotions, I liked that Toller's narration was a love letter of sorts, dedicated to Dora: "For me there was no going back from Dora; every other woman was less than real. She gave me access to things my striving nature would not otherwise have let me see...without her I was only half the man, and half the writer."
The good thing is that both narrators pick up where the other left off, so the story continues.
The love story and the story of exile and censorship is what I liked about this book. Funder is a good writer, there were moments where she spelled out fear and anxiety so clearly, I felt it and empathized with the characters. There were parts of the historical context that I thought dragged a bit, parts that read like nonfiction and I wondered why not take more freedom with characters and with the story...it's fiction after all. Though the novel wasn't one of my favorites from the era and place (like: "Invisible Bridge"for instance), there are parts of it that will remain with me.
July 10, 2012
When All That I Am by Anna Funder won the prestigious 2012 Miles Franklin Award, I decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about. What I discovered was a book to love as both a reader and a writer.
There are so many ideas, beautifully observed, that resonated for me in this book, which can stand alone and lose none of their power. Take this example:
"At least half of what we call hope, I believe, is simply the sense that something can be done."
And this:
"This vast life -- the real, interior one in which we remain linked to the dead (because the dream inside us ignores trivialities like breath, or absence) -- this vast life is not under our control. Everything we have seen and everyone we have known goes into us and constitutes us, whether we like it or not..."
Then there is the innovative structure, two first-person narrators telling the story in different eras: German playwright Ernst Toller, writing his memoirs in 1939 in exile in New York; and ageing German émigré Ruth Becker in present-day Sydney. What Toller and Ruth have in common is activist Dora Fabian. They are 'the two for whom she was the sun. We moved in her orbit and the force of her kept us going,' as Ruth puts it. Their love for Dora both permeates and motivates their memories of her and the stories they tell.
The historical events, the settings, the characters -- most based on real people -- are written with such intimacy I felt transported by the narrative. I knew little of European history between the wars prior to reading All That I Am. I wasn't even all that interested in it. I had no appreciation of the struggle of German exiles who tried to warn the world of Hitler's agenda, nor of the violence and tragedy that befell so many of them.
What shines through in this book for me is the time and care Funder has taken with all aspects of the story. There's a breathtaking intimacy to the characters and their relationships to one another: these are people with whom the author has lived for a long time. It comes as no surprise to learn Funder took over five years to write the book.
Very highly recommended.
There are so many ideas, beautifully observed, that resonated for me in this book, which can stand alone and lose none of their power. Take this example:
"At least half of what we call hope, I believe, is simply the sense that something can be done."
And this:
"This vast life -- the real, interior one in which we remain linked to the dead (because the dream inside us ignores trivialities like breath, or absence) -- this vast life is not under our control. Everything we have seen and everyone we have known goes into us and constitutes us, whether we like it or not..."
Then there is the innovative structure, two first-person narrators telling the story in different eras: German playwright Ernst Toller, writing his memoirs in 1939 in exile in New York; and ageing German émigré Ruth Becker in present-day Sydney. What Toller and Ruth have in common is activist Dora Fabian. They are 'the two for whom she was the sun. We moved in her orbit and the force of her kept us going,' as Ruth puts it. Their love for Dora both permeates and motivates their memories of her and the stories they tell.
The historical events, the settings, the characters -- most based on real people -- are written with such intimacy I felt transported by the narrative. I knew little of European history between the wars prior to reading All That I Am. I wasn't even all that interested in it. I had no appreciation of the struggle of German exiles who tried to warn the world of Hitler's agenda, nor of the violence and tragedy that befell so many of them.
What shines through in this book for me is the time and care Funder has taken with all aspects of the story. There's a breathtaking intimacy to the characters and their relationships to one another: these are people with whom the author has lived for a long time. It comes as no surprise to learn Funder took over five years to write the book.
Very highly recommended.
December 23, 2014
All That I Am is a story told by Ruth and Toller and their recollection of memories of a time as a political activist, in the 1930, before and during Hitler’s ruling. Joined with two other members, Hans and Dora, they risked their lives by speaking publically against Hitler and his policies, and warning people of their loss of rights, independence and freedom of speech should Hitler come to power. It was quite interesting to see Hitler’s reaction to the group, and the deceitful ways it took him to silence them.
Unfortunately I felt structure of the book was huge disappointment. The first half of the book felt like a blur, It was running at a very fast pace, with all historical facts were thrown at you. At this point, I did feel a bit disorientated and frustrated as I believe I’ve missed some vital information that may help me understand the rest of the storyline. Also with the two narrators, alternating chapter by chapter and the switching from past to present was extremely confusing and hard to follow.
All in all I think it was a good book and the characters had a very interesting history to know, and it is oblivious the Author has a vast knowledge for this era. But there were a few things that were a bit fuzzy for me to fully enjoy the book. 2 ½ stars
Unfortunately I felt structure of the book was huge disappointment. The first half of the book felt like a blur, It was running at a very fast pace, with all historical facts were thrown at you. At this point, I did feel a bit disorientated and frustrated as I believe I’ve missed some vital information that may help me understand the rest of the storyline. Also with the two narrators, alternating chapter by chapter and the switching from past to present was extremely confusing and hard to follow.
All in all I think it was a good book and the characters had a very interesting history to know, and it is oblivious the Author has a vast knowledge for this era. But there were a few things that were a bit fuzzy for me to fully enjoy the book. 2 ½ stars
November 14, 2011
This deserves 3 and a half. Not in the league of 'Stasiland' - she is on firmer ground with non-fiction and her emotional coolness suits that genre better. Having said that, she writes about an amazing period and real people who I have not heard of previously (feel quite ignorant). It follows the stories of several Germans in the 20s and 30s who were politically active against the Nazis. They are almost all real people - their individual stories are fascinating. I'm not sure that Funder is able to convincingly inhabit their personalities and lives in the way that she did in 'Stasiland'. It's written in first person from the POV of two characters - Ernst Toller and Ruth Becker (Blatt in real life). I have been wondering if she would have got a better result writng about them in third person - as she did in 'Stasiland' although she herself was in that story. I may be in the minority in this view - it's a very good piece of work - but somehow lacking an emotional intensity which the story deserves.
March 8, 2012
I love books that feature real life events and the people who figured prominently in them. The historical data and the characters in this book were fascinating, I just had a little trouble with the format. I appreciated that the book chapters were headed with the persons name, but within the chapters themselves the events were related into the past and the present. Different chapters also did this, back and forth and while I could keep track of what was happening when, it served as a distraction and kept me becoming fully invested in the story. I would get into one part and it would be switched to another, very frustrating especially since this was a very well written book. Just really didn't care for the structure.
October 26, 2011
I hate giving up on a book - I struggled to page 100 before chucking in the towel on this one, just hoping I'd get carried forward on the story. But I'm afraid it just didn't. The period fascinated me, and was what attracted me to the book in the first place, but I was really badly put off by the book's style - I struggled to find a coherent narrative among the (beautifully written, but difficult to read) thoughts and flashbacks, and never identified sufficiently with the characters to want to continue.
May 8, 2013
This novel tells the story of German Jewish leftists, who escaped Germany in the early 30's as the Nazis were rising to power. Little detail is given about their actual political beliefs as it seems the author's purpose was to illuminate this period and the precarious lives of refugees. In England they risked expulsion if they engaged in any political activity, and the British authorities ignored, for the most part, the growth of Nazism and the decline of democracy in 1930's Germany.
April 22, 2015
Look, I did enjoy this, but mostly for its factual/historical content. You do feel like the characters are just there to deliver Funder's excellent (and fascinating) research. I'm not sue that the multiple perspectives and timeframes were that useful; it feels a bit first-novely in that regard. Funder is a very competent writer, and seems empathetic, but you don't *feel* much for anyone here.
October 8, 2019
I find the questions raised by the way certain authors (and critics) blur the boundaries between truth and fiction to be very interesting and very vexing. As an author of non-fiction, it is frustrating when my work is compared unfavourably with a work of fiction on the same subject. But I digress.
Anna Funder's 'All That I Am' is a work that is inspired by fact and is drawn from interviews and published works of the lives of a group of Jewish Germans who actively resisted the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. Those people were Ruth Blatt, her cousin Dora Fabien and the playwright Ernst Toller and, in her book, Funder gives her characters identical names.
Funder's book is very clever, beautifully written and lucid. And therein lies my problem, and I am perfectly willing to acknowledge that it has its roots in my professional life as a historian. Funder's characters are called Blatt, Fabian and Toller, so are they characters or are they real? Characters are an author's creation and Anna Funder is blending the lives of the 'real' and the 'character' to present the reader with her construct of the lives of people who lived, breathed and died. She is rewriting their history. Is this fair and just? Is this an objectionable reconstruction of the past or is it fair entertainment? Why not write a novel with the same construct, the same impeccable research, but use characters from the author's imagination? Would it be a lesser novel? I don't think so.
Anna Funder's 'All That I Am' is a work that is inspired by fact and is drawn from interviews and published works of the lives of a group of Jewish Germans who actively resisted the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. Those people were Ruth Blatt, her cousin Dora Fabien and the playwright Ernst Toller and, in her book, Funder gives her characters identical names.
Funder's book is very clever, beautifully written and lucid. And therein lies my problem, and I am perfectly willing to acknowledge that it has its roots in my professional life as a historian. Funder's characters are called Blatt, Fabian and Toller, so are they characters or are they real? Characters are an author's creation and Anna Funder is blending the lives of the 'real' and the 'character' to present the reader with her construct of the lives of people who lived, breathed and died. She is rewriting their history. Is this fair and just? Is this an objectionable reconstruction of the past or is it fair entertainment? Why not write a novel with the same construct, the same impeccable research, but use characters from the author's imagination? Would it be a lesser novel? I don't think so.
March 4, 2012
If you are looking for a truly incredible novel Anna Funder’s debut All That I Am is the perfect book for you. All That I Am is the story of a group of young, passionate pacifists that are forced out of Berlin when Hitler comes to power. The novel is told through flashbacks and in alternate voices. Ruth Becker is an old woman when the novel opens, and is being tormented by her past. Ernst Toller finds himself in exile in New York in 1939 as he recounts his time in Berlin. Both narrators had been tied to Dora Fabian, a dedicated and daring woman determined to warn the world about the dangers of Hitler and the Nazi’s. Beautifully written and intelligent, the novel provokes readers to think about the seductive nature of power, political tyranny and resistance movements as well as the motivation of an individual. It is also a grand novel that explores love and betrayal, courage and fear, depression and hope. While the novel is an exceptional example of historical fiction, dutifully researched and authentic in scope, it is also a fine piece of literary fiction that inspires reflection and intelligent discourse. It is also a well told story that reads like a thriller or a great tale of espionage. All That I Am is a novel that deserves wide readership and will disappoint few.
April 24, 2019
4.75 Stars
‘I am a vessel of memory in a world of forgetting.’
Those words haunted me throughout this book, as it examines the bright passion of individual lives that can be smothered by ruthless power or lost to history. The novel follows the confessions of Ruth Becker in early 2000s Sydney as she receives an edited manuscript from Ernst Toller written in 1939. The confessions focus upon the actions of a group of friends and fellow Socialist Workers Party members in Berlin, who suddenly find themselves outlawed when Hitler rises to power in 1933.
The betrayal of one of their party is shocking, but does not come until the game has nearly finished. But the strength and determination of Dora, and the quiet witness in Ruth held me captive for the novel. Whilst both are wildly different personalities their resistance and constant will to survive against a greater power left me in awe. Yet their struggle can clearly be linked to those that perpetuate throughout history - as we live in a world of forgetting.
The writing is exquisite and Funder managed to draw your eye to individual injustices that should not be upheld in a just society, yet corruption and power pervades, and we are witnesses.
‘I am a vessel of memory in a world of forgetting.’
Those words haunted me throughout this book, as it examines the bright passion of individual lives that can be smothered by ruthless power or lost to history. The novel follows the confessions of Ruth Becker in early 2000s Sydney as she receives an edited manuscript from Ernst Toller written in 1939. The confessions focus upon the actions of a group of friends and fellow Socialist Workers Party members in Berlin, who suddenly find themselves outlawed when Hitler rises to power in 1933.
The betrayal of one of their party is shocking, but does not come until the game has nearly finished. But the strength and determination of Dora, and the quiet witness in Ruth held me captive for the novel. Whilst both are wildly different personalities their resistance and constant will to survive against a greater power left me in awe. Yet their struggle can clearly be linked to those that perpetuate throughout history - as we live in a world of forgetting.
The writing is exquisite and Funder managed to draw your eye to individual injustices that should not be upheld in a just society, yet corruption and power pervades, and we are witnesses.
June 2, 2015
I thought this book was great. It really brought me closer to a time period I am always wanting to get a deeper understanding and sense of. I felt very drawn into the world, attached to the characters, and I felt appropriately horrified by the atrocities and inspired by the courage of those who risked everything to try to shift the awful course of history. These were brutal and devastating times, but I think a lot of the battles that were being fought then are still being fought today in many ways and the book offers a sort of blueprint for what it might look like to live with integrity in the face of injustice.
Funder is an investigative journalist and this is her first novel, and the prose is rich, incisive, often very true in a musical sense and in its aliveness. I really appreciate the research she did and the care with which she sends this story into the world. I have read many reviews that take issue with the structure of the novel. I see how the structure presents some challenges, but I think it works well enough that this is still a novel worth reading and, I would say, an important one, worthy of acclaim.
Funder is an investigative journalist and this is her first novel, and the prose is rich, incisive, often very true in a musical sense and in its aliveness. I really appreciate the research she did and the care with which she sends this story into the world. I have read many reviews that take issue with the structure of the novel. I see how the structure presents some challenges, but I think it works well enough that this is still a novel worth reading and, I would say, an important one, worthy of acclaim.
November 15, 2016
One of my favorite books of the past decade! An original and riveting story of courageous German exiles in Britain and a revelation into the Nazis' terrifying reach beyond Occupied Europe. For lovers of historical fiction, a hidden gem!
Read
November 22, 2011Ugh. Potentially fascinating, but so poorly constructed as to be unreadable.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,251 reviews