What Are We Reading? 8 March 2021

[Reen]

AB76 wrote: "Spiral Series 4 is like one blunder after another, its the only series i havent watched but i do know the ending, having watched series 5

So basically its a slow march to disaster and Karlsson is ..."

I loved it but I'll spare anyone who might be watching it the spoilers.

[AB76]

Reen wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Spiral Series 4 is like one blunder after another, its the only series i havent watched but i do know the ending, having watched series 5

So basically its a slow march to disaster and..."

if you love "Spiral", you should enjoy "The Bureau" which is on amazon prime, its another canal+ french series based around the french spy agencies with Matthieu Kassovitz in the main role. Its brilliant...i didnt realise it was as old as 2015, i found it during lockdown and am watching it slowly

[[deleted user]]

Quiz – I truly thought I would get an awful result, compared with the cognoscenti here, but in fact scored 13/15. I had to guess two and got them both wrong.

Not reading much. We have some family issues going on. Thank you, Shelflife, for the diversion.

[FranHunny]

I only scored 8/15 but ironically I got the Oz writer right

[AB76]

I have noticed quite a few regular posters from the Guardian TLS have been infrequent visitors/posters here, i hope these peeps are all ok?

[Fuzzywuzz]

AB76 wrote: "Spiral Series 4 is like one blunder after another, its the only series i havent watched but i do know the ending, having watched series 5

So basically its a slow march to disaster and Karlsson is ..."

I've just got to the end of series one, which was a rollercoaster of events. I started series two yesterday and found the scenes to be quite jerky (the camera seemed to be all over the place) - I felt a bit queasy whilst trying to read the subtitles.

I've enjoyed the plotlines so far, but the mortuary scenes are not for the feint-hearted

[AB76]

Fuzzywuzz wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Spiral Series 4 is like one blunder after another, its the only series i havent watched but i do know the ending, having watched series 5

So basically its a slow march to disaster and..."

i find that the series are not as smooth flowing as i expected when i revisited series 4 and 5, in terms of character development. Watching series 6 i felt they got it right and there seemed to be a slower and more introspective approach to the relationships, watching series 4 after 6,7 and 8, i just felt it bounced about a lot(not the cameras) and didnt spend long enough on anything, it lacked the space of the later series.

its a superb drama and i think 6 was the best, the team as a collective from 6-8 was the best too

[AB76]

The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla(1966) my latest diary/journal reading is being conducted at a deliberately slow pace, late at night, maybe 2300-2330 hrs. as this time alloted to diaries/journals has only been in place since Jan 2020, its generally been lockdown affected silent evenings and peace as a background which is lovely, distant cars heard for a second but a lot less stumbling, swearing, obnoxious youths drunk on cheap beer!

Pla narrates his youth in the Ampurdan region of Catalonia, on the Costa Brava with skill and detail. As we know he revised his youthful diaries of 1918-19 over time, so the voice you "read" is a blend of a young law student and the Catalan writer he became. The world of cold south facing rooms, study at home as his university is closed due to the flu pandemic (ring a bell anyone) is strangely relevant in 2021.

Its a good 600 pages and it starts in March 1918...

[Fuzzywuzz]

Not a lot of reading done of late, I'm afraid. I finished The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa last week. It was the first book I've read by a Japanese Author.

It was a wonderfully subtle tale of loss and fear - objects disappear from memory on an almost daily basis; the irony being said objects must be destroyed/disposed of by everyone of face the wrath of the Memory Police.

People are also taken by the Memory Police.

This was a great (albeit sad) story, which made be reflect on the nature of memory - how crucial it is for who we are as individuals; we all have objects and people who play important roles on our lives.

Objects that are important to me (this is a bit silly, but...): Photographs, letters (from friends, family and an old boyfriend), stuffed toys (I've still got my favourite bear, at my mum's house and kept most of my daughters').

Favourite books. I've still got my childhood copy of The Witches, by Roald Dahl - I can still remember picking out the book from the book fair at school, the look, feel and smell of the new pages and being scared of those witches - I was very suspicious of women with flared nostrils and gloved hands for a long time!

[AB76]

Fuzzywuzz wrote: "Not a lot of reading done of late, I'm afraid. I finished The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa last week. It was the first book I've read by a Japanese Author.

It was a wonderfully subtle tale of loss ..."

i loved "The Witches" and the first film that was made..

[Fuzzywuzz]

I forgot to mention what I had started to read. I'm a bit banana-brained after a night shift and I've been flitting between three:

Mindhunter by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker (I've been dipping in and out of this for a long time now).

Trunk Music by Michael Connelly.

The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy.

[Fuzzywuzz]

Lljones wrote: "Ok, that's done and dusted. (Still need a haircut...)

"
Well done Lljones and thanks for all the work you are doing with Ersatz TLS.

I really like your hat!

[scarletnoir]

Machenbach wrote: "Katharina Volckmer, The Appointment


“I know that this was in poor taste, and I am only telling you this to make you understand where I am comin..."

Thanks for a fascinating review.

I almost didn't read it when you mentioned the subject matter, which really is of no interest to me, but this made me laugh:
... the narrator’s German birth and family, which she has sought to reject by moving to the UK where “because they won a war, they can always claim to think they were good”

It sounds like Basil Fawlty ("Don't mention the war!") and the mass of Brexiters in a nutshell...

This also struck a chord:
...we performed a new version of ourselves, hysterically non-racist in any direction...

because at one time we were acquainted with a German lady whose father had been (was still, I think) a Nazi - and she married a black African from a French-speaking colony. The marriage didn't last, and I did wonder - to what extent had it been a love match? Or was it some sort of act of atonement? Or to show two fingers to her father?

I really don't know, but it must have been a complicated relationship.

If the book had focused on those aspects, I might have read it - but apparently it's more about Gender Dysphoria, so...

[Clare de la lune]

Storm wrote: "Just finished Freeman by Leonard Pitts Jr and I cannot recommend this powerful, magnificent novel highly enough. I am still processing its effect on me so am not too coherent. I am emotionally wrec..."
Great review - I'll have to go and find a copy!

[Bill]

[AB76]

Bill wrote: ""

i like these......very good

[Georg]

Machenbach wrote(273): "Georg wrote: "Machenbach wrote(253): "Georg wrote: "The only novel Sebald wrote is Austerlitz. And if UK reviewers call it a novel I would like to know how they define 'novel'. Is that a term you c..."

I must admit that I find it difficult to understand that something is categorized on the base of what it is not. "This is neither A, nor B, nor C....therefore it must be X".

You say ... and, whilst I understand your reluctance to label them (except Austerlitz) as novels, it’s still harder, I think, to confidently assert that they are simply ‘not novels’ ...

I think, in that case, I could comfortably argue with the conventional definitions of 'novel' and it would be your call to defend your case that it is a novel, though it defies these conventions. Which you have done, or attempted to do. I am far from being convinced by your arguments but they have made me think outside my box. And that is where, for me the real value of (e)TLS lies.

It has also, not for the first time, made me aware of my limitations. Lack of general knowledge (sometimes/more or less), lack of the instrumentarium (academical background in literature , therefore not versed in the terminology, compounded by needing to use a second language) -> note to self: keep your toes dry unless you know the depth of the water you're stepping into ;-)

But, since I am in it (the water) already I might as well part with my thought regarding your last sentence:
Which is to say that in perhaps transgressing the conventional/traditional limits of the novel in some (but not all) ways, they don’t simply become non-novels but instead expand or alter the definition of the novel.
Transgressing boundaries can be a good thing. It can also lead to blurring boundaries, making them so vague that nobody can see them anymore. I am not sure whether that is necessarily a good thing. As it might reduce something complex to something less complex (?)

In a very roundabout way this made me think of a Tucholsky piece. The translation leaves a lot to be desired and leaves quite a bit of the original out. You'll get the gist of it (minus some highlights that would even tax an excellent translator, to be fair):

"Zur soziologischen Psychologie der Löcher" (On the sociological psychology of holes)

http://www.theavanwoland.com/thea_tul...

[Andy]

The Venice Train by Georges Simenon translated by Alistair Hamilton.
Failed teacher, book-keeper Julian Calmer's life is thrown into confusion after a chance encounter on a train, heading home from his holiday in Venice a few days sooner than his family. A fellow traveller takes an inordinate amount of interest in him, and he ends up agreeing to pick up and deliver a suitcase during his lenghty stopover in Lausanne. On arrival at the destination he finds the woman murdered, and flees, along with the case, which he subsequently finds contains wads of cash.
This isn't Simenon at his best, hardly surprising that in his prolificness there is some ordinary work. Its strength is one we see often in Simenon's work, the exploration into the darker side of an individual, a person who until then had lived a law abiding life.
But the plot stretches credulity throughout, and the ending is a mess, quickly losing any tension and atmposphere.

[Andy]

Machenbach wrote: "Katharina Volckmer, The Appointment


“I know that this was in poor taste, and I am only telling you this to make you understand where I am comin..."

Thanks for this MB. Its on my list, so great to get your review.

Its the International Booker Longlist at the end of the month, and it must have a chance of getting onto that.

A couple I am hoping will make it..
Ankomst - Gøhril Gabrielsen
Tomorrow They Won't Dare to Murder Us -Joseph Andras
The Orphanage - Zhadan u.a., Serhij
Theatre of War - Jeftanovic
The Route of Ice and Salt - José Luis Zárate

The two Z's are my favourites, Zhadan and Zarate..

[Bill]

Discussion of what exactly Sebald’s book is reminded me of the first book I read this year, Cane by Jean Toomer. I read a Norton Critical Edition and one of the essays (the editor’s) contained a footnote on whether the book - a carefully arranged collection of stories, sketches, poems, and something that reads a lot like a play - should be called a novel, as some commentators do. The editor did not think it should, but did not offer an extended discussion of the issue. Another essay cited the dust jacket copy of the first edition, supposedly written by Toomer, which termed the book a “vaudeville”; that seemed a perfect description to me, but to my knowledge, has never been widely used to characterize Cane, or for that matter any other work by other authors.

[AB76]

THE FACES OF JUSTICE by Sybille Bedford(1961) Non Fiction

Half way through this interesting book,Bedford follows the Rebecca West style of non-fiction commentary on court cases, with an elegant wit and an acute eye for the clothes, appearence and manner of the people playing out the legal drama at hand.

The section of her book where she travels to Germany, to attend a trial in Karlsruhe is fascinating. Bedford grew up in Germany and admits that had never expected to travel back, she remembers her fear and loathing of the harsh german officialdom of her youth

"all my life i have lived with nightmare visions of barrack loud, dust bound german officaldom, immovable, unsmiling, a total negation"

But in the BDR courts of 1959, she finds so many positive elements of the West German legal system:

" Patient , courteous, private-voiced men, relaxed, polite, un -bureaucratic"

It did make me wonder how deep the de-Nazification of the judiciary had been in those 14 years since 1945, presumably there wasn't a wholesale filleting of the system? I must say i was impressed too by the German courts as Bedford described them

[Andy]

AB76 wrote: "Reen wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Spiral Series 4 is like one blunder after another, its the only series i havent watched but i do know the ending, having watched series 5

So basically its a slow march to..."

Im up to Series 6 of Spiral. Thanks for the recommendation of the Bureau.
Slowly, I'm catching up with the stuff I missed when working overseas.
I really enjoyed the first season of Succession, the second to come soon. Strange, when I couldn't get on with it the first time I watched it.
And Generation Kill. David Simon and Ed Burns. Up to episode 3, and totally drawn in.
Just one movie recommendation, a French film, Les Miserables (not the Hugo..). Police tension with ethnic groups in Paris. Its very good.

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "The Venice Train by Georges Simenon translated by Alistair Hamilton.
Failed teacher, book-keeper Julian Calmer's life is thrown into..."

Andy, you are reading at a terrific rate,kudos to you!

is it lockdown induced or normal?

[Andy]

Andy wrote: "Machenbach wrote: "Katharina Volckmer, The Appointment


“I know that this was in poor taste, and I am only telling you this to make you understa..."
I'll just add to that International Booker longlist possibles, with
In the Company of Men by Véronique Tadjo, which I read last week.
Its very short, just a couple of hours or so, but some pretty unpleasant reading, but necessarily so, as its about the Ebola epidemic. Its very cleverly done, each chapter being the point of view of different people involved in dealing with the virus.
I think its the first book from Côte d'Ivoire that I have read. John Cullen is the translator.

[Tam]

Georg wrote: "Machenbach wrote(273): "Georg wrote: "Machenbach wrote(253): "Georg wrote: "The only novel Sebald wrote is Austerlitz. And if UK reviewers call it a novel I would like to know how they define 'nove..."

A hole can be a learning opportunity as well! I'm attracted to borders... Its often where the most interesting concepts lie...

“There is a time in life when you expect the world to be always full of new things. And then comes a day when you realise that is not how it will be at all. You see that life will become a thing made of holes. Absences. Losses. Things that were there and are no longer. And you realise, too, that you have to grow around and between the gaps.” Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk

[Anastasia]

The White Guard
Disclaimer: I've mentioned the controversy around Bulgakov earlier on this thread and as soon as I posted this review on my page, a moderately popular Ukrainian book blogger jumped to change her initial book rating to 2 stars :) It seems I've opened the doors of hell.

Great and terrible was the year of Our Lord 1918, of the Revolution the second. Its summer abundant with warmth and sun, its winter with snow, highest in its heaven stood two stars: the shepherds' star, eventide Venus; and Mars - quivering, red.”

With this exquisite opening sentence Bulgakov starts his first novel, a story of a family very much like his own, of bleak winter days and big personal losses scattered with drops of blood on the map of 20-th century Kiev.

It will take the author five more years to start working on “The Master and Margarita”, but even here in his snow-covered City of 1918 the doctors dream of Heavenly Gates, fragile and vicious strangers save them from enemy bullets, cadets go down to Hades to recover the bodies of fallen friends and miracles happen to those desperate enough to ask.

Amidst the tumult and the confusion the Turbins’ house remains the only constant point with all of the world revolving around it, and everyone inside safe and sound behind the cream-coloured blinds, very much like a Christmas scene locked in a snowball, tranquil and eternal. Whatever happens, they will all return as if they’ve never left.

The Russian empire is no more, the Germans have left and so did eventually the forces of Petliura. As the red star rises over Kiev, Bulgakov hints that this too shall pass. If you take a walk around Old Kyiv, a lot of those houses are still there, the houses that saw the Bulgakovs and the Turbins, bombs and parades, guns and flags, and the Saint Volodymyr with his sword-like cross.

[AB76]

Anastasia wrote: "The White Guard
Disclaimer: I've mentioned the controversy around Bulgakov earlier on this thread and as soon as I posted this review on my page, a moderately popular Ukrainian book b..."

great review anastasia, i enjoyed the novel and i also saw the play performed at the National Theatre in London about a decade ago. Using a very detailed mutli-level stage it was a great performance, Bulgakov is a great writer

I must visit Kiev one day, i got as far as Zakarpattia Oblast border in the mid 1990s.....

[Lljones]

Trying to sort out some issues with my laptop via Microsoft... Downloaded some updates last night, now trying to get back to them to get the updates installed.

You have to go through a Virtual Agent to get in queue for a callback:

VA: Tell us why you're contacting us...

Me: Open case 123414.... Need to finish installation.

VA: Here's what I think you are asking about: Distance learning with Microsoft 365: Guidance for parents.... Is that correct?

Aaargh. Finally got queued - We'll call you within 1800 minutes.

If you don't hear from me for a few days, you'll know why. 😉

[Reen]

AB76 wrote: "Reen wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Spiral Series 4 is like one blunder after another, its the only series i havent watched but i do know the ending, having watched series 5

So basically its a slow march to..."

I don't have Amazon Prime but thank you for the recommendation. I think what I particularly liked about Spiral was the different moods of each series; I liked the sort of staccato style. Gilou, Roban and Josephine were my favourites. Brilliant series.

[giveusaclue]

Lljones wrote: "Trying to sort out some issues with my laptop via Microsoft... Downloaded some updates last night, now trying to get back to them to get the updates installed.

You have to go through a Virtual Age..."

You have my sympathies. My Lenovo laptop does not have the required drivers to enable Windows 10 version 2004 from last year to be installed. I am now getting messages to update it so I can remain supported! I am waiting for an email back from Lenovo as to what if anything they are going to do about it. My laptop isn't four years old yet so I think Lenovo should get their act together!

Rant over. 😀

[Georg]

Sorry for being off-topic, but I am quite happy tonight about the elections:

In Baden-Württemberg (where I live) the Green Party has taken 31+% of the vote (next is the CDU at 23%).

In Rhineland-Palatinate the SPD is at 33+% (next is the CDU at 25+%)

The far-right AfD has lost in both states (now at 12% inBW and 10%in RP)!

[Anastasia]

Lljones wrote: "Trying to sort out some issues with my laptop via Microsoft... Downloaded some updates last night, now trying to get back to them to get the updates installed"

Have you considered Ubuntu? Most of the open-source software is lighter and not as cumbersome with updates being forced on you. Granted, it also requires some tinkering when you need "that particular program which exists only for Windows" up and running, but that's just more fun..

[AB76]

Anastasia- I think the best book about the Ukraine i have ever read was "Chernobyl Prayer" By Svetlana Alexeivich


Of course some of the area and people involved were Belorussian but i was fascinated by reading about the disaster and watching a documentary on the babushka's left behind in the area

havent watched the sky drama on Chernobyl yet

[Anastasia]

AB76 wrote: "great review anastasia, i enjoyed the novel and i also saw the play performed at the National Theatre in London about a decade ago. Using a very detailed mutli-level stage it was a great performance, Bulgakov is a great writer"

Thank you, and yes you definitely should visit one day. There are still many buildings constructed before the World War I, and seeing those windows overlook a modern playground with some 21st century kids is... odd. What else have you read by Bulgakov?

[AB76]

Georg wrote: "Sorry for being off-topic, but I am quite happy tonight about the elections:

In Baden-Württemberg (where I live) the Green Party has taken 31+% of the vote (next is the CDU at 23%).

In Rhineland-..."

never worry about being off topic Georg, how did the AFD do in the old East? or were their just 3 state elections?

[AB76]

Anastasia wrote: "AB76 wrote: "great review anastasia, i enjoyed the novel and i also saw the play performed at the National Theatre in London about a decade ago. Using a very detailed mutli-level stage it was a gre..."

I have read the sublime Master and Margherita, the short but interesting A Country Doctors Notebook, a collection of his plays(inc the White Guard) and a short story that appeared in a collection of 1930s stories, the title of which i forget

Bunin, Andreyev, Bulgakov and Bely are my favourite 20th century authors from USSR/Imperial Russia. The Silver Dove by Bely was an intriguing summery classic of rural life

Andreyev also took some interesting photos and have you explored Prokudin Gorski and his amazing colour photos of Imperial Russia
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collecti...

[MK]

giveusaclue wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Trying to sort out some issues with my laptop via Microsoft... Downloaded some updates last night, now trying to get back to them to get the updates installed.

You have to go throu..."

Persevere! My 2¢ is ignore them. I have a laptop running W7 and Microsoft still updates it occasionally. Also I have Home Office from 2010 which works well for me - even though I perpetually have warning banners each time I open a file.

So far - a toothless lion.

[giveusaclue]

MK wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Trying to sort out some issues with my laptop via Microsoft... Downloaded some updates last night, now trying to get back to them to get the updates installed.

..."
Thank MK I will bear that in mind. I have a friend who is an IT professional who usually helps me out if I am stuck. (You know, the type of friend you can't afford to fall out with)

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "Sorry for being off-topic, but I am quite happy tonight about the elections:

In Baden-Württemberg (where I live) the Green Party has taken 31+% of the vote (next is the CDU at 23%).
..."

Ah -memories. Nelligan auf den Fildern and going down the hill to Hertie (which I see is no more) to buy a zipper foot (what a long word in German) for my sewing machine as the clothes in the PX were so poorly made.

And then almost 20 years later spending time in Vaihingen while on a work trip at Patch Barracks.

[Georg]

AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "Sorry for being off-topic, but I am quite happy tonight about the elections:

In Baden-Württemberg (where I live) the Green Party has taken 31+% of the vote (next is the CDU at 23%).
..."

There are no fixed dates for state elections. So today only BW and RP voted. Some elections in the 'New States' coming up later this year. Generally they have been the relative stronghold of the far right with 23+ to 27+%, more than doubling the numbers in the "Old states". We'll see... Personally I hope that not more shift to the right. That would already be an achievement of sorts.

[AB76]

Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "Sorry for being off-topic, but I am quite happy tonight about the elections:

In Baden-Württemberg (where I live) the Green Party has taken 31+% of the vote (next is the ..."

they had some UK documentaries on the situation in the east and it was unpleasent to see the right wing on show
Saying that, when i was in Berlin in autumn 1999, i was amazed at the presence of sklinheads shouting at people on stations and streets in east berlin. In the old west of berlin, it was multi-cultural and calm, in the east a menacing feel after dark

[Shelflife_wasBooklooker]

So glad that the quiz was enjoyable to various posters here! Thank you for letting me know if/ that it was of interest.
When someone ever gets a full score, we might celebrate? (I did not know the Oz author, as well as some others....).

@Russel:
Hope the family situation may improve. Just in case you'd like some more diversion, here are some quizzes I posted last week: "Based on their relationship history, can you pick each literary character who really isn't a good choice of life partner?"
(with select buttons)
https://www.sporcle.com/games/knightl...
10/14 (and people as clumsy as I might like to be careful of only clicking on one button once - it moves on to the next bit very quickly.)
There's a timer involved...


I also liked this one:
"That's not how the book ends - can you name the books and novels from their alternate endings?"
(free text one, shout out for Hushpuppy, who prefers these)
https://www.sporcle.com/games/OtisBus...
Just a brief explanation, because this confused me:
You have one or two sentences per book, depending on your browser, possibly all listed a bit crammed in the green rectangle. Just enter any titles you would associate from the brief sentences in the free text field. The sequence does not matter! When a title is entered correctly, it appears to the right of the square.
10/14, and I should have known at least one more. :grumble:
Again: There's a timer.

Inspired by Tam/ jediperson and her blog, I have been spending parts of today with Käthe Kollwitz, Ich Sah Die Welt Mit Liebevollen Blicken: Ein Leben In Selbstzeugnissen and an Otto Dix catalogue, https://www.amazon.de/Stuttgart-Natio....
Tam/ jediperson: Some exciting finds - just about to put it all together! At 7:00 your time, I will have a chat on the phone (favourite ex), but will get back to you after it. Just wanted to let you know, because I promised for this weekend, and am later than intended.

Machenbach wrote #319: "Hey, no, don't think that. As I used to tell the undergrads: "Congratulations on picking a subject where there are so few wrong answers. Oh, and commiserations on picking a subject where there are so few right answers."

Love this! Made me laugh. You know, I think that for the (under- and other) grads, and surely for colleagues, too, it's quite the shame that you are no longer in academia. For conference attendees as well, in case you liked to play the circuit!
However, I was happy to leave as well. Made me a much happier person.

_______________
Laters.

[Slawkenbergius]

AB76 wrote: "I have noticed quite a few regular posters from the Guardian TLS have been infrequent visitors/posters here, i hope these peeps are all ok?"

Now I know you care; we are underused!

[AB76]

Slawkenbergius wrote: "AB76 wrote: "I have noticed quite a few regular posters from the Guardian TLS have been infrequent visitors/posters here, i hope these peeps are all ok?"

Now I know you care; we are underused!"

Indeed Slawksmeister!

[Georg]

AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "Sorry for being off-topic, but I am quite happy tonight about the elections:

In Baden-Württemberg (where I live) the Green Party has taken 31+% of the vote..."

Over 30 years after reunification there is still an awful lot of animosity between the former East and the former West. So much of it was, and still is, glossed over. Truth be told: for the vast majority of West Germans East Germany was a more exotic territory than, say Finland or Portugal, or Croatia.

When the border fell two sorts of people moved very quickly:

greedy Easterners, altogether not a pleasant lot with their whingeing and we-have-suffered-so-long-now-we-want-our-due-with-interest-on-top-of-it moved to the West. They were universally despised by many Westerners and came to be, quite wrongly, seen as the representatives of the East Germans.

At the same time the greedy West German capitalists moved to the East and took part in the fire sale. Viable companies were bought for a song and dismantled, the profits were huge, so many people lost their jobs.
That was all overseen by the "Treuhand", an official body. Some would say, not without grounds, that some of the actions they sanctioned crossed the legitimate/criminal border. That was, imo, the most shameful chapter in Germanys postwar history.

There are still so many emotions at play...

[AB76]

Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "Sorry for being off-topic, but I am quite happy tonight about the elections:

In Baden-Württemberg (where I live) the Green Party has taken 31+..."

i think the general private sector plunder of the old eastern bloc was criminal. The communist state offered a very well organised cradle to grave insurance system for citizens, that was basically destroyed within a decade, maybe more slowly in the DDR.

i visited Poland many times in the late 90s as a uni friend was working there and i got some interesting insights into what democracy had done to roughly my parents generation in the east (born 1945). When the system fell this generation were all my age now 44-45, kids in late teens, secure jobs and a healthy pension within a decade at 55, horizons were shrinking, pensions too and the market was ready for plunder

Most of the eastern bloc system was hateful but the ordinary man/woman suffered badly as a result of the western plunder of their assets from 1990-2000, leaving the strange USA-influenced capitalists to govern and suck the life out of their own nations

[Andy]

Machenbach wrote: "Andy wrote: "Its the International Booker Longlist at the end of the month, and it must have a chance of getting onto that.Long Live the Post Horn!

A couple I am hoping will make it..
Ankomst - Gøhril Gabrielsen
Tomorrow..."
I think I posted it Mach, but it’s on the book’s page also.
5 stars for me. Really atmospheric. Very much recommended.

Another that may well make it is Long Live the Post Horn!, which someone, I think AB, reviewed a short while ago. I’ll read it soon, but I wasn’t a huge fan of her earlier book. This looks good though.

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "Machenbach wrote: "Andy wrote: "Its the International Booker Longlist at the end of the month, and it must have a chance of getting onto that.Long Live the Post Horn!

A couple I am..."

i didnt review it but i'm interested in Vigdis Hjorth's work,Andy

i'm feeling like a snail compared to the pace you and Mach are maintaining and i have no excuse, its a lockdown, jack is going on!
Maybe its cos i juggle 4 or 5 books at the same time.....

[AB76]

Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "Sorry for being off-topic, but I am quite happy tonight about the elections:

In Baden-Württemberg (where I live) the Green Party has taken 31+..."

interesting you mention Baden as the Bedford book i am reading featured a court case from Karlsruhe, from 1959. But then if i remember you are in Wurttemberg yes??

[Tam]

AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "Sorry for being off-topic, but I am quite happy tonight about the elections:

In Baden-Württemberg (where I live) the Green Party..."

It wasn't just the western capitalists corporations that were plundering the GDR. We visited a friend in Dusseldorf in probably around 2008, or so and she said that after the reunification those tax payers who lived in Western Germany had to pay extra tax in order to pay for the cost of the reunification process. They were told at the time (1989?) that it would only last 3 years or so. But as my friend Sheila pointed out, they were still paying the same tax some 10 years later. It was never rescinded, as promised.

I am not at all knowledgable about this, and really a German person should be commenting on it, if they felt like it, it is an anecdote in passing, but it seems that the actual cost has been heavily falling on tax payers, whilst capitalist enterprises moved in and creamed off any possible profits accrued from the disruption of the reunification plan.

Now I am just wondering why this seems so familiar to me, under the 'Johnson' Government, here in Brexit Britain?...