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Weekly TLS
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What Are We Reading? 5 July 2021
A couple of people provided suggestions of mysteries that were worth reading. I am currently watching, on Britbox, "The Last Detective" which is based on a series of novels. They are set in Willesden (LOL) and I am enjoying them a lot! I think they would be worth reading.
Sandya wrote: "A couple of people provided suggestions of mysteries that were worth reading. I am currently watching, on Britbox, "The Last Detective" which is based on a series of novels. They are set in Willesd..."I remember watching the series when it first came out!
Hushpuppy wrote: "...Another one you might like, which I think was introduced to me by @booklooker, is the dictionnaire francophone…”
That site is great too, thanks. When I look at the 100+ “Mots derivés” under Bleuet I think there is no way I will ever attain a knowledge of that level of nuance and allusion.
Out of curiosity I put in “voler” and up comes “Envoyer en l’air”, transitive…
That site is great too, thanks. When I look at the 100+ “Mots derivés” under Bleuet I think there is no way I will ever attain a knowledge of that level of nuance and allusion.
Out of curiosity I put in “voler” and up comes “Envoyer en l’air”, transitive…
Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "had to dump the Carafiglio novel ..."I haven't read The Cold Summer, but does Carafiglio really depict the mafia as "an honourable company of thieves"? I find that very surprising fr..."
i just get the feeling there is a kind of mafia cult beneath the surface or maybe i just didnt get the novel full stop and as i didnt finish it, i dont know what the final point was
Italian literature has been almost 99% agreeing with me, i love the fact it always seems analytical, thoughtful and sober. (Moravia,Malparte, Verga,Silone,Flaiano, Buzzatti and others are almost like northern novelists)
AB76 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Slawkenbergius wrote: "As to 1984, even though the narrative is very compelling, I thought the last section clearly too long. I don't know why Orwell decided to expatiate so much on..."Orwell knew exiles from the Continent, like Arthur Koestler. The totalitarian state was a known evil to them; Orwell wanted to bring it home to the English. He succeeded.
AB76 wrote: "Gunter Grass and his diary of 1990 From Germany to Germany is hit and miss.After an early craze for his novels like "The Tin Drum", i found all the others, except for "Crabwalk" excruciatingly a..."
Grass didn't really want German unification, did he?
Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Gunter Grass and his diary of 1990 From Germany to Germany is hit and miss.After an early craze for his novels like "The Tin Drum", i found all the others, except for "Crabwalk" excr..."
no, he seems to be quite disgruntled with it all and amazingly pro-DDR forever defending Christa Wolf.
Hushpuppy wrote: "Anne wrote: "I'm always on the lookout for good thriller recommendations (as opposed to crime/police procedural sort of stuff)"I'm never entirely clear on the definition of thriller, but it seems..."
The Informer is well-written crime novel, with an IRA hard man on the run in the early Irish Republic.
scarletnoir wrote: "Hushpuppy wrote: "... in fact, I have nightmares of tackling those I used to know, and keep abjectly failing in those dreams)I wonder how many of us still have occasional nightmares about exams -..."
I've had the one where I find that the end of semester has arrived and I learn that I'm signed up for finals on a class I didn't know about. No classes attended....
scarletnoir wrote: "Bill wrote: "My order from the NYRB Classics sale arrived today:
[bookcover:Lady Macbeth of Mtsen..."</i>I'd be interested in your review of "Lady Macbeth." Shostakovich turned it into an opera about doomed passion. [Stalin hated it.]
scarletnoir wrote: "Berkley wrote: "...Which, again, is not to say that Dickens didn't also have some effect on the work of Trollope and in fact on pretty much any and every English novelist that came after him, not t..."Once, during his internal exile, Dostoevskii's warden lent him translations of three Dickens novels. He seems to have liked David Copperfield very much.
Robert wrote: "Hushpuppy wrote: "Anne wrote: "I'm always on the lookout for good thriller recommendations (as opposed to crime/police procedural sort of stuff)"I'm never entirely clear on the definition of thri..."
thats an O'Flaherty novel isnt it?
Yes, "The Informer" is an O'Flaherty novel.
scarletnoir wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I've just finished 
by Oyinkan Braithwaite.A short and bittersweet tale revolving around two sisters and the murders that domina..."
I also really liked My sister the Serial Killer. It is a darkly humourous and cleverly take on the serious issues of abuse of women, which just happens to be set in Nigeria.
Robert wrote: "I'd be interested in your review of "Lady Macbeth." Shostakovich turned it into an opera about doomed passion. [Stalin hated it.]"The Shostakovich connection was the main, maybe the only reason, I bought it. God knows when I'll get around to reading it: on a related note, years ago I bought Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories and still haven't read it.
Robert wrote: "Yes, "The Informer" is an O'Flaherty novel."great novel, wondered if it was another novel altogether thats all
Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Gunter Grass and his diary of 1990 From Germany to Germany is hit and miss.After an early craze for his novels like "The Tin Drum", i found all the others, except for "Crabwalk" excr..."
I'd say the majority of West Germans were not as enthusiastic about reunification as purported in the media.
Georg wrote: "Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Gunter Grass and his diary of 1990 From Germany to Germany is hit and miss.After an early craze for his novels like "The Tin Drum", i found all the others, except for ..."
it was a good reminder of yours Georg about the SPD/SDP too, in that havent been a real socialist party for decades
Rather somewhat akin to New Labour over here....
My west berlin friends at the time seemed rather cool on the unification and their parents too
, i didnt meet many Wessies in Berlin in 1999 who liked it...a decade later
One aspect of my Arab-Persian reading of the last 5-6 years has to be to try and explore the demographics of these nations as they moved through the 20th centuryAbout 3 years ago i found a brilliant book on Iraq,Saddam and the Baath Party which showed how diverse a state it was. There was the significant Shia population, the Christians, Kurds and Yazidi's alongside the Sunni minority. (The book had some wonderful observations like Saddam's secret police realising that Christians in the service of leading ministers all spoke their own dialect(possiblly Aramaic)and nobody in the secret police spoke the dialect, meaning bugging their rooms was pointless,,leading to frenzied work to correct that problem)
Iran is far less diverse from what i can see in the 1970s, almost 99% Muslim, even under the Shah
AB76 wrote: "Oggie wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "On here, i think 75% of what i have read in 2021 has gone without comment..."I think the reasons are 1. that you read faster than anyone else who co..."
Just finished the Bulgarian novel Party Headquarters. I actually lived in Bulgaria for a time in the 90' s and still have close connections there. So from my limited experience and understanding the book does convey the stagnation, lack of incentive and inertia before the fall of communism. A joke at the time was "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us"; and also the sense of bewilderment, betrayal and complicity as the former communist party leaders simply turned around and were the faces of the new gangster leaders.
References to the gross ineptitude and cover ups which led to Chernobyl might illustrate generally the failings behind the Iron Curtain and were not particular to Bulgaria so that did not really work for me.
I was also not sure if the role of the Party leader' s daughter and the narrator's relationship to her. Was she supposed to represent the narrator's ambivalent feelings towards Bulgaria?
An interesting read rather than an enjoyable one, I think.
AB76 wrote: "Iran is far less diverse from what i can see in the 1970s, almost 99% Muslim, even under the ShahHmm, what about the Kurds (that you mention for Iraq too), and the Yazidis? Also, you distinguish Sunni and Shia for Iraq, but the exact same distinction can be made for Iran. It's almost as if you were saying "Country A is so diverse with its Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox, but country B is 99% Christian, so really not diverse at all!"
So it'd seem, at least based on your post, that there isn't much of a difference at least in terms of diversity between the two countries? But happy to be corrected!
giveusaclue wrote: "Sandya wrote: "A couple of people provided suggestions of mysteries that were worth reading. I am currently watching, on Britbox, "The Last Detective" which is based on a series of novels. They are..."Dangerous Davies!!
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i found 1984 one of the most relentlessly grim books i have ever read Indeed - but once again (it seems to happen quite often!) I find myself on the other side of the fence to the 'r..."
There was a fine collection of Orwell journalism published under the title "My Country Right or Left," followed by "As I Please." Enjoyable.
Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "I was intrigued by the Reck (never heard of him) described as a 'rock-ribbed reactionary' - whatever that is - in the blurb: Friedrich Reck might seem an unlikely rebel against ..."Thomas Mann was in the States, providing aid to German exiles, drawing hostile comment in the Nazi-era press. No wonder Fest Sr. was against him.
Some reading to report, and a new book, too. I've been immersed in Jonathan Dimbleby's "Operation Barbarossa," the story of the first year of the German invasion of Russia. A war far more destructive than either side anticipated, and it grew worse. Interesting to learn that at different points, both Hitler and Stalin suggested to their henchmen that peace feelers might be sent to the other side.
A good deal of material on Churchill, too. A difficult relationship, made worse by Stalin's demand (news to me) that Britain declare war on Finland.
Still on the road toward Moscow, with winter setting in....
Hushpuppy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Iran is far less diverse from what i can see in the 1970s, almost 99% Muslim, even under the ShahHmm, what about the Kurds (that you mention for Iraq too), and the Yazidis? Also, you..."
Different sects of Moslems, too. While Iran is thought of as a Shi'ite country, the Kurds are Sunnis.
Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "had to dump the Carafiglio novel ..."I haven't read The Cold Summer, but does Carafiglio really depict the mafia as "an honourable company of thieves"? I find that very surprising fr..."
I'm certain Carofiglio didn't depict the mafia in that light - but may well have indicated that this was how they saw themselves. In fact, this may be the only novel published so far in English in which he writes about the mafia (rather than corruption, say)... The reader should not forget that Carofiglio has prosecuted the mafia, and I'm sure is in no doubt whatsoever about its true nature.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianric...
As for the book - it wasn't a typical one in that it featured a cop as the main protagonist, so possibly had more of a thriller element (TBH, I don't remember the details). AB may have done better to read one of the series featuring defence lawyer Guido Guerrieri, as these are more 'typical'. AB complains about the lack of local colour, but although there is a bit of that - more to do with local customs than physical description (I think) - Carofiglio's books are mainly concerned with Guerrieri's thoughts - there is a lot of introspection, especially when he converses with his punch bag (!), and with the Italian legal system and its labyrinthine ways. These books stand and fall by the reader's reaction to Guerrieri - I remain charmed and fascinated by the character.
I think that the book The Cold Summer was badly chosen for AB, if he was more interested in the area than in the characters. It clearly didn't deliver what he expected or hoped for. I enjoyed it, though!
Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I'm in Northern Ireland, near the North Coast"...Anywhere near the triangle? I spent the 'interesting' years of 1971-74 studying at NUU (as then was), staying for periods in all of Portrush, Portstewart, Coleraine and Castlerock! I do remember nights of horizontal rain... and maybe one heatwave.
scarletnoir wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I'm in Northern Ireland, near the North Coast"...Anywhere near the triangle? I spent the 'interesting' years of 1971-74 studying at NUU (as then was), staying for periods in all..."
Yes, I live in Coleraine, what a small world! I've lived in Portrush at different times, first as a student, more recently as a middle aged sort-of adult.
It was UUC when I was there, now it is plain Ulster University. The entire South Building has been demolished. Mr fuzzywuzz and I go for walks through the grounds (The Daffodil Garden and the waterfall are very pretty all year round) and he took a photo mid-way through the demolishion - half way up the building, there was a rather sad and lonely upright piano.
Mod
Anywhere near the triangle? I spent the 'interesting' years of 1971-74 studying at NUU (as then was), stayin..."
I lived in Portstewart for 3 years as a small girl. My sisters went to school in Coleraine and I remember going on outings to Portrush.
Bill wrote: "You may be interested in Joachim Fest’s Not I: Memoirs of a German Childhood, another account of conservative German resistance to Nazism."Yes, it does sound interesting. I was aware that many (most?) aristocrats in Germany regarded the Nazis with contempt... I liked this comment in a review of that book on GR:
Perhaps it is better to ignore the flavor-of-the-day when it comes to new ideas, and stick to the roots of what you've learned, the roots of what your culture and ancestors have held dear for centuries. It was because of the family's intellectual rigor, its sons' ability to read difficult texts, discuss, and digest them that helped Joachim and his brothers maintain the high ground when so many others at the time took the apparent easy path, consenting to and often participating in a dictatorship.
The reviewers seem split on the book's merits, with some complaining of an excess of information about the family's cultural background, whereas others see that as essential to understanding their opposition. My own knowledge of German culture is patchy, so I'm not sure how those sections would strike me. I do, however, subscribe to the notion that books and culture strongly influence one's attitudes and identity.
(In passing - it seems to me that our 'conservative' parties in the UK and USA are anything but, nowadays. They appear to represent some sort of individualistic free for all, rather than any coherent political theory with which one could agree or disagree. The UK 'conservatives' seem to be radical libertarians; in the USA, the 'republicans' - or some of them - appear willing to overthrow the republic by armed intervention - a 'Reichstag moment' as General Mark Milley called it. We live in strange times indeed.)
Sandya wrote: "A couple of people provided suggestions of mysteries that were worth reading. I am currently watching, on Britbox, "The Last Detective" which is based on a series of novels. They are set in Willesd..."A very good series - Peter Davison is a wonderful actor, with lengthy stints in iconic roles such as Doctor Who and Tristan Farnon ('All Creatures Great and Small') in his younger day. Always good value.
I haven't read the Davies books, so can't comment there.
Robert wrote: "Once, during his internal exile, Dostoevskii's warden lent him translations of three Dickens novels. He seems to have liked David Copperfield very much.It must indeed have been a welcome escape for Dostoyevsky to be able to read during his 5-year exile in Siberia, recounted in the memorable The House of the Dead.
Hushpuppy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Iran is far less diverse from what i can see in the 1970s, almost 99% Muslim, even under the ShahHmm, what about the Kurds (that you mention for Iraq too), and the Yazidis? Also, you..."
good point but the Iranian diversity of Muslims is a lot less significant than in Iraq, with a very small Sunni Arab and Lur population in the state of Khuzestan, on the Iraq border and the Kurds. The diversity among Christians in Iran was more significant even if less than 0.5% of population as you had Armenians, Assyrians and others in the 1970s
There is a significant Kurdish population plus the Azeri population (large in the NW and North) is Shia too. So basically Iran was a much less diverse Muslim nation than Iraq too, with maybe 10% Sunni population
Of course in the half century or so since 1970, Iran has changed a lot and there has probably been even less tolerance for the small Sunni population, though with the incredible population growth since 1970 it may be numerically larger but is still only 10% Sunni.
Compared to Syria and Iraq, Iran is a much less diverse nation in 1970s and nowadays for religious diversity, even if the wars in Iraq and Syria have destroyed that diversity significantly.
AB76 wrote: "Compared to Syria and Iraq, Iran is a much less diverse nation in 1970s and nowadays for religious diversity, even if the wars in Iraq and Syria have destroyed that diversity significantly"Thanks a lot for taking the time to expand AB!
scarletnoir wrote: I was aware that many (most?) aristocrats in Germany regarded the Nazis with contempt... That is certainly true. But it was a mainly about class. They regarded Hitler and the Nazis as primitive lower class people. That doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't sympathize with Nazi fascism.
Most aristocrats were nationalists, and many traditionally chose a military career.
It shouldn't be forgotten that Schenk Graf Stauffenberg and his aristocratic co-conspirators served under Hitler until 1944. Which makes them rather tainted heroes imo.
Hushpuppy wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "As for 'Lady Macbeth of Matensk', this was filmed recently as 'Lady Macbeth' with the setting moved to England, and well reviewed, though I haven't seen it."It is really rathe..."
I will second that, she was brilliant
giveusaclue wrote: "I will second that, she was brilliant [Florence Pugh i Lady Macbeth]"She's also excellent in Little Women and outstanding in the TV series The Little Drummer Girl (haven't seen Midsommar but she's apparently superb in this too).
Late to the party. Managed to get away for a wee while and ….what a joy! To leave the confines of home and the home area with friends. What a treat. If you haven’t been to the Fairy Glen, at Rosemarkie, north of Inverness, may I recommend it, if you are in the area. I didn’t actually SEE any fairies. But I know they were there. old tangled trees, streams, waterfalls, and a beautiful energy. Message for CC. So glad you enjoyed The Dictionary of Lost Words. I loved it. Very impressed that this was her first novel and I look forward to more from Pip Williams as I am sure she will mature and improve. The book brought together so many of my little passions that it was as if she had me in mind when she wrote it.
I am off to Orkney again at the beginning of August and looking forward to that. So preparing myself by reading the Orkneyinga Saga (The History of the Earls of Orkney) so I can enrich my tootling around knowing more about the places I am visiting. (Though I don’t think the Earls knew anything about the Kirkjuvagr gin distillery tours in their day).
The Introduction is a delight as we are told of Earl Rognvald on his way to the Holy Land who stops in Narbonne where Queen Ermingerd enters with her maidens and it doesn’t take the Viking Earl long to seat her on his knee with predictable results. I was very taken with Rognvald’s direct but passionate poem to her.
Most admired of maidens,
Gold-decked at our meeting,
Ermingerd the exquisite
Once offered me her wine -
Now fiercely we bear fire
Upotergress
assaulttestroghold
With unsaedsword-trust.
HopeIhavent put you off your morning coffee there.
CC I think it is a good example of your quote about words being tools to resurrect. I am totally there in the feasting hall as this exotic Viking lord sweeps the the Queen off her feet. Oh to be a fly on he wa
Oh dear. Comments on the iPad seem to disappear when I write a long post so may I retype Rognvald’s poem….Now fiercely we bear fire
up to the fortress,
assault the stronghold
with unsheathed sword-thrust.
May I also remind everyone that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of George Mackay Brown so hopefully I shall see the exhibition devoted to him when I am up in Orkney.
Fuzzywuzz wrote: "The entire South Building has been demolished."Interesting... I tried and failed to find photos of the very small complex as it was when I was there - I'm sure most of the buildings did not exist! I do recall a structure which resembled nothing more than an elongated bus shelter, which led from one building to another some 50m distant - it provided scant protection from the weather! The current buildings seem far more attractive. However, I have also noted with some dismay the gentrification of the Harbour Bar in Portrush, where there used to be actual sawdust on the floor, and actual sailors speaking in tongues (Norwegian? Russian? Polish? - I never knew) used to come in, dripping in their oilskins, for a pint of Guinness and a warm up by the fire. Time doesn't stand still, does it?
Georg wrote: "That is certainly true. But it was a mainly about class. They regarded Hitler and the Nazis as primitive lower class people. That doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't sympathize with Nazi fascism.Most aristocrats were nationalists, and many traditionally chose a military career.
It shouldn't be forgotten that Schenk Graf Stauffenberg and his aristocratic co-conspirators served under Hitler until 1944. Which makes them rather tainted heroes imo."
Oh, indeed... I had the impression from some things I read (I don't recall the sources) that those people thought they could 'control' the Nazis, and perhaps the idea was that the Nazis would rid the aristocrats of undesirable elements (communists? Jews? - I have no idea - these are vague memories). There seemed to be an element of that notion in the film 'Cabaret', based on a section of The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood which was adapted into a play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten.
(Little known fact: Van Druten was, briefly, a lecturer at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth - my home town, so that's why I know this and report it!)
As for the plot to assassinate Hitler - I read a very long time ago a fictionalised version, Soldiers' Revolt by Hans Hellmut Kirst, so had some notion about that, though I have no idea how 'accurate' the book was. At that time - my teens - I read and enjoyed many HH Kirst books, though I don't know whether my adult self would find them as satisfactory.
Machenbach wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "recounted in the memorable The House of the Dead."... which is presumably also in Bill's 'books into operas' collection."
Wow! Did someone really turn those stories into an opera? (I'm not well up on opera, as you can see...)
Peter Davison also played Albert Campion, Margery Allingham’s amateur detective, in the BBC production 1989/90. I recently enjoyed watching the DVDs.
Storm wrote: "Late to the party. Managed to get away for a wee while and ….what a joy! To leave the confines of home and the home area with friends. What a treat. If you haven’t been to the Fairy Glen, at Rosema..."How pleasing to read your post, storm, thinking of you recently, imagining how beautiful it must be at this time of year in bonnie Scotland
Is there any special reason why it is called the Fairy Glen at Rosemarkie? Whatever I looked at some images and it looked delightful.
Yes, really enjoyed The Dictionary of Lost Words. Apart from the words I found the attitudes of the times well observed. This extract taken from the letter from Ditte sums it up, written after the dinner to celebrate finishing the dictionary in 1907
I had been invited to sit in the balcony of Goldsmiths’ Hall, where a dinner was to be held to mark the final publication of the Oxford English Dictionary. I was accompanied by Rosfrith Murray and Eleanor Bradley, editors’ daughters who’d dedicated their lives to their fathers’ work. There was some to-do about our presence, owing to our sex, but it was thought only right that, even though we could not dine with the men, we should at least be allowed to witness the speeches. The Prime Minster, Stanley Baldwin, spoke wonderfully, thanking the editors and the staff, but he did not look up to the balcony.
The Dictionary was an enterprise I had been involved with from the publication of the first words in 1884 to the publication of the last. I am told that few in that room could claim such a long allegiance. Rosfrith and Eleanor too had given the Dictionary decades of their lives. As had Esme. She told me, not long ago, that she had always been a bondmaid to the Dictionary. It owned her, she said. Even after she left, it defined her. Still, despite these shackles, she was not afforded even a balcony view.
The men ate saumon bouilli with sauce hollandaise, and for dessert they had mousse glacée favorite. They drank 1907 Château Margaux. We were given the proceedings, and the menu was included – an unintended cruelty, I’m sure.
Ditte Thompson was really Edith Thompson who contributed 15,000
Entries to the OED but that was not enough to be worthy of a seat at the dinner.
I must look up the Tales that you mention for I am intrigued.
Back now to my old bones in Ancestors by Alice Roberts. In my double visioned way I managed to burn my hand and had it dressed this morning. Why do wretched dressings start to come off so quickly but as under instructions not to get it wet that’s no washing up for a few days!
Machenbach wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "The House of the Dead. Wow! Did someone really turn those stories into an opera?"Yep. No sharp objects allowed in the auditorium.
I'm by no means an opera buff myself but I u..."
Thanks for that - I've had a quick look at some online excerpts - 'intense', as you say - or 'OTT' as opera tends to be, too often, in my experience. Not for me - I'll stick to the book!
scarletnoir wrote: "Sandya wrote: "A couple of people provided suggestions of mysteries that were worth reading. I am currently watching, on Britbox, "The Last Detective" which is based on a series of novels. They are..."As a dyed-in-the-wool Dr. Who fan, I am enjoying watching Peter Davison as Dangerous Davies. I wish there were more than 4 series! I'm sure I will watch the entire series at least twice.
CCCubbon wrote: "The Dictionary was an enterprise I had been involved with from the publication of the first words in 1884 to the publication of the last. I am told that few in that room could claim such a long allegiance. Rosfrith and Eleanor too had given the Dictionary decades of their lives. As had Esme. She told me, not long ago, that she had always been a bondmaid to the Dictionary. It owned her, she said. Even after she left, it defined her. Still, despite these shackles, she was not afforded even a balcony view.The men ate saumon bouilli with sauce hollandaise, and for dessert they had mousse glacée favorite. They drank 1907 Château Margaux. We were given the proceedings, and the menu was included – an unintended cruelty, I’m sure."
Ditte Thompson was really Edith Thompson who contributed 15,000
Entries to the OED but that was not enough to be worthy of a seat at the dinner.
That really is pathetic, and disgraceful.
Hushpuppy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Compared to Syria and Iraq, Iran is a much less diverse nation in 1970s and nowadays for religious diversity, even if the wars in Iraq and Syria have destroyed that diversity significa..."no probs!
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Books mentioned in this topic
The Sicilian Method (other topics)Soldiers' Revolt (other topics)
The Berlin Stories (other topics)
I Am a Camera (other topics)
The House of the Dead (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Maria Edgeworth (other topics)César Aira (other topics)
Adolfo Bioy Casares (other topics)
Paul Griffiths (other topics)
Adalbert Stifter (other topics)
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You may be interested in Joachim Fest’s Not I: Memoirs of a German Childhood, another account of conservative German resistance to Nazism. Related to another book in my list, Fest’s father hated Thomas Mann (also banned by the Nazis) and forbid Joachim from reading any of his books; Fest had to clandestinely borrow the novels from his literary mentor, a family friend. Fest’s father specifically cited Mann’s Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man as the reason for his loathing of the author.