Reading 1001 discussion
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Anniversaries section 3 discussion
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So far this month I have read up to page 1060 in the NYRB edition, which brings me to 26 May 1968.What do we learn about Gessine’s family history in this part? Does it unfold differently than you would have anticipated in part 1?
I have not reached the end of part 3 by any means, but I have already learned a lot more about Gesine's family history, especially the part where her father was mayor under the Soviet regime in the first few years after the war. I have read to the moment where Cresspahl is arrested and taken away from Jerichow (which in my head I keep pronouncing as "Jericho" - the other names come into my head with their German pronounciation, but not that one! Maybe because in my city we have an area called Jericho!)
I would not have anticipated that Cresspahl would be mayor of Jerichow in any circumstances, but particularly not under the Soviet regime. I thought from the earlier parts that he was a person who kept his head down and stayed apart from politics and manoeuvring. I can see reasons for him to do it, for example that he probably was a more honest and useful mayor for the citizenry than most other men would have been. But I am surprised he did not think more about Gesine and Hanne and how his actions might rebound on these children he was responsible for.
I was frustrated that he didn't go to the West. Of course I know that at the time it wasn't clear to anyone that this would be a hard border that you soon would be unable to cross. And the property belonged to Gesine, not him, and if they left, she would lose it. It's like why didn't I go and live in France in 2015... well, because I never dreamed that I would lose my EU citizenship if I didn't. There are things one doesn't see coming, however predictable they may seem with hindsight... Brexit. Covid. The Berlin Wall.
As for the politics and how it relates to events in America... I didn't make that connection. Things are unfolding in Czechoslovakia in the 1968 timeline that relate, but I guess there could also be a link with news stories/propaganda about Vietnam. But that had not struck me before reading this question.
Anniversaries: Part 3 Questions I have finished Part 3 and I am still enjoying the book when I get back to it from my other reading outings.
1. Was there a standout entry in this part for you? If not, which aspect of the narrative are you enjoying most by this point?
I continue to enjoy the relationship between Marie and Gessine and how Gessine is telling her history to Marie in such a way that it is sometimes a game but always an honest telling from Gessine's point of view. This was a powerful section as we found ourselves in the midst of the MLK tragedies and the murder of RFK and Marie's relationship to these twin horrors was well told.
2. What do we learn about Gessine’s family history in this part? Does it unfold differently than you would have anticipated in part 1?
Yes, Cresspahl becoming the mayor under the soviets would have seemed crazy to me at the beginning of the book and the book gets quite detailed about how the soviets took over the town and what happened to everyone we had ever met before. I think the detail was necessary from Gessine's point of view in order to attempt to make Marie understand that it was not just a story with good guys and bad guys. It was survival at its most nuanced.
3. There is a part in this section where Marie calls something ‘bad storytelling” and it makes Gessine consider the propaganda that first the Germans made about beating the Soviets during the war, and then the Soviets made about liberating the German villages and treating them well after the war. What role does propaganda or false memory play in the narrative? How does her memory of the soviets as fake liberators relate to the discussions of American politics in the book? Marie is uncomfortable with Gessine's father having betrayed his country (Germany) during the war. All the switching sides and positioning after first the British take over and then the Soviet take over is a necessary story from Gessine's point of view, in order for Marie to understand that Cresspahl was being true to his own values and beliefs rather than loyal to a nationalistic creed.
In contrast, the Kennedy's make a good story - they are young, dynamic, and full of themselves but represent all the best that America could be (in theory). The fact that JFK got the US entangled in Viet Nam and was a horrible womanizer is not relevant to the good story.
This is only one example. The US is selling a vision of the "good" country much as the Soviets sold their "good" intentions after the war. The New York Times is a great story teller.
4. A large anti-Vietnam war rally is featured in this section of the book: how do Gessine and Marie seem to feel about these protests/the war? Do we get a strong sense at all?
What I got a strong sense of was how both Gessine and Marie both thought that something needed to be done to protest the war. Marie in a more straightforward way but Gessine in a more introspective way. I believe that she felt that her one protest experience was clearly ineffectual from her point of view.
5. This rally features an appearance by Martin Luther King Jr. What other historical figures/events popped out to you in this section? Breshnev shows up in some of the last pages of my reading (I am a bit past Book 3) and obviously all the news about the murder of Robert Kennedy and also Sirhan Sirhan is a part of this section. Johnson, Jaqueline Kennedy are all part of the story.
6. And finally, how are you enjoying the book so far? Are you looking forward to the final part? Do you have any wishes or predictions for it?
The telling of the story of Jerichow after Cresspahl has been imprisoned was a bit too detailed for me. I was getting lost in the characters and their various allegiances to political parties that the soviets needed the Germans to have simply to be able to say that there was a multi party system, that it was not a one party system. It did inform me further as to how Gessine came to be pro Socialist and yet largely anti-soviet.
I am looking forward to the 4th Book.
Mod
I have reached the end of part 3 today (June 19th, 1968 - page 1203 in my book).I feel like not much has happened in my reading since I last posted in late July, except for the assassination of Robert Kennedy in the contemporary US timeline. I've only read 140 pages in the last four weeks - I'm finding it heavy going.
Like Gail, I got lost with the detail of who was doing what politically in Jerichow after Cresspahl was taken away. I had trouble remembering who was who (for example I had forgotten Slata completely until a little aside reminded me she was the wife or girlfriend of Lisbeth's brother Robert). I found it hard to believe that a girl of Marie's age would keep listening patiently to so much detail about the townspeople and their politics, even feeding Gesine intelligent questions about them. So those sections felt a little unreal.
I also found the descriptions of the politics in 1968 Czechoslovakia to be too much. That all seemed very impersonal since there are no characters in or from Czechoslovakia in the book, and it's all about the leaders and what is in the press.
I imagine that all of thiswould have meant a lot more to Johnson's readers in the 1970s, especially the German readers. But for us now, it is more difficult to keep track.
But now and then, there are little sections that I love. For example, the entry on Father's day, June 16th. Quote:
There have to be children.
So that a father can pass himself down, even just part of himself, into a future.
That they neither know nor need fear.
They just want to be in it.
Woo hoo yesterday I completed the first book of my book edition I really enjoyed the section at the end Through Cresspahl's Eyes as this gave a lot of insight into characters who we have only seen snippets of before.
In the August readings things that struck me April 2nd Justice in Mecklenberg during the Nazi war.
March 23 the story of Wes and the missing.
March 23 the story of Wes and the missing.
Mod
My thoughts. I get the impression that Gesine is a communist. And I don’t know if that is the case. I don’t understand how she could be given the circumstances. I also feel that Gesine does not “trust” the USA to be different that what she knew in Germany and are they really different. Why did she protest the war in Vietnam. Is it because she hates war or is there another reason? I have more questions than I have answers.
1. The entries are longer, which makes for less disjointed reading. The standout part for me was Marie's obsession with the assassination and funeral of Robert Kennedy. The image of Jacqueline Kennedy standing on the catherdral's steps was one I had not been familiar with. But I thought her immersion in the events very similar to my watching the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. We did not have the hours long broadcasts in New Zealand in 1968. All I remember of images of the assassination is still photographs from the Ambassador Hotel, I cannot remember the funeral being covered at all.2. Completely differently. Gesine and her father had seemed so close, like Gesine and Marie, but his involvement as Mayor was a complete surprise.
3. I have just travelled through Hungary, Bulgaria and Roumania, where the common theme was that the Soviets took over after World War II and forgot to leave. The same could be said of East Germany. There was an interesting contrast between the English and Soviet regimes but there was brutality in both. While the Soviets despised private property they worked hard to make sure everyone had a bed and some food. The term fake liberators is an interesting one. I have not heard it before. The Soviets in Germany and the Americans in Vietnam could both be described this way.
4. They are both antiwar, but Gesine is ambivalent about the power of protest.
5. Alexander Dubcek, and the Prague Spring, which challenged Antonin Novotny; Leonid Brezhnev, John Lindsay - I remember them all, and particularly the hope that communism would loosen its grip on counties under its jurisdiction.
6. I have enjoyed this section much more because many questions form the first part have been answered. I AM looking foward to the rest of my questions being answered in the final part.
Mod
Wow I am finally at the end of part 3, it has taken me a lot longer than anticipated, I kept putting it down and had no motivation to pick it back up again. The narrative is often long and wordy, with lots of minute detail about lots of people who do not feature prominently, and do not seem at all necessarily to further the story. A challenging read, compared to part 2. 1. The one that comes to mind is Marie and D.E sitting watching the Kennedy funeral. There was a lot of experimental narrative form in this section, which I found interesting: an essay format, meeting minutes, strictly scene dialog.
2. I was not expecting the lengthy prison sentence for Gessine's father, I envionsioned him having a swift execution over something minor, when the goodwill ran out.
6. This section tired me out and I'm not looking forward to the final part, but I am determined to finish it. Not sure if I'll get there or not by year end, but I will get there eventually.
Mod
I feel the same and remember encouraging you to read it - sorry!
Hey all, we’re already into part 3 (April 1968-June 1968) of our annual read! Here are some questions for people to think on while reading this section:
1. Was there a standout entry in this part for you? If not, which aspect of the narrative are you enjoying most by this point?
2. What do we learn about Gessine’s family history in this part? Does it unfold differently than you would have anticipated in part 1?
3. There is a part in this section where Marie calls something ‘bad storytelling” and it makes Gessine consider the propaganda that first the Germans made about beating the Soviets during the war, and then the Soviets made about liberating the German villages and treating them well after the war. What role does propaganda or false memory play in the narrative? How does her memory of the soviets as fake liberators relate to the discussions of American politics in the book?
4. A large anti-Vietnam war rally is featured in this section of the book: how do Gessine and Marie seem to feel about these protests/the war? Do we get a strong sense at all?
5. This rally features an appearance by Martin Luther King Jr. What other historical figures/events popped out to you in this section?
6. And finally, how are you enjoying the book so far? Are you looking forward to the final part? Do you have any wishes or predictions for it?