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gretachar's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
foreverorbiting's review against another edition
4.0
Denso. Attualissimo. È l'uomo che distrugge se stesso.
raulbime's review against another edition
4.0
"What’s gone is gone; the older we get, the more we learn to respect and fear the inexorability of time. One can rack one’s brains in search of justifications for things left undone, such as: but instead of that, I worked, I wrote. No use. The omission stakes its claim in the form of guilt and it is not to be undone..."
A German writer is in a town in Mecklenburg thinking about the brain surgery her brother is undergoing while also contemplating the repercussions of the Chernobyl disaster that has just happened. We go through her mind's observations, meanderings, uncertainties and fears for a day.
It's been thirty four years since the Chernobyl disaster, time has made it a distant event but this book by Christa Wolf, published a few years after it happened, brings the fears following its happening fresh in one's mind. I've come to expect Christa Wolf books to be difficult, taking effort, that has so far, always been rewarded. This book was similar as Wolf explores the destructiveness of human nature. A good read.
A German writer is in a town in Mecklenburg thinking about the brain surgery her brother is undergoing while also contemplating the repercussions of the Chernobyl disaster that has just happened. We go through her mind's observations, meanderings, uncertainties and fears for a day.
It's been thirty four years since the Chernobyl disaster, time has made it a distant event but this book by Christa Wolf, published a few years after it happened, brings the fears following its happening fresh in one's mind. I've come to expect Christa Wolf books to be difficult, taking effort, that has so far, always been rewarded. This book was similar as Wolf explores the destructiveness of human nature. A good read.
lady_ness's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
graywacke's review against another edition
4.0
From my Litsy post (Nov 1): Christa Wolf was an East German activist and feminist under surveillance. She writes here about Chernobyl, in the shadow of the fallout, as her brother undergoes brain surgery. And she touches on her culture and being German in 1986, and on science and the mentality of science and its conflicts. It's all very random, stream of consciousness style writing, with indirect points that are often hard to pin down, and a few vivid striking sections.
I didn't mention she had a record of working with Stassi, too, where they found her "reticence" frustrating, and lost interest in her cooperation. Or that she was against reunification (according wikipedia). Or that she was already a grandmother in her late 50's when she wrote this, so, we might say, long past her idealism. It's a mature work of frustration with our Promethean games.
-----------------------------------------------
57. Accident: A Day's News by Christa Wolf
translation: from German, 1989, by Heike Schwarzbauer and Rick Takvorian
originally published: 1987
format: 113 page paperback
acquired: 2011
read: Oct 22 - Nov 1
time reading: 3 hr 30 min, 1.9 min/page
rating: 4
itsdecora's review against another edition
3.0
Ich habe das Buch heute beendet, aber kann ihm leider noch keine Wertung geben.
Es ist sehr schön, ausschweifend und philosophisch geschrieben und erinnert viel an einen typischen DDR Dialekt zwischendurch (den ich durch meine Familie sehr gut kenne und jedes Mal schmunzeln muss). Es ist wie der Titel schon beschreibt "Nachrichten eines Tages", denn man verbringt den Tag mit unserer namenlosen Protagonistin und der Operation des Bruders. Gleichzeitig zeigen sich die Auswirkungen von Tschernobyl, welches aber nie namentlich genannt wird.
Es ist keine wirklich Handlung, sondern eher Gedankenstränge, die sich ineinander winden und darstellen, wie persönliche und globale Katastrophen miteinander verschränkt sind. Nicht für jeden Leser geeignet. Ich musste es aufgrund eines Seminars lesen, fand es in diesem Bezug auch gut, sonst eher lasch.
Es ist sehr schön, ausschweifend und philosophisch geschrieben und erinnert viel an einen typischen DDR Dialekt zwischendurch (den ich durch meine Familie sehr gut kenne und jedes Mal schmunzeln muss). Es ist wie der Titel schon beschreibt "Nachrichten eines Tages", denn man verbringt den Tag mit unserer namenlosen Protagonistin und der Operation des Bruders. Gleichzeitig zeigen sich die Auswirkungen von Tschernobyl, welches aber nie namentlich genannt wird.
Es ist keine wirklich Handlung, sondern eher Gedankenstränge, die sich ineinander winden und darstellen, wie persönliche und globale Katastrophen miteinander verschränkt sind. Nicht für jeden Leser geeignet. Ich musste es aufgrund eines Seminars lesen, fand es in diesem Bezug auch gut, sonst eher lasch.
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