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pdxpiney's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
Love the writing and ideas as ever from this author. Would have preferred a more connected—in form, length, etc.—set of essays.
hellowormemoji's review against another edition
dark
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
first section was five stars. other sections def had some five star moments, though they were redundant the way lecture series often are after a certain point. there are only so many ways you can ask for hope and awareness and recall the same history — though perhaps the bit of this collection is that there are many ways you can recall the same history and we must exhaust them all?
how interesting to experience years and years of life and then to recall enough to write them in post. do i have that capability? does not feel so. perhaps the closeness and attention of erpenbeck’s memory is what makes this so fascinating to read.
how interesting to experience years and years of life and then to recall enough to write them in post. do i have that capability? does not feel so. perhaps the closeness and attention of erpenbeck’s memory is what makes this so fascinating to read.
marissab's review against another edition
I would have preferred more essays about the author’s childhood in east Berlin and fewer about the author’s favourite plays and fairy tales.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death of parent and War
katie_killebrew's review against another edition
5.0
Jenny Erpenbeck is one of my favorite living authors. It was a pleasure to learn more about her and the way she observes the world.
“Not a Novel” contains so many worthwhile turns of phrase and entire paragraphs to underline, but this is the only one I came across when I actually had a pen in my hand:
“In happy moments of reading we become aware of something that corresponds to us. And even if we forget certain details over the years—a given story line or character—and even if we remember certain others; the most important things sink in deeper than our memories, we internalize them, take them into our bodies, and they stay there, blind and mute like our hearts, our kidneys, our bones, keeping us alive.” (p148-149)
“Not a Novel” contains so many worthwhile turns of phrase and entire paragraphs to underline, but this is the only one I came across when I actually had a pen in my hand:
“In happy moments of reading we become aware of something that corresponds to us. And even if we forget certain details over the years—a given story line or character—and even if we remember certain others; the most important things sink in deeper than our memories, we internalize them, take them into our bodies, and they stay there, blind and mute like our hearts, our kidneys, our bones, keeping us alive.” (p148-149)
bookalong's review against another edition
4.0
"If the language that you can speak isn't enough that's a very good reason to start writing. As paradoxical as it may be: The impossibility of expressing what happens to us in words is what pushes us towards writing. Whenever I have not been able to understand something, have not been able to capture it in words, that's when I've started writing."
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Thoughts~
An honest and amusing look into Erpenbeck's life and work. These essays are divided into three parts, Life, Literature and Music, and Society. Erpenbeck gives her coming of age in Berlin. How early on she was absorbed by music and theater. She talks of the fall of the Berlin wall when she was only twenty two, astutely examining her own country's grim past. And then through her journey to becoming a writer, sharing some of her favorite literary influences as well. This was an interesting read! My favorite parts were where she shares about her own writing thought process and of her childhood. If you haven't read her books before definitely check them out, she's a beautiful writer.
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Thank You to @pgcbooks for sending this my way, opinions are my own.
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For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
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Thoughts~
An honest and amusing look into Erpenbeck's life and work. These essays are divided into three parts, Life, Literature and Music, and Society. Erpenbeck gives her coming of age in Berlin. How early on she was absorbed by music and theater. She talks of the fall of the Berlin wall when she was only twenty two, astutely examining her own country's grim past. And then through her journey to becoming a writer, sharing some of her favorite literary influences as well. This was an interesting read! My favorite parts were where she shares about her own writing thought process and of her childhood. If you haven't read her books before definitely check them out, she's a beautiful writer.
•
Thank You to @pgcbooks for sending this my way, opinions are my own.
•
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
sarahc3319's review against another edition
5.0
A Christmas present from the only friend who buys me books, and boy does she know how to choose them. I savored this book, allowing myself one essay or 15 pages a day to make it last. Her personal essays are my favorite, the tone she strikes and her matter-of-fact reporting that is anything but. If you haven't read her, you should, and this book or Go, Went, Gone are nice places to start.