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raulbime's review against another edition
4.0
The second book of this memoir trilogy, and just as good as the first one. In this book Tove struggles to find her independence. She moves out of her parent’s house, finds a job, has friends she goes out dancing and to the movies with, is going out with boys, even gets engaged, while she still writes her poetry and dreams of being a published writer. Looming over all this is the victory of the Nazis in Germany, and later the possibility of a world war, and what this could mean for Tove.
Hitler has risen to power in Germany, and he has fans across Europe, even in Copenhagen. And who would have thought? Myself and plenty others no doubt, but given how Hitler is presented as some anomaly that only got support in Germany with the rest of the world clueless of the atrocities his regime was committing, what it represented, and the threat he posed to the world. Yet some ordinary Danish citizens, Tove’s landlady for instance, are devout Nazis, so are other ladies who meet with this landlady where they discuss the promise of Hitler’s ascension to power, and the fact that concentration camps exist seems to be known by the people that surround Tove including Tove herself. A sense of dread pervading amongst those who oppose him and could become vulnerable should he invade Denmark. The common thread linking Copenhagen in the late 1930s and early 1940s and the world today being that in times of economic hardship fascism seems to many an easy and seductive solution, as the Danish Nazis are attracted to Hitler’s promise of economic revival while Denmark faces high rates of unemployment and a shrinking economy. I’d forgotten, didn’t realize really, that Hitler did seem invincible at some point, and how terrifying this must have been.
Reading this, I was amazed, again, by how Tove manages to write this without the narrative being muddled with pity. Many books that touch on the autobiographical can get entrapped in piteous feelings that turn the narrative sentimental. Either the writer drenches the people in the story with it, or evokes it from the reader by putting the people in the story through various traumatic events and reducing it to a tragic spectacle in the same way the news can with a catastrophe. Pity as an emotion, I think, doesn’t go very far, even though it feels good to feel bad and I’ve indulged in it myself as much as anyone else, and it can temporarily expatiate when the subject is ourselves, and transport us out of our suffering and helplessness to those suffering worse when it’s others, and alleviating in the process. But other than this it doesn’t go anywhere. This memoir, however, remains honest, clear, simple, and brilliant. Looking forward to the last book of the trilogy.
Hitler has risen to power in Germany, and he has fans across Europe, even in Copenhagen. And who would have thought? Myself and plenty others no doubt, but given how Hitler is presented as some anomaly that only got support in Germany with the rest of the world clueless of the atrocities his regime was committing, what it represented, and the threat he posed to the world. Yet some ordinary Danish citizens, Tove’s landlady for instance, are devout Nazis, so are other ladies who meet with this landlady where they discuss the promise of Hitler’s ascension to power, and the fact that concentration camps exist seems to be known by the people that surround Tove including Tove herself. A sense of dread pervading amongst those who oppose him and could become vulnerable should he invade Denmark. The common thread linking Copenhagen in the late 1930s and early 1940s and the world today being that in times of economic hardship fascism seems to many an easy and seductive solution, as the Danish Nazis are attracted to Hitler’s promise of economic revival while Denmark faces high rates of unemployment and a shrinking economy. I’d forgotten, didn’t realize really, that Hitler did seem invincible at some point, and how terrifying this must have been.
Reading this, I was amazed, again, by how Tove manages to write this without the narrative being muddled with pity. Many books that touch on the autobiographical can get entrapped in piteous feelings that turn the narrative sentimental. Either the writer drenches the people in the story with it, or evokes it from the reader by putting the people in the story through various traumatic events and reducing it to a tragic spectacle in the same way the news can with a catastrophe. Pity as an emotion, I think, doesn’t go very far, even though it feels good to feel bad and I’ve indulged in it myself as much as anyone else, and it can temporarily expatiate when the subject is ourselves, and transport us out of our suffering and helplessness to those suffering worse when it’s others, and alleviating in the process. But other than this it doesn’t go anywhere. This memoir, however, remains honest, clear, simple, and brilliant. Looking forward to the last book of the trilogy.
ang44's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
These two quotes -
"The world doesn't count me as anything and every time I get hold of a corner of it, it slips out of my hands again. People die and buildings are torn down over them.
"The world doesn't count me as anything and every time I get hold of a corner of it, it slips out of my hands again. People die and buildings are torn down over them.
The world is constantly changing - it's only my childhood's world that endures."
"I think that I'm always having to say goodbye to men - staring at their backs and hearing their steps disappear in the darkness. And they seldom turn around to wave at me."
Both of these sum up the sadness and the heartbreak that these first two books have conjured in me thus far. I find myself so desperate to finish the trilogy and simultaneously so frustrated with this being an autofiction story, as I want to know so badly what some of the details are in Ditlevsen's life that aren't elaborated on!!! I'm so excited to explore the rest of her writing after reading about her own life by her own pen.
camhub's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
karinlib's review against another edition
4.0
Ditlevsen's second book in the Copenhagen Trilogy.
Tove is forced to leave school once she has finished Middle School because her parents can't afford the fees, and she finds herself working in very low paying jobs. She is looking forward to being 18 so that she can move into her own place. She wants to write poetry and be loved, which she thinks will only happen if she lives on her own. WII is about to start.
I find that I cannot put these books down. Luckily for me they are novellas.
Tove is forced to leave school once she has finished Middle School because her parents can't afford the fees, and she finds herself working in very low paying jobs. She is looking forward to being 18 so that she can move into her own place. She wants to write poetry and be loved, which she thinks will only happen if she lives on her own. WII is about to start.
I find that I cannot put these books down. Luckily for me they are novellas.