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A review by greeniezona
After Midnight by Irmgard Keun
5.0
I read this during Dewey's Reverse Readathon, which I decided to turn into a Women in Translation Month readathon, and I just couldn't resist making this the first book I started after midnight. This had been on my TBR shelves for a very long time, but for even longer than that I've been resisting books set in Europe "between the wars." I've only recently started relaxing that resistance, so it was finally time to read this.
I was bowled over by this book. I didn't expect how clever it would be. Sanna is young woman preoccupied by the usual things -- love, the love lives of her friends, the injustices she has been dealt -- and she "doesn't understand politics very well." But her supposed naivety becomes an even more effective position from which to skewer the hypocrisies and cruelties of the Nazi party.
I expected to be devastated by this book, but I was actually delighted. Not that the book is light-hearted, by any means, but there is a thread of hope and goodness that remains throughout. Deserves wider acclaim.
I was bowled over by this book. I didn't expect how clever it would be. Sanna is young woman preoccupied by the usual things -- love, the love lives of her friends, the injustices she has been dealt -- and she "doesn't understand politics very well." But her supposed naivety becomes an even more effective position from which to skewer the hypocrisies and cruelties of the Nazi party.
I expected to be devastated by this book, but I was actually delighted. Not that the book is light-hearted, by any means, but there is a thread of hope and goodness that remains throughout. Deserves wider acclaim.