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Sto caricando le informazioni... Restitutiondi Eliza Graham
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February 1945. Europe is in ruins and the Red Army is searing its way across Germany's eastern marches, revenging itself upon a petrified population. The war is over, but for some the fight for survival is only just beginning. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)823.92Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 2000-VotoMedia:
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All the way through we are whisked backwards and forwards in time and told little snippets of the story. This can be an effective way of storytelling, but in this case it left me disorientated as each chapter raised more questions than it answered, and sent off little shoots which might have resulted in interesting plot developments, but which were often not mentioned again. Throughout, I found myself thinking less would have been more, in the sense that concentrating on just one of the plot elements (eg Gregor's experiences in Poland and the Soviet Union) would have made a great story on their own. At one point, four of the characters find themselves in a tense standoff overnight in a house, complex connections between them having established in previous chapters, and I wondered if this was what the book had been leading up to - maybe the rest of the story would be taken up with the events of that night, the sort of thing you could run as a stage play in front of a live audience. I wasn't unhappy at the prospect, but I was wrong - whilst this scene might be the focal point of the novel, it is over quite quickly as with most other scenes, and the characters go haring off into their futures at breakneck pace.
There were some nicely described passages (in particular I found myself re-reading the bit where Gregor considers a future in London several times for reasons that are unclear), and to its credit it covers the part of Austria that became part of Italy after World War I. Watching the tennis recently I heard the commentator say of a player: 'he comes from the German speaking part of Italy' and was sure he must have made a mistake. But he was right - it's covered right here. But all in all, it was a book I was relieved to get to the end of; like being dragged through a series of muddy puddles with your foot tangled in a stirrup, you're glad when the horse finally stops. ( )