I enjoy reading a good biography, may it be someone else’s words or the person himself writing, it is the story that is the most important. I don’t care for the glossy books of famous people but the more obscure biographies of “real” peoples destiny. About the struggles of Zainab Salbi in the Shadow of Saddam or the Anonymous woman writing in Berlin after World War II.
A biography I started years ago but still have trouble finishing is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s the Gulag Archipelago. I read a chapter then I need to stop because the cruelty of one person to another is to great for me to continue.
I think it is the struggle of the ordinary people who overcome unbelievable things that intrigues me the most and make me choose their books. They have overcome so much and then still have the courage to sit down and write about it. It is remarkable.
Josefine
My recommendations: Landing on my feet – a diary of dreams by Kerri Strug
Showing posts with label A woman in Berlin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A woman in Berlin. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Friday, August 17, 2007
Homo homini lupus
I recently recommended the book A woman in Berlin by Anonymous. Since I finished it a couple of days ago, I felt the need to tell you about it. It is an incredible book that touched me.
The book is a diary, written by a German woman at the end of World War II when the Russians occupied Berlin. She tells the story of what happened to her and the people around her in the days before the Russians came and during the occupation.
When I read the first chapters of the book, my stomach hurt. The Russians drew closer and closer to Berlin and I knew what was about to come. My history teacher in ninth grade told us how her mother-in-law and sister-in-law had experienced the horrors of revengeful Russians.
Then I had to put the book down for a while, I could not continue. The Russians arrived to the city, and all the rumors there had been around them were true.
When I picked up the book again, the Russians occupied the city and people began to talk about what would happen next. The writer had travelled much before the war and she knew some Russian. This gave her a bit of an advantage. The Russians she bumps into are surprised that a German speaks their mother tongue, but most of the time it doesn’t affect their ravaging.
But it is not only the Russians she writes about, there is also another enemy. An enemy they live with every day - hunger. The writer realizes that a human being becomes awful when she doesn’t get enough to eat. She mentions the phrase, Homo homini lupus – Humans are wolfs towards humans.
She also talks about all the new words they start to use, perhaps to make their experience feel somewhat normal. It is no longer wrong to sell your body to a Russian for some food. How many times did it happen to you? Becomes a question to ask when you meet friends from the past.
The reason I like the book the most is not only the writer’s direct way of describing things, but also the objectivity she keeps. She knows that the German soldiers did the same to the citizens when they were the winners of the war.
When reading this book, the author doesn’t feel like a victim and I don’t think she sees herself as a victim. Perhaps a casualty of war and of Hitler’s government, but not a victim. That is what makes this book very real.
Josefine
My recommendations: Anne Frank’s diary. Another perspective of Hitler’s war.
The book is a diary, written by a German woman at the end of World War II when the Russians occupied Berlin. She tells the story of what happened to her and the people around her in the days before the Russians came and during the occupation.
When I read the first chapters of the book, my stomach hurt. The Russians drew closer and closer to Berlin and I knew what was about to come. My history teacher in ninth grade told us how her mother-in-law and sister-in-law had experienced the horrors of revengeful Russians.
Then I had to put the book down for a while, I could not continue. The Russians arrived to the city, and all the rumors there had been around them were true.
When I picked up the book again, the Russians occupied the city and people began to talk about what would happen next. The writer had travelled much before the war and she knew some Russian. This gave her a bit of an advantage. The Russians she bumps into are surprised that a German speaks their mother tongue, but most of the time it doesn’t affect their ravaging.
But it is not only the Russians she writes about, there is also another enemy. An enemy they live with every day - hunger. The writer realizes that a human being becomes awful when she doesn’t get enough to eat. She mentions the phrase, Homo homini lupus – Humans are wolfs towards humans.
She also talks about all the new words they start to use, perhaps to make their experience feel somewhat normal. It is no longer wrong to sell your body to a Russian for some food. How many times did it happen to you? Becomes a question to ask when you meet friends from the past.
The reason I like the book the most is not only the writer’s direct way of describing things, but also the objectivity she keeps. She knows that the German soldiers did the same to the citizens when they were the winners of the war.
When reading this book, the author doesn’t feel like a victim and I don’t think she sees herself as a victim. Perhaps a casualty of war and of Hitler’s government, but not a victim. That is what makes this book very real.
Josefine
My recommendations: Anne Frank’s diary. Another perspective of Hitler’s war.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Back again
Time flies when you are having fun, or in my case, working a lot. It is now several days since I wrote anything here and to be honest I have not had the time to read much this last week. I did finish A woman in Berlin though and when I have the time to sit down and collect my thoughts about that book I will write about it here.
For fun last night, I also started to put together a list of the books I read in the last couple of years. I’ll see how many I can remember, too bad that I am terrible at remembering names.
Josefine
My recommendations: Pick up a book from a writer or a genre you’ve never read before and let it surprise you.
For fun last night, I also started to put together a list of the books I read in the last couple of years. I’ll see how many I can remember, too bad that I am terrible at remembering names.
Josefine
My recommendations: Pick up a book from a writer or a genre you’ve never read before and let it surprise you.
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