Brock's bookshelf: read en-US Mon, 05 May 2025 11:38:42 -0700 60 Brock's bookshelf: read 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg A Country Doctor's Notebook 13643020
With the ink still wet on his diploma, the twenty-five-year-old Dr. Mikhail Bulgakov was flung into the depths of rural Russia which, in 1916-17, was still largely unaffected by such novelties as the motor car, the telephone or electric light. How his alter-ego copes (or fails to cope) with the new and often appalling responsibilities of a lone doctor in a vast country practice � on the eve of Revolution � is described in Bulgakov's delightful blend of candid realism and imaginative exuberance.]]> 176 Mikhail Bulgakov 1612191908 Brock 0 currently-reading 4.17 1925 A Country Doctor's Notebook
author: Mikhail Bulgakov
name: Brock
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1925
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia]]> 1102465
Before perestroika, these men were normal Soviet citizens, stuck in a dead-end system, claustrophobic apartments, and long bread lines. But as Communism loosened, they found gaps in the economy and reaped huge fortunes by getting their hands on fast money. They were entrepreneurs. As the government weakened and their businesses flourished, they grew greedier. Now the stakes were higher. The state was auctioning off its own assets to the highest bidder. The tycoons go on wild borrowing sprees, taking billions of dollars from gullible western lenders. Meanwhile, Russia is building up a debt bomb. When the ruble finally collapses and Russia defaults, the tycoons try to save themselves by hiding their assets and running for cover. They turn against each other as each one faces a stark choice--annihilate or be annihilated.

The story of the old Russia was spies, dissidents, and missiles. This is the new Russia, where civil society and the rule of law have little or no meaning.]]> 575 David E. Hoffman 1586482025 Brock 0 to-read 4.16 2002 The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia
author: David E. Hoffman
name: Brock
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Black Earth: A Journey Through Russia After the Fall]]> 185978 Foreign Affairs) about Andrew Meier's enthralling new work. Journeying across a resurgent and reputedly free land, Meier has produced a virtuosic mix of nuanced history, lyric travelogue, and unflinching reportage. Throughout, Meier captures the country's present limbo—a land rich in potential but on the brink of staggering back into tyranny—in an account that is by turns heartrending and celebratory, comic and terrifying. A 2003 New York Public Library Book to Remember. "Black Earth is the best investigation of post-Soviet Russia since David Remnick's Resurrection. Andrew Meier is a truly penetrating eyewitness."—Robert Conquest, author of The Great Terror; "If President Bush were to read only the chapters regarding Chechnya in Meier's Black Earth, he would gain a priceless education about Putin's Russia."—Zbigniew Brzezinski "Even after the fall of Communism, most American reporting on Russia often goes no further than who's in and who's out in the Kremlin and the business oligarchy. Andrew Meier's Russia reaches far beyond . . . this Russia is one where, as Meier says, history has a hard time hiding. Readers could not easily find a livelier or more insightful guide."—Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost and The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin "From the pointless war in Chechnya to the wild, exhilarating, and dispiriting East and the rise of Vladimir Putin, the former KGB officer—it's all here in great detail, written in the layers the story deserves, with insight, passion, and genuine affection."—Michael Specter, staff writer, The New Yorker; co-chief, The New York Times Moscow Bureau, 1995-98. "[Meier's] knowledge of the country and his abiding love for its people stands out on every page of this book....But it is his linguistic fluency, in particular, which enables Mr. Meier to dig so deeply into Russia's black earth."�The Economist  "A wonderful travelogue that depicts the Russian people yet again trying to build a new life without really changing their old one."—William Taubman, The New York Times Book Review.]]> 528 Andrew Meier 0393326411 Brock 0 to-read 4.02 2003 Black Earth: A Journey Through Russia After the Fall
author: Andrew Meier
name: Brock
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Recognitions 52142237 A postmodern masterpiece about fraud and forgery by one of the most venerated novelists of the last century.

The Recognitions is a sweeping depiction of a world in which everything that anyone recognizes as beautiful or true or good emerges as anything but: our world. The book is a masquerade, moving from New England to New York to Madrid, from the art world to the underworld, but it centers on the story of Wyatt Gwyon, son of a New England pastor, who forsakes religion to devote himself to painting, only to despair of his inspiration. In expiation, he will paint nothing but flawless copies of his revered old masters--copies, however, that find their way into the hands of a sinister financial wizard by the name of Recktall Brown, who of course sells them as the real thing. Gwyon's story is only one of many that fill the pages of a novel that is as monstrously populated as paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Throughout, Gaddis's characters preen and scheme and party and toil, pursuing salvation through the debasement of desire.

Dismissed uncomprehendingly by the critics on publication in 1955 and ignored by the literary world for decades after, The Recognitions has gone on to establish itself as one of the great American novels, immensely ambitious and entirely unique, a book of freakish strangeness and outrageous comedy that is also profoundly serious and sad.]]> 945 William Gaddis 1681374668 Brock 5 4.47 1955 The Recognitions
author: William Gaddis
name: Brock
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1955
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/04
date added: 2025/05/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement]]> 168898 741 Brian Doherty 1586483501 Brock 0 to-read 3.97 2007 Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement
author: Brian Doherty
name: Brock
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Peter the First 23272229 768 Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy Brock 0 currently-reading 2.50 1897 Peter the First
author: Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
name: Brock
average rating: 2.50
book published: 1897
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Letters to a Young Poet 12428159
An accompanying chronicle of Rilke's life shows what he was experiencing in his own relationship to life and work when he wrote these letters.]]> 123 Rainer Maria Rilke Brock 4 4.12 1929 Letters to a Young Poet
author: Rainer Maria Rilke
name: Brock
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1929
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/01
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bridge on the Drina (Bosnian Trilogy, #1)]]> 3140 The Bridge on the Drina earned Ivo Andric the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961.

A great stone bridge built three centuries ago in the heart of the Balkans by a Grand Vezir of the Ottoman Empire dominates the setting of Andric's stunning novel. Spanning generations, nationalities, and creeds, the bridge stands witness to the countless lives played out upon it: Radisav, the workman, who tries to hinder its construction and is impaled on its highest point; to the lovely Fata, who throws herself from its parapet to escape a loveless marriage; to Milan, the gambler, who risks everything in one last game on the bridge with the devil his opponent; to Fedun, the young soldier, who pays for a moment of spring forgetfulness with his life. War finally destroys the span, and with it the last descendant of that family to which the Grand Vezir confided the care of his pious bequest - the bridge.]]> 314 Ivo Andrić 0226020452 Brock 0 to-read, dnf 4.34 1945 The Bridge on the Drina (Bosnian Trilogy, #1)
author: Ivo Andrić
name: Brock
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1945
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: to-read, dnf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Duel (The Hyperion Library of World Literature)]]> 41162 Her mourth was almost pressed against his, and her words were like quick, hurried kisses: "You must absolutely go through with the duel tomorrow."

This is an account of the final days of Czarist Russia. An absorbing saga about the brutalities of military life upon its own soldiers. Stranded at a distant outpost, young Romashov finds himself obliged to fight a duel � over something he realizes is meaningless. As the novel hurtles toward a startling conclusion, it reveals itself to be a luminous depiction of the end of an era.]]> 256 Aleksandr Kuprin 0883554917 Brock 4 4.25 1905 The Duel (The Hyperion Library of World Literature)
author: Aleksandr Kuprin
name: Brock
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1905
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/25
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves:
review:
I discuss my thoughts in this video:
]]> The Fate of a Man 59694309 Reprint from the 1957 edition 67 Mikhail Sholokhov Brock 4 4.00 1956 The Fate of a Man
author: Mikhail Sholokhov
name: Brock
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1956
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Stolen Heart (Kyiv Mysteries, #2)]]> 217432746 In the follow-up to The Silver Bone, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2024, Samson Kolechko must rescue his kidnapped fiancée while investigating the illegal sale of meat in lawless 1920s Kyiv� based on a real-life case.

Samson Kolechko and his colleague have been dispatched to investigate the illegal sale of meat. How selling cuts of one’s own livestock qualifies as a crime eludes the young investigator, but an order is an order, and, at the insistence of the secret police officer assigned to “reinforce� the Lybid police station, Samson vows to do his very best.

But just as Samson is beginning to dig into the very meat of this case, his live-in fiancée Nadezhda is abducted by striking railway workers who object to the census she's carrying out. Complicating matters, the police station has been infiltrated by a mysterious thief, a deadly tram accident—which may have been premeditated—disrupts the city, and, to top it all, the culprit from Samson’s “silver bone� investigation may have resurfaced.

Against this backdrop, it’s no wonder the “meat case� takes a backseat. Yet, despite the rising danger, the detective cannot let himself be distracted from his dogged pursuit of the seemingly mundane matter of the meat sellers, for ultimately his fate, and Nadezhda's too, rests on it.

Translated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk]]> 336 Andrey Kurkov 0063352338 Brock 0 to-read 4.00 2021 The Stolen Heart (Kyiv Mysteries, #2)
author: Andrey Kurkov
name: Brock
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Memories and Portraits 3153221 217 Ivan Bunin 083710033X Brock 3 4.50 1968 Memories and Portraits
author: Ivan Bunin
name: Brock
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1968
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Гарденины, их дворня, приверженцы и враги]]> 16046913 Л.Н.Толстой писал о романе "Гарденины": "...для того, кто любит народ, чтение Эртеля доставит большое удовольствие".
Издание приурочено к 130-летию со дня рождения писателя.]]> 560 Александр Эртель Brock 0 to-read 4.20 1985 Гарденины, их дворня, приверженцы и враги
author: Александр Эртель
name: Brock
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Gentleman from San Francisco and other stories]]> 1161563 Ivan Bunin 0701113839 Brock 4 3.67 1922 The Gentleman from San Francisco and other stories
author: Ivan Bunin
name: Brock
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1922
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years]]> 366889 368 Chingiz Aitmatov 0253204828 Brock 0 to-read 4.38 1980 The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years
author: Chingiz Aitmatov
name: Brock
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Eugene Onegin, A Novel In Verse: A New Translation In The Onegin Stanza With An Introduction And Notes]]> 27830 The most highly acclaimed of Pushkin’s works, this 1831 romance depicts a post-Napoleonic society in which a jaded young aristocrat rejects the love of a country maiden. Adapted by Tchaikovsky for his opera, this classic tale appears in an outstanding translation that reproduces the 14-line stanza format of the original. Includes 16 lithographs.

]]> 224 Alexander Pushkin 0525471324 Brock 3 russian-literature 4.21 1833 Eugene Onegin, A Novel In Verse: A New Translation In The Onegin Stanza With An Introduction And Notes
author: Alexander Pushkin
name: Brock
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1833
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/30
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: russian-literature
review:
Strongly convinced reading this in a better or translation - or better yet the mother tongue - will render a greater experience. Nevertheless, a monumental work and poem
]]> The Queue 2376088 The Queue, is a sly comedy about the late Soviet "years of stagnation." It consists entirely of sounds and
dialogue from people performing the quintessential Soviet act: joining a
long line to buy something, without knowing what..Thousands of citizens are in line and the rumors are flying. Leather or suede? Jackets, jeans? Turkish, Swedish, maybe even American? It doesn't matter - if anything is on sale, you better line up to buy it. Sorokin's tour de force of ventriloquism and formal daring tells the whole story in snatches of unattributed dialogue, adding up to nothing less than the real voice of the people, overheard on the street as they joke and curse, fall in and out of love, slurp down ice cream or vodka, fill out crossword puzzles, and even go to sleep and line up again in the morning as the queue drags on.]]> 263 Vladimir Sorokin 1590172744 Brock 2 3.76 1984 The Queue
author: Vladimir Sorokin
name: Brock
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1984
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves:
review:

]]> The Trial 17692 The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers. This new edition is based upon the work of an international team of experts who have restored the text, the sequence of chapters, and their division to create a version that is as close as possible to the way the author left it.

In his brilliant translation, Breon Mitchell masterfully reproduces the distinctive poetics of Kafka's prose, revealing a novel as full of energy and power as when it was first written.]]> 276 Franz Kafka 0805209999 Brock 3 3.94 1925 The Trial
author: Franz Kafka
name: Brock
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1925
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine]]> 221820459
In How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine, Scott Horton explains how since the end of the last Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, successive U.S. administrations pressed their advantage against the new Russian Federation to the point that it finally blew up into a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine.

From NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, to “shock therapy� economic policy, the Balkan and Chechen wars, color-coded revolutions, new missile defense systems, assassinations, Russiagate and ultimately the brutal conflict in Ukraine, Provoked shows what really happened and why it did not have to be this way.]]> 2316 Scott Horton Brock 4
The book follows successive U.S. presidential administrations, starting with the George H.W. Bush administration, and their negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev following the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. Horton primarily follows a chronological path, occasionally shifting forward or backward in time to provide context or reveal relevant connections. Although the content is cogent and exhaustive, the book reads like a concatenation of note cards, with oddly subtitled paragraphs and occasional satirical remarks. The scarcity of editorial commentary and the lack of visuals (maps, images, graphs, or polls) make for a rather dry reading experience. Despite this, the book delivers a flood of credible accounts and compelling details, bound to keep shocked readers turning the page.

Delving into the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Horton cuts through the hypocrisy of the Clinton administration and the unsanctioned bombing campaign of 1999. He then smoothly transitions into the war on terrorism of the �90s and �00s, suggesting that CIA-funded Jihadist groups during the Soviet-Afghan War, along with the backing of Islamic militant groups during the Kosovo War, provided fertile ground for a multinational Jihadist movement to grow and spread throughout the region, leading to terrorist attacks worldwide. Instead of working in conjunction to stifle these murderous groups, Putin and Bush continued to butt heads as they simultaneously grappled for hegemony in the Caucasus region.

In his criticism of NATO expansionism, Horton does not discriminate in his attacks on both neoconservatives, such as Donald Rumsfeld and John Bolton, and corrupt Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Victoria Nuland. He presents a thorough exposé of revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine, and other former soviet states, unveiling the incentives and unscrupulous forces that aided them. From big-time donors like George Soros, who proudly boasts of his ability to manifest change, to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which advocates for fair, free elections while overtly meddling in them, the evidence is damning.

After establishing the foundation for the current heightened tensions between Russia and the West, the final 170 pages are dedicated solely to the developments, storylines, and leaks emerging from the Russo-Ukrainian war between March 2022 and October 2024. Horton condemns Putin’s actions: “This does not justify what Putin did in response, or the worsening problems that are almost certain to result from his war,� while highlighting alternatives Putin could have pursued instead of invading Ukraine. He also investigates why promising peace deals failed early in the war and continue to be discouraged by Western powers. As an anti-war advocate, Horton acknowledges his bias while also providing a convincing argument for a reduction in U.S. intervention.

Critics hoping to dismiss this work as “Russian Propaganda� will be disappointed to find their hackneyed rhetoric cited and deflected with an array of verified records, testimonies, and legal documents to support his arguments. However, the deliberate intention to shape the book around the errors of American policymakers will likely limit its audience.

Poised to be a seminal historical account of ongoing affairs, "Provoked" guides readers through the missteps of hawkish U.S. officials, the nefarious involvement of NGOs in notorious color revolutions, and the concerted effort to destabilize the Caucasus region in favor of the West. Horton not only casts doubt on the shallow slogan of 'unprovoked attack'—routinely trotted out by politicians with antagonistic motives—but also erodes the spurious moral and democratic claims made to defend interventionist actions. Despite its textbook-like structure and ideological lean, "Provoked" succeeds as a pertinent and invaluable resource for understanding modern-day conflicts through a well-contextualized lens.]]> 4.47 Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine
author: Scott Horton
name: Brock
average rating: 4.47
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves:
review:
Navigating a contentious geopolitical landscape rife with covert interests, Horton delivers a compelling analysis exposing the duplicity of U.S. foreign policy and the calamitous fallout it continues to perpetuate today. American author Scott Horton is the director of The Libertarian Institute, and host of Antiwar Radio, where he has reported on international affairs since 2003. Rooted in over 7,000 citations from declassified documents, interviews, media reports, and findings from the United Nations, Scott Horton’s latest book, "Provoked", aims to deconstruct the specious claims of Western media and uncover the underhanded actions that instigated America’s new Cold War.

The book follows successive U.S. presidential administrations, starting with the George H.W. Bush administration, and their negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev following the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. Horton primarily follows a chronological path, occasionally shifting forward or backward in time to provide context or reveal relevant connections. Although the content is cogent and exhaustive, the book reads like a concatenation of note cards, with oddly subtitled paragraphs and occasional satirical remarks. The scarcity of editorial commentary and the lack of visuals (maps, images, graphs, or polls) make for a rather dry reading experience. Despite this, the book delivers a flood of credible accounts and compelling details, bound to keep shocked readers turning the page.

Delving into the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Horton cuts through the hypocrisy of the Clinton administration and the unsanctioned bombing campaign of 1999. He then smoothly transitions into the war on terrorism of the �90s and �00s, suggesting that CIA-funded Jihadist groups during the Soviet-Afghan War, along with the backing of Islamic militant groups during the Kosovo War, provided fertile ground for a multinational Jihadist movement to grow and spread throughout the region, leading to terrorist attacks worldwide. Instead of working in conjunction to stifle these murderous groups, Putin and Bush continued to butt heads as they simultaneously grappled for hegemony in the Caucasus region.

In his criticism of NATO expansionism, Horton does not discriminate in his attacks on both neoconservatives, such as Donald Rumsfeld and John Bolton, and corrupt Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Victoria Nuland. He presents a thorough exposé of revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine, and other former soviet states, unveiling the incentives and unscrupulous forces that aided them. From big-time donors like George Soros, who proudly boasts of his ability to manifest change, to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which advocates for fair, free elections while overtly meddling in them, the evidence is damning.

After establishing the foundation for the current heightened tensions between Russia and the West, the final 170 pages are dedicated solely to the developments, storylines, and leaks emerging from the Russo-Ukrainian war between March 2022 and October 2024. Horton condemns Putin’s actions: “This does not justify what Putin did in response, or the worsening problems that are almost certain to result from his war,� while highlighting alternatives Putin could have pursued instead of invading Ukraine. He also investigates why promising peace deals failed early in the war and continue to be discouraged by Western powers. As an anti-war advocate, Horton acknowledges his bias while also providing a convincing argument for a reduction in U.S. intervention.

Critics hoping to dismiss this work as “Russian Propaganda� will be disappointed to find their hackneyed rhetoric cited and deflected with an array of verified records, testimonies, and legal documents to support his arguments. However, the deliberate intention to shape the book around the errors of American policymakers will likely limit its audience.

Poised to be a seminal historical account of ongoing affairs, "Provoked" guides readers through the missteps of hawkish U.S. officials, the nefarious involvement of NGOs in notorious color revolutions, and the concerted effort to destabilize the Caucasus region in favor of the West. Horton not only casts doubt on the shallow slogan of 'unprovoked attack'—routinely trotted out by politicians with antagonistic motives—but also erodes the spurious moral and democratic claims made to defend interventionist actions. Despite its textbook-like structure and ideological lean, "Provoked" succeeds as a pertinent and invaluable resource for understanding modern-day conflicts through a well-contextualized lens.
]]> The Golem 99794 Der Golem in the periodical Die weissen Blätter in 1913�14, The Golem is a haunting Gothic tale of stolen identity and persecution, set in a strange underworld peopled by fantastical characters. The red-headed prostitute Rosina; the junk-dealer Aaron Wassertrum; puppeteers; street musicians; and a deaf-mute silhouette artist.

Lurking in its inhabitants� subconscious is the Golem, a creature of rabbinical myth. Supposedly a manifestation of all the suffering of the ghetto, it comes to life every 33 years in a room without a door. When the jeweller Athanasius Pernath, suffering from broken dreams and amnesia, sees the Golem, he realises to his terror that the ghostly man of clay shares his own face...

The Golem, though rarely seen, is central to the novel as a representative of the ghetto's own spirit and consciousness, brought to life by the suffering and misery that its inhabitants have endured over the centuries. Perhaps the most memorable figure in the story is the city of Prague itself, recognisable through its landmarks such as the Street of the Alchemists and the Castle.
]]> 264 Gustav Meyrink 1873982917 Brock 0 to-read 3.90 1915 The Golem
author: Gustav Meyrink
name: Brock
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Kreutzer Sonata 141077
In her Introduction, Doris Lessing shows how relevant The Kreutzer Sonata is to our understanding of Tolstoy the artist, as well as to feminism and literature. This Modern Library Paperback Classic also contains Tolstoy’s Sequel to the Kruetzer Sonata .]]> 128 Leo Tolstoy 0812968239 Brock 3 3.90 1889 The Kreutzer Sonata
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Brock
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1889
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> The Sorrows of Young Werther 7244633 014044503X

The story of a young man driven to suicide by an unhappy love affair, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) is the first great tragic novel of European literature.

Based partly on Goethe's unrequited love for Charlotte Buff and partly on the tragedy of Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem, who killed himself out of love for a married woman, the gained a reputation as the first great achievement of what a later age was to call 'confessional' literature, and Goethe himself spoke of a sense of freedom and deliverance on completing his novel.

The success of Werther was rapid and immense, and a cult quickly grew up around it. Parodies, operas, poems and plays based on the story appeared; in some areas it was seen as scandalous and banned because it seemed to 'recommend' suicide. Today, however, we can isolate the novel from the original events and see Goethe's artistry on its own terms. It is, as Michael Hulse says in his Introduction, a work of exhilarating style and insight. Its sensitive exploration of the mind of a young artist at odds with society and ill-equipped to cope with life lends it the status of a tragic masterpiece.]]> 144 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Brock 3 3.69 1774 The Sorrows of Young Werther
author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
name: Brock
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1774
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves:
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]]> The Seven Who Were Hanged 6905576 100 Leonid Andreyev 143850103X Brock 0 to-read 4.04 1908 The Seven Who Were Hanged
author: Leonid Andreyev
name: Brock
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1908
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Sound and the Fury 10975 366 William Faulkner Brock 4 3.86 1929 The Sound and the Fury
author: William Faulkner
name: Brock
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1929
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Schattenfroh 217584836 An intricate, metaphysical, ambitious “psychogeography of the self� that both disrupts and elevates the 21st century vision of the novel.


Our narrator is held in complete darkness and isolation. His endless thoughts are turned into the book we are reading�󲹳ٳٱԴڰdz�directed by none other than the narrator’s mysterious jailer by the same name. Undulating through explorations of Renaissance art, the German reformation, time-defying esoterica, the printing process in the 16th century, Kabbalistic mysticism, and beyond, Schattenfroh is a remarkable book that, in turn, asks the remarkable of its readers. Interruptions, breaks, and annotations both buoy and deceive, and endless historical references, literary allusions, and wordplay construct a baroque, encyclopedic quest. Schattenfroh’s publication in English marks a seminal moment in the history of the literary form.]]> Michael Lentz 164605394X Brock 0 0.0 2018 Schattenfroh
author: Michael Lentz
name: Brock
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The War of the End of the World]]> 53925
~publisher's web site]]> 568 Mario Vargas Llosa 0571139612 Brock 0 to-read 4.24 1981 The War of the End of the World
author: Mario Vargas Llosa
name: Brock
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Russian Crossroads: Toward the New Millennium]]> 1676382
A prominent Russian politician who served as prime minister, foreign minister, and head of foreign intelligence during the 1990s, Yevgeny Primakov has been part of all vital decisions on Russian domestic and foreign policy for the past two decades. His memoir is both an insider’s account of post-perestroika Russian politics and a statement from a representative of the enlightened Russian establishment on their nation’s relationship with America and the world. Primakov is a specialist in the Middle East, and his personal involvement in the problems of that region make his commentary particularly valuable as he articulates Russia’s view of the conflicts there and its stance toward Iraq, Israel, and Palestine. Primakov also offers pertinent opinions on the Gulf War, NATO enlargement, spying, and other aspects of contemporary international relations, and he gives personal assessments of a wide variety of major players, from Saddam Hussein and Yassir Arafat to Madeleine Albright and Bill Clinton. Providing behind-the-scenes information about government shake-ups in Moscow, the history of speculative privatizations, the formation of the new political and economic oligarchy, and much more, this book will be an invaluable aid to political analysts, historians, and anyone interested in Russia’s recent past and future plans.]]> 352 Yevgeny Primakov 0300097921 Brock 0 to-read 4.60 2004 Russian Crossroads: Toward the New Millennium
author: Yevgeny Primakov
name: Brock
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Life of Insects 997987 179 Victor Pelevin 0374186251 Brock 4 3.29 1993 The Life of Insects
author: Victor Pelevin
name: Brock
average rating: 3.29
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement]]> 209650054 A gripping history of the Soviet dissident movement, which hastened the end of the USSR—and still provides a model of opposition in Putin’s Russia

Beginning in the 1960s, the Soviet Union was unexpectedly confronted by a dissident movement that captured the world’s imagination. Demanding that the Kremlin obey its own laws, an improbable band of Soviet citizens held unauthorized public gatherings, petitioned in support of arrested intellectuals, and circulated banned samizdat texts. Soviet authorities arrested dissidents, subjected them to bogus trials and vicious press campaigns, sentenced them to psychiatric hospitals and labor camps, sent them into exile—and transformed them into martyred heroes. Against all odds, the dissident movement undermined the Soviet system and unexpectedly hastened its collapse. Taking its title from a toast made at dissident gatherings, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause is a definitive history of a remarkable group of people who helped change the twentieth century.

Benjamin Nathans’s vivid narrative tells the dramatic story of the men and women who became dissidents—from Nobel laureates Andrei Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn to many others who are virtually unknown today. Drawing on diaries, memoirs, personal letters, interviews, and KGB interrogation records, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause reveals how dissidents decided to use Soviet law to contain the power of the Soviet state. This strategy, as one of them put it, was “simple to the point of in an unfree country, they began to conduct themselves like free people.�

An extraordinary account of the Soviet dissident movement, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause shows how dissidents spearheaded the struggle to break free of the USSR’s totalitarian past, a struggle that continues in Putin’s Russia—and that illuminates other struggles between hopelessness and perseverance today.]]> 794 Benjamin Nathans 0691255571 Brock 0 to-read 4.28 To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement
author: Benjamin Nathans
name: Brock
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Time of Troubles: A Historical Study of the Internal Crisis and Social Struggle in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Muscovy]]> 113234
Platonov, himself a tragic victim of the regimentation imposed on Soviet cultural life in the 1920s, was born in 1860 and attained immense public and professional recognition in Russia as a leading historian. In his work he synthesized, to a high degree, two major traditions of Russian historiography: the St. Petersburg "school," which emphasized the collection and rigorous use of primary sources, and the Moscow "school" with its socioeconomic and geopolitical approaches. Time of Troubles represents the finished product of a lifetime spent in research, writing, and teaching. In broad terms it treats nearly a century and a half of Russian history (1500-1648); in detail it scrutinizes developments in the Muscovite State from 1598 to 1613. Some of the major issues covered in this volume are: the growing consolidation of Muscovite absolutism and the formation of a national state; the expansion of Muscovy to the west and southeast; the demise of the boyar class and the rise of the service-gentry; the emergence of serfdom as the social basis of Muscovite society; the cataclysmic end of one dynasty, the House of Rurik, and the beginnings of another, the House of Romanov. For Platonov—who devoted most of his career as a scholar to the study of these dramatic years—the epoch marked nothing less than the great divide between medieval Muscovy and modern Russia, witnessing the downfall of an essentially patrimonial regime and its replacement, after fierce struggles, by a more modern state founded on a new constellation of social groups.]]> 216 Сергей Фёдорович Платонов 0700600620 Brock 3 3.63 The Time of Troubles: A Historical Study of the Internal Crisis and Social Struggle in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Muscovy
author: Сергей Фёдорович Платонов
name: Brock
average rating: 3.63
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves:
review:

]]> My Struggle: Book 1 26145543 My Struggle: Book One introduces American readers to the audacious, addictive, and profoundly surprising international literary sensation that is the provocative and brilliant six-volume autobiographical novel by Karl Ove Knausgaard. It has already been anointed a Proustian masterpiece and is the rare work of dazzling literary originality that is intensely, irresistibly readable. Unafraid of the big issues—death, love, art, fear—and yet committed to the intimate details of life as it is lived, My Struggle is an essential work of contemporary literature.]]> 442 Karl Ove Knausgård 0374534144 Brock 4 4.21 2009 My Struggle: Book 1
author: Karl Ove Knausgård
name: Brock
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Ice 636223 158 Anna Kavan 0720612683 Brock 0 to-read 3.70 1967 Ice
author: Anna Kavan
name: Brock
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1967
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Kitchen 50144 Kitchen, the dazzling English-language debut that is still her best-loved book, is an enchantingly original and deeply affecting book about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. Mikage, the heroine of Kitchen, is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, she is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother (who was once his father), Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale that recalls early Marguerite Duras. Kitchen and its companion story, "Moonlight Shadow," are elegant tales whose seeming simplicity is the ruse of a writer whose voice echoes in the mind and the soul.]]> 160 Banana Yoshimoto 0802142443 Brock 0 to-read 3.91 1988 Kitchen
author: Banana Yoshimoto
name: Brock
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lolita 3486989 Lolita, Nabokov's most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love—love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.

This is an alternate-cover edition ISBN 0679723161]]> 317 Vladimir Nabokov Brock 2 4.00 1955 Lolita
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Brock
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1955
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves:
review:

]]> A Red Flower 6062964 Gardening books deal with the cultivation of plants that include flowers, and shrubs at one end of the spectrum, to vegetables and fruits. Gardening is undertaken as a hobby by many people, although professional gardening is undertaken at commercial and government institutions. Example of gardening titles are as follows: A Book About Roses: How to Grow and Show Them, Amateur cultivator's guide to the flower and kitchen gardens, Popular Flowers, and How to Cultivate Them, The British Winter Garden, The Orchid-Grower's Manual, The Tree Doctor; A Book on Three Culture, Water-Lilies and How to Grow Them, and The Miniature Fruit Garden.

Also in this Book

Books on Traditional Crafts relate to work undertaken by hand or with the help of simple tools to make practical and /or decorative objects or tools. Hobbies can include traditional crafts, i.e. making things for pleasure and skills development, collecting things of interest, such as stamps or butterflies, or looking after a garden. Titles include: Dutch bulbs and gardens, Photography Indoors and Out, and How to form a library.

And in this Book

Books on Education examine the process of transferring knowledge, skills, and beliefs to students. This is generally undertaken in educational institutions where teachers or trainers impart the knowledge viastructured programs, but may also be achieved through "self-teaching" by the student. The usual progression is through middle and high school, to college and / or university. The act of teaching is called pedagogy. Books in this category are about the institutions or teaching techniques: Common Sense in School Supervision, Education by Plays and Games, Habit and Its Importance in Education, Notes on the History of Trinity College, Cambridge, Universities and Scientific Life in the United States, Three Lectures on Liberal Education, Yale Yarns; Sketches of Life at Yale University.

About us

Leopold Classic Library’s aim is to provide readers with the highest quality reproductions of fiction and non-fiction literature that has stood the test of time. Our titles are produced from scans of the original books and as a result may sometimes have imperfections. To ensure a high-quality product we have:



thoroughly reviewed every page of all the books in the catalog
repaired some of the text in some cases, and
rejected titles that are not of the highest quality.

If You can't find the book You're looking for, please write to us. We will look for it in our catalog and find the best price for You in our eBay store.


Come home to the books that made a difference!



Thank you for your interest in our books!

]]> 44 Vsevolod Garshin 1436746949 Brock 0 to-read 4.13 1883 A Red Flower
author: Vsevolod Garshin
name: Brock
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1883
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> War and Peace 3774496 War and Peace broadly focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the most well-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves his family behind to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman who intrigues both men.

A s Napoleon’s army invades, Tolstoy brilliantly follows characters from diverse backgrounds—peasants and nobility, civilians and soldiers—as they struggle with the problems unique to their era, their history, and their culture. And as the novel progresses, these characters transcend their specificity, becoming some of the most moving—and human—figures in world literature.

From the award-winning translators of Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov comes this magnificent new translation of Tolstoy's masterwork.]]> 1273 Leo Tolstoy 1400079985 Brock 5 russian-literature 4.33 1869 War and Peace
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Brock
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1869
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: russian-literature
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel)]]> 6554891
In many ways, Museum is an "anti-novel." It opens with more than fifty prologues—including ones addressed "To My Authorial Persona," "To the Critics," and "To Readers Who Will Perish If They Don’t Know What the Novel Is About"—that are by turns philosophical, outrageous, ponderous, and cryptic. These pieces cover a range of topics from how the upcoming novel will be received to how to thwart "skip-around readers" (by writing a book that’s defies linearity!).

The second half of the book is the novel itself, a novel about a group of characters (some borrowed from other texts) who live on an estancia called "la novella" . . .

A hilarious and often quite moving book, The Museum of Eterna's Novelredefined the limits of the genre, and has had a lasting impact on Latin American literature. Authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, and Ricardo Piglia have all fallen under its charm and high-concepts, and, at long last, English-speaking readers can experience the book that helped build the reputation of Borges's mentor.]]> 238 Macedonio Fernández 1934824062 Brock 0 to-read 3.91 1967 The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel)
author: Macedonio Fernández
name: Brock
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1967
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dispatches from the District Committee]]> 190819803 Dispatches from the District Committee is a revelatory, offbeat portrait of Soviet life beyond the
propaganda and state-sponsored realism. Celebrated—and censored—for its political satire, literary irreverence, and provocative themes,
his work has been recognized across the world for its scathing, darkly humorous commentary
on political and cultural oppression in the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia.

Dispatches from the District Committee brings together stories from Sorokin’s incendiary 1992
collection The First Subotnik/My First Working Saturday. Skillfully translated by Max Lawton,
these stories remain subversive classics, and increasingly relevant in a post-truth information
age.]]> 289 Vladimir Sorokin 1628975423 Brock 3
Dispatches from the District Committee contains twenty short stories ranging from political satire to culture caricatures to pure insanity. The standout story from the collection is “The Quilted Jacket,� which centers around an odious, fetid, rotten jacket—one that exists in every squalid Soviet household and refuses to be thrown out by older generations. Sorokin’s use of rich symbolism dazzles in his description of the quilted jacket, with its indeterminate color and elongated sleeves with “purulent patches charging down,� as the narrator’s intransigent grandpa vehemently declares that it’s better to “fix or sew� the jacket than throw it out. Unlike some of the other stories, Sorokin’s criticism of the U.S.S.R. and all of its failed reforms comes across clearly and powerfully through the allegory of this gangrenous, diseased jacket.

His disdain for the empty promises and fallacies of Communist Russia shines through in “Sergei Andreyevich�. In the story, a group of young students share their ambitious projections for their future careers while sitting around a campfire with their teacher, Sergei Andreyevich. Accompanying Sergei to fill a bucket of water, Solokov, the most dedicated of the bunch, expresses his appreciation for his mentor before gleefully scarfing down his feces—an ending likely to puzzle many readers, but one that mocks the willingness of the youth to worship and consume all the lies produced by authority. In the salacious story “A Free Period�, a young boy, raised to join the Komsomol, finds himself reprimanded for his misbehavior by a female administrator. She aggressively presses him to admit his sexual curiosity before exposing her genitals and instructing him to perform lewd acts. Following the molestation, she exemplifies the amoral, exploitative power of authority by demanding that he promise secrecy and “swear to the Party.�

Despite the thrilling components and abnormal premises, many of Sorokin’s disturbing stories remain "inside baseball"—in other words, they require a thorough contextual understanding or referential explanation to assign any semblance of meaning to the contained absurdity. Searching for a precise message will set many readers up for failure once the stories abruptly depart from cogency and transition into crude, risible scenes. While some of these phantasmagorical shifts stimulate with or without context, other stories, like “Love� or “Monument,� seem solely crafted for Sorokin enthusiasts.

No matter how you experience Sorokin’s intentionally jarring and discomfiting imaginations, there is no doubt that these stories will sear themselves into your memory. Praise must adorned upon Max Lawton for his commitment to translate such an explosive, vivacious set of a stories. Paired with dazzling artwork for each story, Dispatches from the District Committee is an inventive collection that demands strong reactions. Sorokin’s creative mind holds a unique position within Postmodernism, and these stories, although not for the prude or the queasy, offer an example of what his unrestrained mind can produce.]]> 3.17 Dispatches from the District Committee
author: Vladimir Sorokin
name: Brock
average rating: 3.17
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:
Oozing with crude narratives and ludicrous obscenities, Vladimir Sorokin’s latest collection of stories is guaranteed to disturb readers while concurrently seducing their undivided attention. Each story within Dispatches from the District Committee features unbridled vulgarity and tantalizing prose, such as “A Hearing of the Factory Committee,� where the haranguing of a reprobate worker descends into madness, or “A Free Period,� which follows the sexual abuse of a schoolboy in the name of secrecy and curiosity. Sorokin’s surrealism and provocative storytelling manage to wildly stimulate while illustrating the absurdities of life in the Soviet Union.

Dispatches from the District Committee contains twenty short stories ranging from political satire to culture caricatures to pure insanity. The standout story from the collection is “The Quilted Jacket,� which centers around an odious, fetid, rotten jacket—one that exists in every squalid Soviet household and refuses to be thrown out by older generations. Sorokin’s use of rich symbolism dazzles in his description of the quilted jacket, with its indeterminate color and elongated sleeves with “purulent patches charging down,� as the narrator’s intransigent grandpa vehemently declares that it’s better to “fix or sew� the jacket than throw it out. Unlike some of the other stories, Sorokin’s criticism of the U.S.S.R. and all of its failed reforms comes across clearly and powerfully through the allegory of this gangrenous, diseased jacket.

His disdain for the empty promises and fallacies of Communist Russia shines through in “Sergei Andreyevich�. In the story, a group of young students share their ambitious projections for their future careers while sitting around a campfire with their teacher, Sergei Andreyevich. Accompanying Sergei to fill a bucket of water, Solokov, the most dedicated of the bunch, expresses his appreciation for his mentor before gleefully scarfing down his feces—an ending likely to puzzle many readers, but one that mocks the willingness of the youth to worship and consume all the lies produced by authority. In the salacious story “A Free Period�, a young boy, raised to join the Komsomol, finds himself reprimanded for his misbehavior by a female administrator. She aggressively presses him to admit his sexual curiosity before exposing her genitals and instructing him to perform lewd acts. Following the molestation, she exemplifies the amoral, exploitative power of authority by demanding that he promise secrecy and “swear to the Party.�

Despite the thrilling components and abnormal premises, many of Sorokin’s disturbing stories remain "inside baseball"—in other words, they require a thorough contextual understanding or referential explanation to assign any semblance of meaning to the contained absurdity. Searching for a precise message will set many readers up for failure once the stories abruptly depart from cogency and transition into crude, risible scenes. While some of these phantasmagorical shifts stimulate with or without context, other stories, like “Love� or “Monument,� seem solely crafted for Sorokin enthusiasts.

No matter how you experience Sorokin’s intentionally jarring and discomfiting imaginations, there is no doubt that these stories will sear themselves into your memory. Praise must adorned upon Max Lawton for his commitment to translate such an explosive, vivacious set of a stories. Paired with dazzling artwork for each story, Dispatches from the District Committee is an inventive collection that demands strong reactions. Sorokin’s creative mind holds a unique position within Postmodernism, and these stories, although not for the prude or the queasy, offer an example of what his unrestrained mind can produce.
]]> <![CDATA[Conquered City (New York Review Books Classics)]]> 7970379
Conquered City is about the Red Terror and the White Terror. But mainly about the Red, the Communists who have dared to pick up the weapons of power—police, guns, jails, spies, treachery—in the doomed gamble that by wielding them righteously, they can put an end to the need for terror, perhaps forever. Conquered City is their tragedy and testament.]]> 224 Victor Serge 159017366X Brock 4
For Serge, St. Petersburg serves not just as the site of the fateful February Revolution, but as a symbol of conquest and perpetual cultural revolution. Calling upon the city’s origins, Parfenov, a young revolutionary, discusses how Peter the Great exerted his vision upon the marshlands and draws parallels to the current aspirations of the Bolsheviks: “How happy men will be in a hundred years! Sometimes it makes me dizzy to think of it. In fifty years, in twenty years, maybe in ten years... yes! Give us ten years and you'll see! The cold, the night, everything...everything will be conquered.� Parfenov and Professor Lyatev coddle themselves in their own hopeless illusions, while other faithful comrades like Ksenia assure themselves of their commitment to fight until the very end, “Very well, I'll perish, I'm ready.�

Serge, a Marxist revolutionary himself, dispels any ideological sympathy by casting a blinding light on the hypocrisy and misery that engulf the city: “We have conquered everything and everything has slipped out of our grasp. We have conquered bread, and there is famine. We have declared peace to a war-weary world, and war has moved into every house.� Throughout the work, Serge’s economical prose carries dramatic imagery and persuasive argument. One of the most compelling scenes features a workers' protest at a factory, demanding bread and vehemently rejecting empty rhetoric. Despite their collective outrage at the conditions, they remain voiceless and powerless: “A thousand men and not one voice! So much suffering, so much revolt and not one voice!� Instead, the uproar is quelled by Antonov, a smooth-talking demagogue who promises incoming boxcars of food and warns that resisting will only delay their salvation.

At times, the work can feel slightly disconnected due to its fragmented composition, but his evocative, precise language pulls readers' hearts deep into the story. Serge’s ability to penetrate the heart of the conflict and draw upon the architecture of the city is simply superb: “They didn't topple the tall silhouette of Empress Catherine in court dress holding the scepter; but some idiot had scaled the bronze figures and attached a red rag on the scepter—a red rag which was now blackened to the color of old blood, the true color of their red.� Terror across the city continues through accounts of brutal executions by the White Army and the ambitions of Zvereva, who is willing to add any name to the Party’s list of enemies.

Conquered City remains a neglected, harrowing novel that blends Serge's personal account with fictionalized narratives of a city in turmoil. Empires collapse, cities crumble, and the flames of revolution continue to burn, turning the old world to ashes in order to bring about a new, idealized world in the name of the faceless collective. But, as Serge predicts and history has shown, the new world is often far bleaker than promised, and the ideology turns out to “love men too much, men and things, and Man too little.”]]> 3.80 1932 Conquered City (New York Review Books Classics)
author: Victor Serge
name: Brock
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1932
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:
Set in a tumultuous, terrorized city caught in the midst of an internal bloodbath, Serge’s Conquered City leverages historical elements and the astonishing landscape of St. Petersburg to convey the ruthless atmosphere of the Russian Civil War. Told through the perspectives of various anguished characters, Serge simultaneously depicts a fear-stricken, famished society forced to prioritize survival over moral foundations, while also portraying all-too-real accounts of devoted Soviet loyalists who find themselves on the Party’s execution list. Imbued with compelling prose, the novel presents readers with the tragic consequences of fervent, radical ideologies that demand total sacrifice for a spurious future.

For Serge, St. Petersburg serves not just as the site of the fateful February Revolution, but as a symbol of conquest and perpetual cultural revolution. Calling upon the city’s origins, Parfenov, a young revolutionary, discusses how Peter the Great exerted his vision upon the marshlands and draws parallels to the current aspirations of the Bolsheviks: “How happy men will be in a hundred years! Sometimes it makes me dizzy to think of it. In fifty years, in twenty years, maybe in ten years... yes! Give us ten years and you'll see! The cold, the night, everything...everything will be conquered.� Parfenov and Professor Lyatev coddle themselves in their own hopeless illusions, while other faithful comrades like Ksenia assure themselves of their commitment to fight until the very end, “Very well, I'll perish, I'm ready.�

Serge, a Marxist revolutionary himself, dispels any ideological sympathy by casting a blinding light on the hypocrisy and misery that engulf the city: “We have conquered everything and everything has slipped out of our grasp. We have conquered bread, and there is famine. We have declared peace to a war-weary world, and war has moved into every house.� Throughout the work, Serge’s economical prose carries dramatic imagery and persuasive argument. One of the most compelling scenes features a workers' protest at a factory, demanding bread and vehemently rejecting empty rhetoric. Despite their collective outrage at the conditions, they remain voiceless and powerless: “A thousand men and not one voice! So much suffering, so much revolt and not one voice!� Instead, the uproar is quelled by Antonov, a smooth-talking demagogue who promises incoming boxcars of food and warns that resisting will only delay their salvation.

At times, the work can feel slightly disconnected due to its fragmented composition, but his evocative, precise language pulls readers' hearts deep into the story. Serge’s ability to penetrate the heart of the conflict and draw upon the architecture of the city is simply superb: “They didn't topple the tall silhouette of Empress Catherine in court dress holding the scepter; but some idiot had scaled the bronze figures and attached a red rag on the scepter—a red rag which was now blackened to the color of old blood, the true color of their red.� Terror across the city continues through accounts of brutal executions by the White Army and the ambitions of Zvereva, who is willing to add any name to the Party’s list of enemies.

Conquered City remains a neglected, harrowing novel that blends Serge's personal account with fictionalized narratives of a city in turmoil. Empires collapse, cities crumble, and the flames of revolution continue to burn, turning the old world to ashes in order to bring about a new, idealized world in the name of the faceless collective. But, as Serge predicts and history has shown, the new world is often far bleaker than promised, and the ideology turns out to “love men too much, men and things, and Man too little.�
]]> The Future of Nostalgia 75902 432 Svetlana Boym 0465007082 Brock 0 to-read 4.25 2001 The Future of Nostalgia
author: Svetlana Boym
name: Brock
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Man with the Black Coat: Russia's Literature of the Absurd]]> 359963 258 Daniil Kharms 0810115735 Brock 0 to-read 4.38 1971 The Man with the Black Coat: Russia's Literature of the Absurd
author: Daniil Kharms
name: Brock
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1971
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)]]> 50659468
Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she's now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.

As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre's hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.

Bestselling author Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her dazzling, sexy, action-packed series to new heights.]]> 626 Sarah J. Maas 1635575583 Brock 3 4.65 2016 A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Brock
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[St. Petersburg: Madness, Murder, and Art on the Banks of the Neva]]> 35407603

It was a window to Europe and the Enlightenment, but so much of Russia’s unique glory was also created here: its literature, music, dance and, for a time, its political vision. It gave birth to the artistic genius of Pushkin and Dostoyevsky, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, Pavlova and Nureyev. Yet, for all its glittering palaces, fairytale balls and enchanting gardens, the blood of thousands has been spilt on its snow-filled streets.


It has been a hotbed of war and revolution, a place of siege and starvation, and the crucible for Lenin and Stalin’s power-hungry brutality. In St. Petersburg, Jonathan Miles recreates the drama of three hundred years in this paradoxical and brilliant city, bringing us up to the present day, when its fate hangs in the balance once more.


This is an epic tale of murder, massacre and madness played out against squalor and splendor, and an unforgettable portrait of a city and its people.  ]]> 560 Jonathan Miles 1681776766 Brock 0 to-read 3.88 2018 St. Petersburg: Madness, Murder, and Art on the Banks of the Neva
author: Jonathan Miles
name: Brock
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea]]> 25733829 Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea is a deeply personal account of the author’s last months in Russia and Ukraine, suffused with her acute awareness of the political currents churning around her, many of which have now resurfaced.

In 1918, in the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Teffi, whose stories and journalism had made her a celebrity in Moscow, was invited to read from her work in Ukraine. She accepted the invitation eagerly, though she had every intention of returning home. As it happened, her trip ended four years later in Paris, where she would spend the rest of her life in exile. None of this was foreseeable when she arrived in German-occupied Kiev to discover a hotbed of artistic energy and experimentation. When Kiev fell several months later to Ukrainian nationalists, Teffi fled south to Odessa, then on to the port of Novorossiysk, from which she embarked at last for Constantinople. Danger and death threaten throughout Memories, even as the book displays the brilliant style, keen eye, comic gift, and deep feeling that have made Teffi one of the most beloved of twentieth-century Russian writers.]]> 267 Teffi Brock 3
Tossed about by the “mercy of a whirlwind�, her emigration begins when the ever-resourceful impresario Gooskin conveniently organizes a public reading for her in Kiev, facilitating a timely escape from Moscow. Alongside her friend and fellow writer Arkady Averchenko, she is swiftly swept away from the madness engulfing the city. Yet their stay in Kiev offers no respite from the chaos, as they scramble to Odessa, Novorossiysk, and beyond. The pattern of fear, panic, and imminent danger begins to desensitize her to a point of boredom: “Now we were only too used to it all. Everything had become boring, boring to the point of revulsion. It was all just coarse, dirty, and stupid.�

Exhausted by the omnipresence of terror, Teffi manages to lean on her adaptability and humor to keep her spirits from being cast into a desolate abyss. Through her journey, she’s introduced to a diverse lot of travel companions from good samaritans to ruthless, vengeful survivors. She observes each with intrigue and restrained judgment. Some of her fellow Russians find a semblance of peace amidst the horror, like Serafima Semyonovna, who preserves her feminine identity through a gauze-constructed dress. Meanwhile, abhorrent stories and traumatized victims of both the Red and White armies continue to pile up, creating monsters like Colonel K, who endlessly returns the torture inflicted upon his family. Normalcy and sanity are all but lost in an environment shaped by senseless killing: “For him, what he's doing is entirely normal. You see, after all he's been through, it would be very, very strange if he were to act in a more ordinary way. That really would be insane. There's a limit to what the soul can take, to what human reason can endure.�

Although portraying the lived nightmare of millions, including herself, Teffi tends to drift away from highlighting the grim details and harrowing aspects of the historical period. The memoir occasionally digresses into superfluous accounts and childhood memories that remain too shallow to make an impression on readers. Despite this, her literary prowess allows her to maintain interest throughout before she closes with profound reflections.

In the end, Teffi’s memoir grants personhood to an inhumane, impersonal stain on humanity � a period that remains neglected or forgotten by western audiences. Weaving in and out of a swath of disorder, she lifts the shroud of darkness for readers with hopeful characters and humorous dialogue. Through this work and others, she has cemented her place as a critical voice for the survivors of the Russian Civil War.]]> 4.12 1931 Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea
author: Teffi
name: Brock
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1931
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves:
review:
Caught in the midst of violent turmoil, the prominent humorist writer Teffi recounts her daring and mercurial journey out of Russia, fleeing the dual-sided terror following the Bolshevik Revolution. As internecine warfare erupts across the empire, moral conventions collapse, giving rise to both benevolent saviors and sinister barbarism. Teffi’s storytelling conveys the frantic instability of the time through keen observation, lively characters, and her naturally witty humor.

Tossed about by the “mercy of a whirlwind�, her emigration begins when the ever-resourceful impresario Gooskin conveniently organizes a public reading for her in Kiev, facilitating a timely escape from Moscow. Alongside her friend and fellow writer Arkady Averchenko, she is swiftly swept away from the madness engulfing the city. Yet their stay in Kiev offers no respite from the chaos, as they scramble to Odessa, Novorossiysk, and beyond. The pattern of fear, panic, and imminent danger begins to desensitize her to a point of boredom: “Now we were only too used to it all. Everything had become boring, boring to the point of revulsion. It was all just coarse, dirty, and stupid.�

Exhausted by the omnipresence of terror, Teffi manages to lean on her adaptability and humor to keep her spirits from being cast into a desolate abyss. Through her journey, she’s introduced to a diverse lot of travel companions from good samaritans to ruthless, vengeful survivors. She observes each with intrigue and restrained judgment. Some of her fellow Russians find a semblance of peace amidst the horror, like Serafima Semyonovna, who preserves her feminine identity through a gauze-constructed dress. Meanwhile, abhorrent stories and traumatized victims of both the Red and White armies continue to pile up, creating monsters like Colonel K, who endlessly returns the torture inflicted upon his family. Normalcy and sanity are all but lost in an environment shaped by senseless killing: “For him, what he's doing is entirely normal. You see, after all he's been through, it would be very, very strange if he were to act in a more ordinary way. That really would be insane. There's a limit to what the soul can take, to what human reason can endure.�

Although portraying the lived nightmare of millions, including herself, Teffi tends to drift away from highlighting the grim details and harrowing aspects of the historical period. The memoir occasionally digresses into superfluous accounts and childhood memories that remain too shallow to make an impression on readers. Despite this, her literary prowess allows her to maintain interest throughout before she closes with profound reflections.

In the end, Teffi’s memoir grants personhood to an inhumane, impersonal stain on humanity � a period that remains neglected or forgotten by western audiences. Weaving in and out of a swath of disorder, she lifts the shroud of darkness for readers with hopeful characters and humorous dialogue. Through this work and others, she has cemented her place as a critical voice for the survivors of the Russian Civil War.
]]> The Captive Mind 145660
The four chapters at the heart of the book then follow, each a portrayal of a gifted Polish man who capitulated, in some fashion, to the demands of the Communist state. They are identified only as Alpha, the Moralist; Beta, The Disappointed Lover; Gamma, the Slave of History; and Delta, the Troubadour. However, each of the four portraits were easily identifiable: Alpha is Jerzy Andrzejewski, Beta is Tadeusz Borowski, Gamma is Jerzy Putrament and Delta is Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński.

The book moves toward its climax with an elaboration of "enslavement through consciousness" in the penultimate chapter and closes with a pained and personal assessment of the fate of the Baltic nations in particular.]]> 272 Czesław Miłosz 0679728562 Brock 0 to-read 4.27 1953 The Captive Mind
author: Czesław Miłosz
name: Brock
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1953
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others, and Me: The Best of Teffi]]> 30079275 225 Teffi Brock 0 to-read 4.16 2016 Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others, and Me: The Best of Teffi
author: Teffi
name: Brock
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 145302408
Nearing the end of his life, Baron Bela Wenckheim decides to return to the provincial Hungarian town of his birth. Having escaped from his many casino debts in Buenos Aires, where he was living in exile, he wishes to be reunited with his high-school sweetheart Marika. What follows is an endless storm of gossip, con men and local politicians, vividly evoking the small town's alternately drab and absurd existence. Spectacular actions are staged, death and the abyss loom, until finally doom is brought down on the unsuspecting residents of the town.]]> 576 László Krasznahorkai Brock 3 3.25 2016 Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming
author: László Krasznahorkai
name: Brock
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Abigail 43697426
There is something of Jane Austen in this story of the deceptiveness of appearances; fans of J.K. Rowling are sure to enjoy Szabó’s picture of irreverent students, eccentric teachers, and boarding-school life. Above all, however, Abigail is a thrilling tale of suspense.]]> 353 Magda Szabó 1681374080 Brock 0 to-read 4.23 1970 Abigail
author: Magda Szabó
name: Brock
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin's Sniper]]> 37799634
In June 1941, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, she left her university studies, ignored the offer of a position as a nurse, to become one of Soviet Russia's 2000 female snipers.

Less than a year later she had 309 recorded kills, including 29 enemy sniper kills. She was withdrawn from active duty after being injured. She was also regarded as a key heroic figure for the war effort.

She spoke at rallies in Canada and the US and the folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote a song, 'Killed By A Gun' about her exploits. Her US trip included a tour of the White House with FDR. In November 1942 she visited Coventry and accepted donations of £4,516 from Coventry workers to pay for three X-ray units for the Red Army. She also visited a Birmingham factory as part of her fundraising tour.

She never returned to combat but trained other snipers. After the war, she finished her education at Kiev University and began a career as a historian. She died on October 10, 1974 at age 58, and was buried in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery.]]> 272 Lyudmila Pavlichenko 178438271X Brock 0 to-read 3.89 2015 Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin's Sniper
author: Lyudmila Pavlichenko
name: Brock
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Foundation Pit 4270942 The Foundation Pit, a team of workers has been given the job of digging the foundation of an immense edifice, a palatial home for the perfect future that, they are convinced, is at hand. But the harder the team works, the deeper they dig, the more things go wrong, and it becomes clear that what is being dug is not a foundation, but an immense grave.

The Foundation Pit is Platonov’s most overtly political book, written in direct response to the staggering brutalities of Stalin’s collectivization of Russian agriculture. It is also a literary masterpiece. Seeking to evoke unspeakable realities, Platonov deforms and transforms language in pages that echo both with the alienating doublespeak of power and the stark simplicity of prayer.

This English translation is the first and only one to be based on the definitive edition published by Pushkin House in Moscow. It includes extensive notes and, in an appendix, several striking passages deleted by Platonov. Robert Chandler and Olga Meerson’s afterword discusses the historical context and style of Platonov’s most haunted and troubling work.]]> 224 Andrei Platonov 1590173058 Brock 4 The Foundation Pit is set in the 1920s immediately following the Bolshevik revolution and and during the implementation of the Five-Year Plan � a series of economic policies aimed at centralizing resources and power under Communist ideology. One primary aspect of this plan was rapid, large-scale construction exemplified by the foundation pit excavated by a team of workers, including the protagonist Voshchev � a young, disillusioned man fired for his poor work ethic and excessive focus on his private life.

Voshchev never had faith in the idyllic future promised by the Bolsheviks: "Man puts up a building-and falls apart himself. Who'll be left to live then?", while other characters, such as the zealous, socialist Safronov slowly feel the wool removed from their eyes as the burdens become too much to bear, “Is it really sorrow inside the whole world-and only in ourselves that there's a five-year plan?� Meanwhile as they continue to mindlessly dig the pit deeper and deeper, one of the workers named Chiklin meanders over to an old dutch tile factory and finds a young girl named Nastya, who symbolizes hope and the nascent Communist state. Uplifted by her presence and staunch devotion to Lenin’s ideals, they find the will to carry on their work, “Here, however, rests the substance of creation and the aim and goal of every directive, a small person destined to become the universal element. That is why it is essential we finish the foundation pit as suddenly as we can.� Though it is never made clear what the building will be or to what end it will serve, the band of misfits and laborers continue to press on despite the seeds of nihilism taking root.

One of the most striking satirical elements emerges early in the novel when Voshchev is criticized for his focus on his 'inner life' and his lack of consciousness � an essential trait in Soviet society, which demanded that everyone remain acutely aware of their role within the state. This demand for self-sacrifice and endurance in the name of a promised future is used to justify every purge and atrocity committed. Platonov’s use of absurdism and black humor paints the picture of the constricting, morbid existence that pervaded every citizen’s life within this period. The use of dehumanization � embodied and exemplified by Zhachev, “You think what we've got here are human beings? Not a bit of it!� � along with the campaign of dekulakization led to the displacement and murder of millions. Yet, despite their squalid surroundings and the piles of bodies accumulating along their peripheries, the workers � and the Soviet Union as a whole � remained convinced that "the foundation pit must be dug broader and deeper still.� Consequently, their collective grave became an even deeper abyss.

Platonov manages to craft a tragic, allegorical story that leverages the use of humor and surreal elements to soften the harrowing aspects of his own reality in Soviet Russia. Although some scenes and characters feel rushed or superfluous, the novel remains rich in historical context and portrayals of humanity, making it an essential read for its era.]]> 3.75 1930 The Foundation Pit
author: Andrei Platonov
name: Brock
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1930
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves:
review:
Contained within a dreary, portentous allegory, Platonov sheds a light on one of the darkest periods in Russian history � one shaped by industrialization, empty promises, and bleak realities. The Foundation Pit is set in the 1920s immediately following the Bolshevik revolution and and during the implementation of the Five-Year Plan � a series of economic policies aimed at centralizing resources and power under Communist ideology. One primary aspect of this plan was rapid, large-scale construction exemplified by the foundation pit excavated by a team of workers, including the protagonist Voshchev � a young, disillusioned man fired for his poor work ethic and excessive focus on his private life.

Voshchev never had faith in the idyllic future promised by the Bolsheviks: "Man puts up a building-and falls apart himself. Who'll be left to live then?", while other characters, such as the zealous, socialist Safronov slowly feel the wool removed from their eyes as the burdens become too much to bear, “Is it really sorrow inside the whole world-and only in ourselves that there's a five-year plan?� Meanwhile as they continue to mindlessly dig the pit deeper and deeper, one of the workers named Chiklin meanders over to an old dutch tile factory and finds a young girl named Nastya, who symbolizes hope and the nascent Communist state. Uplifted by her presence and staunch devotion to Lenin’s ideals, they find the will to carry on their work, “Here, however, rests the substance of creation and the aim and goal of every directive, a small person destined to become the universal element. That is why it is essential we finish the foundation pit as suddenly as we can.� Though it is never made clear what the building will be or to what end it will serve, the band of misfits and laborers continue to press on despite the seeds of nihilism taking root.

One of the most striking satirical elements emerges early in the novel when Voshchev is criticized for his focus on his 'inner life' and his lack of consciousness � an essential trait in Soviet society, which demanded that everyone remain acutely aware of their role within the state. This demand for self-sacrifice and endurance in the name of a promised future is used to justify every purge and atrocity committed. Platonov’s use of absurdism and black humor paints the picture of the constricting, morbid existence that pervaded every citizen’s life within this period. The use of dehumanization � embodied and exemplified by Zhachev, “You think what we've got here are human beings? Not a bit of it!� � along with the campaign of dekulakization led to the displacement and murder of millions. Yet, despite their squalid surroundings and the piles of bodies accumulating along their peripheries, the workers � and the Soviet Union as a whole � remained convinced that "the foundation pit must be dug broader and deeper still.� Consequently, their collective grave became an even deeper abyss.

Platonov manages to craft a tragic, allegorical story that leverages the use of humor and surreal elements to soften the harrowing aspects of his own reality in Soviet Russia. Although some scenes and characters feel rushed or superfluous, the novel remains rich in historical context and portrayals of humanity, making it an essential read for its era.
]]> Jesus� Son 608287 Jesus' Son, the first collection of stories by Denis Johnson, presents a unique, hallucinatory vision of contemporary American life unmatched in power and immediacy and marks a new level of achievement for this acclaimed writer. In their intensity of perception, their neon-lit evocation of a strange world brought uncomfortably close to our own, the stories in Jesus' Son offer a disturbing yet eerily beautiful portrayal of American loneliness and hope.

Contains:
Car Crash While Hitchhiking
Two Men
Out on Bail
Dundun
Work
Emergency
Dirty Wedding
The Other Man
Happy Hour
Steady Hands at Seattle General
Beverly Home']]> 160 Denis Johnson 0060975776 Brock 0 to-read 4.16 1992 Jesus’ Son
author: Denis Johnson
name: Brock
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Marshland 60534011 Marshland is an epic novel on a Tolstoyan scale, running from the pre-World War II period to the turbulence of 1960s Japan. At forty-nine, Atsuo Yukimori is a humble auto mechanic living an almost penitentially quiet life in Tokyo, where his coworkers know something of his military record but nothing of his postwar criminal past. Out of curiosity he accompanies his nephew to a demonstration at a nearby university, and is gradually drawn into a friendship, then a romance, with Wakaka Ikéhata, the brilliant but mentally unstable daughter of a university professor. As some of the student radical groups turn to violence and terrorism, Atsuo and Wakaka find themselves framed for the lethal bombing of a Tokyo train.

During their long imprisonment the novel becomes a Kafkaesque procedural, revealing the corrupt intricacies of the police and judicial system of Japan. At the end of their hard pilgrimage to exoneration, Atsuo and Wakaka are finally able to return to his original hometown, Nemuro, on the eastern-most peninsula of Hokkaido island. Here is the marshland of the title, a remote and virtually unspoiled region of Japan where Kaga sets a large number of extraordinarily beautiful pastoral scenes.

Marshland is a revelation of modern Japanese history and culture, a major novel from the hand of a master well-known in his own country, but virtually unheard-of—so far—in the United States and Anglophone world in general.]]> 960 Otohiko Kaga 1628974044 Brock 0 to-read 4.19 1985 Marshland
author: Otohiko Kaga
name: Brock
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Three Apples Fell from the Sky]]> 51551602 An unforgettable story of friendship and feuds in a remote Armenian mountain village

In an isolated village high in the Armenian mountains, a close-knit community bickers, gossips and laughs. Their only connection to the outside world is an ancient telegraph wire and a perilous mountain road that even goats struggle to navigate.

As they go about their daily lives � harvesting crops, making baklava, tidying houses � the villagers sustain one another through good times and bad. But sometimes all it takes is a spark of romance to turn life on its head, and a plot to bring two of Maran's most stubbornly single residents together soon gives the village something new to gossip about...

Three Apples Fell from the Sky is an enchanting fable that brilliantly captures the idiosyncrasy of a small community. Sparkling with sumptuous imagery and warm humour, this is a vibrant tale of resilience, bravery and the miracle of everyday friendship.]]> 231 Narine Abgaryan 1786077310 Brock 0 to-read 4.05 2015 Three Apples Fell from the Sky
author: Narine Abgaryan
name: Brock
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Maidenhair 15701651
Mikhail Shishkin’s Maidenhair is an instant classic of Russian literature. It bravely takes on the eternal questions—of truth and fiction, of time and timeless­ness, of love and war, of Death and the Word—and is a movingly luminescent expression of the pain of life and its uncountable joys.]]> 506 Mikhail Shishkin 1934824364 Brock 0 to-read 3.99 2005 Maidenhair
author: Mikhail Shishkin
name: Brock
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Big Green Tent 20575413 The Big Green Tent is the kind of book the  term “Russian novel� was invented for. A sweeping saga, it tells the story of three school friends who meet in Moscow in the 1950s and go on to embody the heroism, folly, compromise, and hope of the Soviet dissident experience. These three boys—an orphaned poet; a gifted, fragile pianist; and a budding photographer with a talent for collecting secrets—struggle to reach adulthood in a society where their heroes have been censored and exiled.

Rich with love stories, intrigue, and a cast of dissenters and spies, The Big Green Tent offers a panoramic survey of life after Stalin and a dramatic investigation into the prospects for integrity in a society defined by the KGB. Each of the central characters seeks to transcend an oppressive regime through art, a love of Russian literature, and activism. And each of them ends up face-to-face with a secret police that is highly skilled at fomenting paranoia, division, and self-betrayal. An artist is chased into the woods, where he remains in hiding for four years; a researcher is forced to deem a patient insane, damning him to torture in a psychiatric ward; a man and his wife each become collaborators, without the other knowing.

Ludmila Ulitskaya’s big yet intimate novel belongs to the tradition of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Pasternak: a work of politics, love, and belief that is a revelation of life in dark times.]]> 587 Lyudmila Ulitskaya 0374166676 Brock 0 to-read 3.90 2010 The Big Green Tent
author: Lyudmila Ulitskaya
name: Brock
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> White Dialogues 36207962
A house-sitter alone in a cabin in the woods comes to suspect that the cabin may need to be “unghosted.� A raconteur watches as his personal story is rewritten on an episode of This American Life. And in the collection’s title story, a Hitchcock scholar sitting in on a Vertigo lecture is gradually driven mad by his own theory of cinema.

In these eleven stories, Sims moves from slow-burn psychological horror to playful comedy, bringing us into the minds of people who are haunted by their environments, obsessions, and doubts. Told in electric, insightful prose, White Dialogues is a profound exploration of the way we uncover meaning in a complex, and sometimes terrifying, world. It showcases Sims’s rare talent and confirms his reputation as one of the most exciting young writers at work today.]]> 202 Bennett Sims Brock 0 to-read 3.74 2012 White Dialogues
author: Bennett Sims
name: Brock
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Satantango 17574845
The story of Satantango, spread over a couple of days of endless rain, focuses on the dozen remaining inhabitants of an unnamed isolated hamlet: failures stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Schemes, crimes, infidelities, hopes of escape, and above all trust and its constant betrayal are Krasznahorkai’s meat. “At the center of Satantango,� George Szirtes has said, “is the eponymous drunken dance, referred to here sometimes as a tango and sometimes as a csardas. It takes place at the local inn where everyone is drunk. . . . Their world is rough and ready, lost somewhere between the comic and the tragic, in one small insignificant corner of the cosmos. Theirs is the dance of death.�

“You know,� Mrs. Schmidt, a pivotal character, tipsily confides, “dance is my one weakness.”]]> 288 László Krasznahorkai 0811220893 Brock 4 4.29 1985 Satantango
author: László Krasznahorkai
name: Brock
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves:
review:

]]> Memories of the Future 5984292
Contents:
Quadraturin
The Bookmark
Someone Else's Theme
The Branch Line
Red Snow
The Thirteenth Category of Reason
Memories of the Future]]> 228 Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky 1590173198 Brock 0 to-read 3.91 1929 Memories of the Future
author: Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
name: Brock
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fawn 13488069 215 Magda Szabó Brock 0 to-read 4.00 1959 The Fawn
author: Magda Szabó
name: Brock
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Door 497499 262 Magda Szabó 1843431939 Brock 0 to-read 4.09 1987 The Door
author: Magda Szabó
name: Brock
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Pasha's Concubine, and Other Tales]]> 3018286 Literature, Fictional Novel 302 Ivo Andrić 004813001X Brock 0 to-read 3.67 1931 The Pasha's Concubine, and Other Tales
author: Ivo Andrić
name: Brock
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1931
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union]]> 2029452 -Norman Markowitz, author of The Rise and Fall of the People's Century "I have not read anything else with such detailed and intimate knowledge of what took place. This manuscript is the most important contribution I have read."
-Phillip Bonosky, author of Afghanistan-Washington's Secret War "A well-researched work containing a great deal of useful historical information. Everyone will benefit greatly from the mass of historical data and the thought-provoking arguments contained in the book."
-Bahman Azad, author of Heroic Struggle Bitter Factors Contributing to the Dismantling of the Socialist State in the USSR]]> 230 Roger Keeran 071780738X Brock 0 to-read 4.35 2004 Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union
author: Roger Keeran
name: Brock
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Good Soldier Švejk 7629 The Good Soldier Švejk, celebrated Czech writer and anarchist Jaroslav Hašek combined dazzling wordplay and piercing satire in a hilariously subversive depiction of the futility of war.

Good-natured and garrulous, Švejk becomes the Austrian army's most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of World War I -- although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards and getting drunk, he uses all his cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the police, clergy, and officers who chivy him toward battle.

Cecil Parrott's vibrant translation conveys the brilliant irreverence of this classic about a hapless Everyman caught in a vast bureaucratic machine.]]> 752 Jaroslav Hašek Brock 0 to-read 4.09 1921 The Good Soldier Švejk
author: Jaroslav Hašek
name: Brock
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1921
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Сказки К. Чуковского 1485709 Айболит
Мойдодыр
Телефон
Тараканище
Крокодилձ> 144 Korney Chukovsky 5170180667 Brock 0 to-read 4.63 2004 Сказки К. Чуковского
author: Korney Chukovsky
name: Brock
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Melancholy of Resistance 119512 314 László Krasznahorkai 0811215040 Brock 4 4.22 1989 The Melancholy of Resistance
author: László Krasznahorkai
name: Brock
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When We Cease to Understand the World]]> 62069739
Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize and the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature

A fictional examination of the lives of real-life scientists and thinkers whose discoveries resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining.

When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. 

Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger—these are some of luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the reader, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolation and insanity. Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear.

At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.]]> 193 Benjamín Labatut Brock 0 to-read 4.10 2020 When We Cease to Understand the World
author: Benjamín Labatut
name: Brock
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Maniac 75665931 From one of contemporary literature’s most exciting new voices, a haunting story centered on the Hungarian polymath John von Neumann, tracing the impact of his singular legacy on the dreams and nightmares of the twentieth century and the nascent age of AI

Benjamín Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World electrified a global readership. A Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist, and one of the New York Times� Ten Best Books of the Year, it explored the life and thought of a clutch of mathematicians and physicists who took science to strange and sometimes dangerous new realms. In The MANIAC, Labatut has created a tour de force on an even grander scale.

A prodigy whose gifts terrified the people around him, John von Neumann transformed every field he touched, inventing game theory and the first programable computer, and pioneering AI, digital life, and cellular automata. Through a chorus of family members, friends, colleagues, and rivals, Labatut shows us the evolution of a mind unmatched and of a body of work that has unmoored the world in its wake.

The MANIAC places von Neumann at the center of a literary triptych that begins with Paul Ehrenfest, an Austrian physicist and friend of Einstein, who fell into despair when he saw science and technology become tyrannical forces; it ends a hundred years later, in the showdown between the South Korean Go Master Lee Sedol and the AI program AlphaGo, an encounter embodying the central question of von Neumann's most ambitious unfinished project: the creation of a self-reproducing machine, an intelligence able to evolve beyond human understanding or control.

A work of beauty and fabulous momentum, The MANIAC confronts us with the deepest questions we face as a species.]]> 368 Benjamín Labatut 0593654471 Brock 0 to-read 4.33 2023 The Maniac
author: Benjamín Labatut
name: Brock
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> War & War 605684 War & War, László Krasznahorkai’s second novel in English from New Directions, begins at a point of danger: on a dark train platform Korim is on the verge of being attacked by thuggish teenagers and robbed; and from here, we are carried along by the insistent voice of this nervous clerk. Desperate, at times almost mad, but also keenly empathic, Korim has discovered in a small Hungarian town’s archives an antique manuscript of startling beauty: it narrates the epic tale of brothers-in-arms struggling to return home from a disastrous war. Korim is determined to do away with himself, but before he can commit suicide, he strongly feels he must escape to New York with the precious manuscript and commit it to eternity by typing it all up on the world-wide web. Following Korim with obsessive realism through the streets of New York (from his landing in a Bowery flophouse to his moving far uptown with a mad interpreter), War & War relates his encounters with a fascinating range of humanity, a world torn between viciousness and mysterious beauty. Following the eight chapters of War & War is a short "prequel acting as a sequel," "Isaiah," which brings us to a dark bar, years before in Hungary, where Korim rants against the world and threatens suicide. Simply written like nothing else (turning single sentences into chapters), War & War affirms W. G. Sebald’s comment that Krasznahorkai’s prose "far surpasses all the lesser concerns of contemporary writing."]]> 288 László Krasznahorkai 0811216098 Brock 4 4.21 1999 War & War
author: László Krasznahorkai
name: Brock
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/09
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves:
review:

]]> The Demons: Volume One 205515650 The Demons, a monumental work and itself the 'Götterdämmerung' as it were to earlier novels. The central preoccupation of this masterpiece is the decline of European civilization. He began work on it in 1931, after reading Dostoyevsky's The Devils. Symphonic in construction, it is a panoramic re-creation of Viennese society in all its strata, conjuring the depths as well as the heights of everything we might think of as Vienna. Doderer has Balzacian scope as well as owing much to Proust and Musil. His human comedy is drawn with a humour as vital when ironic as when satirical, and his baroque imagination is well served by his tireless linguistic ingenuity.]]> 804 Heimito von Doderer 1951319842 Brock 4
Primarily told through the perspective of Georg von Geyrenhoff, a retired civil servant, the three-part novel chronicles events in Vienna between 1926 and 1927, occasionally deviating with chronological oscillations to uncover pertinent details. Gathering various perspectives, facts, and his own personal accounts, Geyrenhoff slowly pieces the story together, taking periodic breaks before completing his manuscript in the 1950s. On the surface, the plot of *The Demons* is quite straightforward. A conniving financial counsellor Herr Levielle has withheld the immense inheritance from a deceased, wealthy landowner Herr Ruthmayr. Amidst other converging subplots, Geyrenhoff and others work to resolve this matter in favor of the rightful heir—a daughter born of a clandestine relationship. Following the revelation of this secret and its aftermath, the narrator's meticulously crafted chronicle reaches its climax on July 15, 1927, with the burning of the Palace of Justice—a real historical event. However, the story depicts far more than financial corruption and social unrest. Dispersed throughout are reflections on perspectivism, commentary on ideological fanaticism, and gradual shifts within social dynamics.

Rather than provide a pan-optical, reductionist tale told through an omniscient narrator, von Doderer utilizes a non-linear, fragmented perspective that forces readers to digest the minutiae before them while simultaneously encouraging a macro view of matters as they develop. The novel features a diverse and vivid cast of characters, ranging from petty criminals and arrogant intellectuals to corpulent wives. With each chapter, the story spirals and spreads like a rhizome, sprouting profound ideas and presenting a multi-faceted view of Viennese society. Focusing too closely on any one detail or plot point comes at the cost of losing the forest for the trees. True understanding or knowledge can only be found when one zooms out and takes into consideration all perspectives, or as Herr Altschul puts it, *“It almost seems that all capacity for judgment is based solely on taking the proper distance from a subject. Only at the proper distance will the necessary detailed knowledge be found.�* The crown jewel of this novel is its ability to capture the wholeness and interwoven nature of society. This point is further illuminated by the witty, reprobate Kajetan later in the novel when he states, *“All of us are prisms with many facets: we have as many different existences as there are people who know us.�* By breaking out of a parochial and myopic worldview, one is able to view matters from the necessary distance and conduct a proper assessment. Failing to do so not only creates a misunderstanding of individuals, but a poorly constructed view of history.

Another key feature of the novel is von Doderer’s exploration of ideologies, or �*demons*�, and their pernicious effects on individuals and society at large. Whether its Kajetan Schlaggenberg’s comical fixation on rotund, mature women, or the boiling over of socialist fomentation, these various fanatical ideas become elusive driving factors behind major cultural change. Von Doderer overlaps these beliefs with the concept of �*second realities*� and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. These second realities diverge from the first, or real, reality resulting in dissociation and a downward spiral, as described by the story’s young, ambitious scholar Leonhard Kakabsa: *“All roads of descent lead down, but never do people hate one another so passionately as when they choose different downward paths.�* This point is strengthened by the fictitious medieval manuscript written in an pseudo-archaic language that tells the story of a torturous witch chamber where these demonic ideas ran rampant.

Perhaps most of all, the chronicle exemplifies the fatalistic nature of existence. Much of our actions emerge from the construct of our environment and the forces placed upon us, or as von Geyrenhoff expresses it: *“Thus it is that sometimes weapons we have not loaded are thrust into our hands; and nevertheless we fire the shot.�* To our chagrin, any desperate grasping for free will is swept away by the immense influence of our surroundings and the societal constructs in which we live. In both Leonhard's and René Stangeler’s transformations by the end of the novel, their desires for freedom and change were fulfilled only through propitious chance encounters. Much like a Schopenhauerian worldview, we are rarely, if ever, the creator of our circumstances, but merely reacting to them. Despite his reluctance, Leonhard understood that, *“he himself had not come into the world intentionally, that it had happened quite by chance, […] But this fact altered nothing; you had to lie in the bed even though you had not made it.�*

Prolix, catholic, and at times laborsome, *The Demons* is a eccentric novel that rewards patience and attentive reading. As you swirl around in the maelstrom of trivialities and confluence of characters, von Doderer illuminates the symphonic unity of nature where a single instrument cannot be understood in isolation. The harmony must be taken as a whole and examined as a whole. Only then can one hope to seek any truth or gain any knowledge. Only then can one see the taut strings of the bow, witness the arrow as it soars across the sky, and recognize the inevitability of its descent and piercing strike.]]> 4.00 1956 The Demons: Volume One
author: Heimito von Doderer
name: Brock
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1956
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/18
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:
Symphonic in structure, Heimito von Doderer’s sprawling chronicle *The Demons* portrays the deeply entangled, ideologically fractured world of Vienna, in which no single sonorous note can be isolated without losing the harmonious rhythm of the whole. In fact, this universality is alluded to early on in the Overture: *“For the whole is contained in the smallest segment of anyone's life-story; indeed, we may even say that it is contained in every single moment.�* This statement prepares readers for a voluminous narrative that continues to fold and unfold upon itself through its reflexive complexities and intricate details. Trapped in a web of interconnectedness, von Doderer’s decadent Vienna slowly unravels as its citizens grapple with their twisted realities and resistance to fate.

Primarily told through the perspective of Georg von Geyrenhoff, a retired civil servant, the three-part novel chronicles events in Vienna between 1926 and 1927, occasionally deviating with chronological oscillations to uncover pertinent details. Gathering various perspectives, facts, and his own personal accounts, Geyrenhoff slowly pieces the story together, taking periodic breaks before completing his manuscript in the 1950s. On the surface, the plot of *The Demons* is quite straightforward. A conniving financial counsellor Herr Levielle has withheld the immense inheritance from a deceased, wealthy landowner Herr Ruthmayr. Amidst other converging subplots, Geyrenhoff and others work to resolve this matter in favor of the rightful heir—a daughter born of a clandestine relationship. Following the revelation of this secret and its aftermath, the narrator's meticulously crafted chronicle reaches its climax on July 15, 1927, with the burning of the Palace of Justice—a real historical event. However, the story depicts far more than financial corruption and social unrest. Dispersed throughout are reflections on perspectivism, commentary on ideological fanaticism, and gradual shifts within social dynamics.

Rather than provide a pan-optical, reductionist tale told through an omniscient narrator, von Doderer utilizes a non-linear, fragmented perspective that forces readers to digest the minutiae before them while simultaneously encouraging a macro view of matters as they develop. The novel features a diverse and vivid cast of characters, ranging from petty criminals and arrogant intellectuals to corpulent wives. With each chapter, the story spirals and spreads like a rhizome, sprouting profound ideas and presenting a multi-faceted view of Viennese society. Focusing too closely on any one detail or plot point comes at the cost of losing the forest for the trees. True understanding or knowledge can only be found when one zooms out and takes into consideration all perspectives, or as Herr Altschul puts it, *“It almost seems that all capacity for judgment is based solely on taking the proper distance from a subject. Only at the proper distance will the necessary detailed knowledge be found.�* The crown jewel of this novel is its ability to capture the wholeness and interwoven nature of society. This point is further illuminated by the witty, reprobate Kajetan later in the novel when he states, *“All of us are prisms with many facets: we have as many different existences as there are people who know us.�* By breaking out of a parochial and myopic worldview, one is able to view matters from the necessary distance and conduct a proper assessment. Failing to do so not only creates a misunderstanding of individuals, but a poorly constructed view of history.

Another key feature of the novel is von Doderer’s exploration of ideologies, or �*demons*�, and their pernicious effects on individuals and society at large. Whether its Kajetan Schlaggenberg’s comical fixation on rotund, mature women, or the boiling over of socialist fomentation, these various fanatical ideas become elusive driving factors behind major cultural change. Von Doderer overlaps these beliefs with the concept of �*second realities*� and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. These second realities diverge from the first, or real, reality resulting in dissociation and a downward spiral, as described by the story’s young, ambitious scholar Leonhard Kakabsa: *“All roads of descent lead down, but never do people hate one another so passionately as when they choose different downward paths.�* This point is strengthened by the fictitious medieval manuscript written in an pseudo-archaic language that tells the story of a torturous witch chamber where these demonic ideas ran rampant.

Perhaps most of all, the chronicle exemplifies the fatalistic nature of existence. Much of our actions emerge from the construct of our environment and the forces placed upon us, or as von Geyrenhoff expresses it: *“Thus it is that sometimes weapons we have not loaded are thrust into our hands; and nevertheless we fire the shot.�* To our chagrin, any desperate grasping for free will is swept away by the immense influence of our surroundings and the societal constructs in which we live. In both Leonhard's and René Stangeler’s transformations by the end of the novel, their desires for freedom and change were fulfilled only through propitious chance encounters. Much like a Schopenhauerian worldview, we are rarely, if ever, the creator of our circumstances, but merely reacting to them. Despite his reluctance, Leonhard understood that, *“he himself had not come into the world intentionally, that it had happened quite by chance, […] But this fact altered nothing; you had to lie in the bed even though you had not made it.�*

Prolix, catholic, and at times laborsome, *The Demons* is a eccentric novel that rewards patience and attentive reading. As you swirl around in the maelstrom of trivialities and confluence of characters, von Doderer illuminates the symphonic unity of nature where a single instrument cannot be understood in isolation. The harmony must be taken as a whole and examined as a whole. Only then can one hope to seek any truth or gain any knowledge. Only then can one see the taut strings of the bow, witness the arrow as it soars across the sky, and recognize the inevitability of its descent and piercing strike.
]]> The Demons: Volume Two 205516108 The Demons, a monumental work and itself the 'Götterdämmerung' as it were to earlier novels. The central preoccupation of this masterpiece is the decline of European civilization. He began work on it in 1931, after reading Dostoyevsky's The Devils. Symphonic in construction, it is a panoramic re-creation of Viennese society in all its strata, conjuring the depths as well as the heights of everything we might think of as Vienna. Doderer has Balzacian scope as well as owing much to Proust and Musil. His human comedy is drawn with a humour as vital when ironic as when satirical, and his baroque imagination is well served by his tireless linguistic ingenuity.]]> 828 Heimito von Doderer 1951319850 Brock 4
Primarily told through the perspective of Georg von Geyrenhoff, a retired civil servant, the three-part novel chronicles events in Vienna between 1926 and 1927, occasionally deviating with chronological oscillations to uncover pertinent details. Gathering various perspectives, facts, and his own personal accounts, Geyrenhoff slowly pieces the story together, taking periodic breaks before completing his manuscript in the 1950s. On the surface, the plot of *The Demons* is quite straightforward. A conniving financial counsellor Herr Levielle has withheld the immense inheritance from a deceased, wealthy landowner Herr Ruthmayr. Amidst other converging subplots, Geyrenhoff and others work to resolve this matter in favor of the rightful heir—a daughter born of a clandestine relationship. Following the revelation of this secret and its aftermath, the narrator's meticulously crafted chronicle reaches its climax on July 15, 1927, with the burning of the Palace of Justice—a real historical event. However, the story depicts far more than financial corruption and social unrest. Dispersed throughout are reflections on perspectivism, commentary on ideological fanaticism, and gradual shifts within social dynamics.

Rather than provide a pan-optical, reductionist tale told through an omniscient narrator, von Doderer utilizes a non-linear, fragmented perspective that forces readers to digest the minutiae before them while simultaneously encouraging a macro view of matters as they develop. The novel features a diverse and vivid cast of characters, ranging from petty criminals and arrogant intellectuals to corpulent wives. With each chapter, the story spirals and spreads like a rhizome, sprouting profound ideas and presenting a multi-faceted view of Viennese society. Focusing too closely on any one detail or plot point comes at the cost of losing the forest for the trees. True understanding or knowledge can only be found when one zooms out and takes into consideration all perspectives, or as Herr Altschul puts it, *“It almost seems that all capacity for judgment is based solely on taking the proper distance from a subject. Only at the proper distance will the necessary detailed knowledge be found.�* The crown jewel of this novel is its ability to capture the wholeness and interwoven nature of society. This point is further illuminated by the witty, reprobate Kajetan later in the novel when he states, *“All of us are prisms with many facets: we have as many different existences as there are people who know us.�* By breaking out of a parochial and myopic worldview, one is able to view matters from the necessary distance and conduct a proper assessment. Failing to do so not only creates a misunderstanding of individuals, but a poorly constructed view of history.

Another key feature of the novel is von Doderer’s exploration of ideologies, or �*demons*�, and their pernicious effects on individuals and society at large. Whether its Kajetan Schlaggenberg’s comical fixation on rotund, mature women, or the boiling over of socialist fomentation, these various fanatical ideas become elusive driving factors behind major cultural change. Von Doderer overlaps these beliefs with the concept of �*second realities*� and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. These second realities diverge from the first, or real, reality resulting in dissociation and a downward spiral, as described by the story’s young, ambitious scholar Leonhard Kakabsa: *“All roads of descent lead down, but never do people hate one another so passionately as when they choose different downward paths.�* This point is strengthened by the fictitious medieval manuscript written in an pseudo-archaic language that tells the story of a torturous witch chamber where these demonic ideas ran rampant.

Perhaps most of all, the chronicle exemplifies the fatalistic nature of existence. Much of our actions emerge from the construct of our environment and the forces placed upon us, or as von Geyrenhoff expresses it: *“Thus it is that sometimes weapons we have not loaded are thrust into our hands; and nevertheless we fire the shot.�* To our chagrin, any desperate grasping for free will is swept away by the immense influence of our surroundings and the societal constructs in which we live. In both Leonhard's and René Stangeler’s transformations by the end of the novel, their desires for freedom and change were fulfilled only through propitious chance encounters. Much like a Schopenhauerian worldview, we are rarely, if ever, the creator of our circumstances, but merely reacting to them. Despite his reluctance, Leonhard understood that, *“he himself had not come into the world intentionally, that it had happened quite by chance, […] But this fact altered nothing; you had to lie in the bed even though you had not made it.�*

Prolix, catholic, and at times laborsome, *The Demons* is a eccentric novel that rewards patience and attentive reading. As you swirl around in the maelstrom of trivialities and confluence of characters, von Doderer illuminates the symphonic unity of nature where a single instrument cannot be understood in isolation. The harmony must be taken as a whole and examined as a whole. Only then can one hope to seek any truth or gain any knowledge. Only then can one see the taut strings of the bow, witness the arrow as it soars across the sky, and recognize the inevitability of its descent and piercing strike.]]> 4.00 1956 The Demons: Volume Two
author: Heimito von Doderer
name: Brock
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1956
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/05
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:
Symphonic in structure, Heimito von Doderer’s sprawling chronicle *The Demons* portrays the deeply entangled, ideologically fractured world of Vienna, in which no single sonorous note can be isolated without losing the harmonious rhythm of the whole. In fact, this universality is alluded to early on in the Overture: *“For the whole is contained in the smallest segment of anyone's life-story; indeed, we may even say that it is contained in every single moment.�* This statement prepares readers for a voluminous narrative that continues to fold and unfold upon itself through its reflexive complexities and intricate details. Trapped in a web of interconnectedness, von Doderer’s decadent Vienna slowly unravels as its citizens grapple with their twisted realities and resistance to fate.

Primarily told through the perspective of Georg von Geyrenhoff, a retired civil servant, the three-part novel chronicles events in Vienna between 1926 and 1927, occasionally deviating with chronological oscillations to uncover pertinent details. Gathering various perspectives, facts, and his own personal accounts, Geyrenhoff slowly pieces the story together, taking periodic breaks before completing his manuscript in the 1950s. On the surface, the plot of *The Demons* is quite straightforward. A conniving financial counsellor Herr Levielle has withheld the immense inheritance from a deceased, wealthy landowner Herr Ruthmayr. Amidst other converging subplots, Geyrenhoff and others work to resolve this matter in favor of the rightful heir—a daughter born of a clandestine relationship. Following the revelation of this secret and its aftermath, the narrator's meticulously crafted chronicle reaches its climax on July 15, 1927, with the burning of the Palace of Justice—a real historical event. However, the story depicts far more than financial corruption and social unrest. Dispersed throughout are reflections on perspectivism, commentary on ideological fanaticism, and gradual shifts within social dynamics.

Rather than provide a pan-optical, reductionist tale told through an omniscient narrator, von Doderer utilizes a non-linear, fragmented perspective that forces readers to digest the minutiae before them while simultaneously encouraging a macro view of matters as they develop. The novel features a diverse and vivid cast of characters, ranging from petty criminals and arrogant intellectuals to corpulent wives. With each chapter, the story spirals and spreads like a rhizome, sprouting profound ideas and presenting a multi-faceted view of Viennese society. Focusing too closely on any one detail or plot point comes at the cost of losing the forest for the trees. True understanding or knowledge can only be found when one zooms out and takes into consideration all perspectives, or as Herr Altschul puts it, *“It almost seems that all capacity for judgment is based solely on taking the proper distance from a subject. Only at the proper distance will the necessary detailed knowledge be found.�* The crown jewel of this novel is its ability to capture the wholeness and interwoven nature of society. This point is further illuminated by the witty, reprobate Kajetan later in the novel when he states, *“All of us are prisms with many facets: we have as many different existences as there are people who know us.�* By breaking out of a parochial and myopic worldview, one is able to view matters from the necessary distance and conduct a proper assessment. Failing to do so not only creates a misunderstanding of individuals, but a poorly constructed view of history.

Another key feature of the novel is von Doderer’s exploration of ideologies, or �*demons*�, and their pernicious effects on individuals and society at large. Whether its Kajetan Schlaggenberg’s comical fixation on rotund, mature women, or the boiling over of socialist fomentation, these various fanatical ideas become elusive driving factors behind major cultural change. Von Doderer overlaps these beliefs with the concept of �*second realities*� and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. These second realities diverge from the first, or real, reality resulting in dissociation and a downward spiral, as described by the story’s young, ambitious scholar Leonhard Kakabsa: *“All roads of descent lead down, but never do people hate one another so passionately as when they choose different downward paths.�* This point is strengthened by the fictitious medieval manuscript written in an pseudo-archaic language that tells the story of a torturous witch chamber where these demonic ideas ran rampant.

Perhaps most of all, the chronicle exemplifies the fatalistic nature of existence. Much of our actions emerge from the construct of our environment and the forces placed upon us, or as von Geyrenhoff expresses it: *“Thus it is that sometimes weapons we have not loaded are thrust into our hands; and nevertheless we fire the shot.�* To our chagrin, any desperate grasping for free will is swept away by the immense influence of our surroundings and the societal constructs in which we live. In both Leonhard's and René Stangeler’s transformations by the end of the novel, their desires for freedom and change were fulfilled only through propitious chance encounters. Much like a Schopenhauerian worldview, we are rarely, if ever, the creator of our circumstances, but merely reacting to them. Despite his reluctance, Leonhard understood that, *“he himself had not come into the world intentionally, that it had happened quite by chance, […] But this fact altered nothing; you had to lie in the bed even though you had not made it.�*

Prolix, catholic, and at times laborsome, *The Demons* is a eccentric novel that rewards patience and attentive reading. As you swirl around in the maelstrom of trivialities and confluence of characters, von Doderer illuminates the symphonic unity of nature where a single instrument cannot be understood in isolation. The harmony must be taken as a whole and examined as a whole. Only then can one hope to seek any truth or gain any knowledge. Only then can one see the taut strings of the bow, witness the arrow as it soars across the sky, and recognize the inevitability of its descent and piercing strike.
]]> <![CDATA[Russia's War by Richard Overy (2010-09-02)]]> 134586795 0 Richard Overy Brock 0 to-read 3.86 1997 Russia's War by Richard Overy (2010-09-02)
author: Richard Overy
name: Brock
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941]]> 1477155 256 David M. Glantz 075241979X Brock 0 to-read 3.97 2001 Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941
author: David M. Glantz
name: Brock
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942�1943]]> 542389 Stalingrad as the definitive account of World War II's most harrowing battle.

In August 1942, Hitler's huge Sixth Army reached the city that bore Stalin's name. In the five-month siege that followed, the Russians fought to hold Stalingrad at any cost; then, in an astonishing reversal, encircled and trapped their Nazi enemy. This battle for the ruins of a city cost more than a million lives. Stalingrad conveys the experience of soldiers on both sides, fighting in inhuman conditions, and of civilians trapped on an urban battlefield. Antony Beevor has interviewed survivors and discovered completely new material in a wide range of German and Soviet archives, including prisoner interrogations and reports of desertions and executions. As a story of cruelty, courage, and human suffering, Stalingrad is unprecedented and unforgettable.]]> 494 Antony Beevor 0140284583 Brock 0 to-read 4.32 1998 Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942–1943
author: Antony Beevor
name: Brock
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Telluria 58559133 Telluria is set in the future, when a devastating holy war between Europe and Islam has succeeded in returning the world to the torpor and disorganization of the Middle Ages. Europe, China, and Russia have all broken up. The people of the world now live in an array of little nations like puzzle pieces, each cultivating its own ideology or identity, a neo-feudal world of fads and feuds, in which no one power dominates. What does, however, travel everywhere is the appetite for the special substance tellurium. A spike of tellurium, driven into the brain by an expert hand, offers a transforming experience of bliss; incorrectly administered, it means death.

The fifty chapters of Telluria map out this brave new world from fifty different angles, as Sorokin, always a virtuoso of the word, introduces us, among many other figures, to partisans and princes, peasants and party leaders, a new Knights Templar, a harem of phalluses, and a dog-headed poet and philosopher who feasts on carrion from the battlefield. The book is an immense and sumptuous tapestry of the word, carnivalesuqe and cruel, and Max Lawton, Sorokin’s gifted translator, has captured it in an English that carries the charge of Cormac McCarthy and William Gibson.]]> 336 Vladimir Sorokin 1681376334 Brock 0 to-read 3.69 2013 Telluria
author: Vladimir Sorokin
name: Brock
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk 58043
*
Journalist and prose writer Nikolai Leskov is known for his powerful characterizations and the quintessentially Russian atmosphere of his stories.]]> 88 Nikolai Leskov 1843910683 Brock 0 to-read 3.95 1865 Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
author: Nikolai Leskov
name: Brock
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1865
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917-1922]]> 34145683
Includes black and white photographs.]]> 288 Marina Tsvetaeva 1681371626 Brock 0 to-read 3.65 2002 Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917-1922
author: Marina Tsvetaeva
name: Brock
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Tragedy of Man 651934 272 Imre Madách 9631345335 Brock 0 to-read 4.20 1860 The Tragedy of Man
author: Imre Madách
name: Brock
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1860
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Room of One's Own 23353807 A Room of One's Own is considered Virginia Woolf's most powerful feminist essay, justifying the need for women to possess intellectual freedom and financial independence. Based on a lecture given at Girton College, Cambridge, the essay is one of the great feminist polemics, ranging in its themes from Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte to the silent fate of Shakespeare's gifted (imaginary) sister and the effects of poverty and sexual constraint on female creativity.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is regarded as a major twentieth-century author and essayist, a key figure in literary history as a feminist and a modernist, and the centre of 'The Bloomsbury Group'.]]> 114 Virginia Woolf Brock 3 4.24 1929 A Room of One's Own
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Brock
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1929
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage]]> 176443212
For the first time in thirty years, more than a dozen former ATF agents who participated in the initial February 28, 1993, Waco raid speak on the record about the poor decisions of their commanders that led to this deadly confrontation. The revelations in this book include why the FBI chose to end the siege with the use of CS gas; how both ATF and FBI officials tried and failed to cover up their agencies� mistakes; where David Koresh plagiarized his infamous prophecies; and direct links between the Branch Davidian tragedy and the modern militia movement in America. Notorious conspiracist Alex Jones is a part of the Waco story. So much is new and stunning.

Guinn puts you alongside the ATF agents as they embarked on the disastrous initial assault, unaware that the Davidians knew they were coming and were armed and prepared to resist. His you-are-there narrative continues to the final assault and its momentous consequences. Drawing on this new information, including several eyewitness accounts, Guinn again does what he did with his bestselling books about Charles Manson and Jim Jones, revealing “gripping� ( Houston Chronicle ) new details about a story that we thought we knew.]]> 400 Jeff Guinn 1982186119 Brock 0 to-read 4.15 2023 Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage
author: Jeff Guinn
name: Brock
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Twilight of the Idols and Anti-Christ]]> 16040325 Alternate cover edition for 9780140445145

In 1888, the last sane year of his life Nietzsche produced these two brief but devastating books.

Twilight of the Idols, 'a grand declaration of war' on all the prevalent ideas of his time, offers a lightning tour of his whole philosophy. It also prepares the way for The Anti-Christ, a final assault on institutional Christianity. Yet although Nietzsche makes a compelling case for the 'Dionysian' artist and celebrates magnificently two of his great heroes, Goethe and Cesare Borgia, he also gives a moving, almost ecstatic portrait of his only worthy opponent: Christ. Both works show Nietsche lashing out at self-deception, astounded at how often morality is based on vengefulness and resentment. Both combine utterly unfair attacks on individuals with amazingly acute surveys of the whole contemporary cultural scene. Both reveal a profound understanding of human mean-spiritedness which still cannot destroy the underlying optimism of Nietzsche, the supreme affirmer among the great philosophers.]]> 210 Friedrich Nietzsche Brock 4 3.98 1889 Twilight of the Idols and Anti-Christ
author: Friedrich Nietzsche
name: Brock
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1889
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/22
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Hopscotch 53413 Hopscotch is the dazzling, freewheeling account of Oliveira's astonishing adventures.

The book is highly influenced by Henry Miller’s reckless and relentless search for truth in post-decadent Paris and Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki’s modal teachings on Zen Buddhism.

Cortázar's employment of interior monologue, punning, slang, and his use of different languages is reminiscent of Modernist writers like Joyce, although his main influences were Surrealism and the French New Novel, as well as the "riffing" aesthetic of jazz and New Wave Cinema.

In 1966, Gregory Rabassa won the first National Book Award to recognize the work of a translator, for his English-language edition of Hopscotch. Julio Cortázar was so pleased with Rabassa's translation of Hopscotch that he recommended the translator to Gabriel García Márquez when García Márquez was looking for someone to translate his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude into English. "Rabassa's One Hundred Years of Solitude improved the original," according to García Márquez.]]> 564 Julio Cortázar 0394752848 Brock 0 to-read 4.24 1963 Hopscotch
author: Julio Cortázar
name: Brock
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1963
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union]]> 57615568
In 1945 the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four-million strong, five-thousand nuclear-tipped missiles, and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the twentieth century.

Thirty years on, Vladislav Zubok offers a major reinterpretation of the final years of the USSR, refuting the notion that the breakup of the Soviet order was inevitable. Instead, Zubok reveals how Gorbachev’s misguided reforms, intended to modernize and democratize the Soviet Union, deprived the government of resources and empowered separatism. Collapse sheds new light on Russian democratic populism, the Baltic struggle for independence, the crisis of Soviet finances—and the fragility of authoritarian state power.]]> 576 Vladislav M. Zubok 0300257309 Brock 0 to-read 4.24 Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union
author: Vladislav M. Zubok
name: Brock
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Magician 56897459
The Magician is an intimate, astonishingly complex portrait of Mann, his magnificent and complex wife Katia, and the times in which they lived—the first world war, the rise of Hitler, World War II, the Cold War, and exile.]]> 498 Colm Tóibín 1476785082 Brock 0 to-read 3.90 2021 The Magician
author: Colm Tóibín
name: Brock
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Being There 887780
No one knows where he has come from, but everybody knows he has come to money, power, and sex.

Was he led to all this by the lovely, well-connected wife of a dying Wall Street tycoon? Or is Chauncey Gardiner riding the waves all by himself because, like a TV image, he floated into the world buoyed up by a force he did not see and could not name? Does he know something we don't? Will he fail? Will he ever be unhappy?

The reader must decide.]]> 118 Jerzy Kosiński 0553279300 Brock 4 3.73 1970 Being There
author: Jerzy Kosiński
name: Brock
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/13
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Children of the Arbat (Arbat Tetralogy, #1)]]> 906860 737 Anatoli Rybakov 0099633302 Brock 0 to-read 4.17 1987 Children of the Arbat (Arbat Tetralogy, #1)
author: Anatoli Rybakov
name: Brock
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Under the Volcano 31072
Under the Volcano remains one of literature's most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition, and a brilliant portrayal of one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.]]> 423 Malcolm Lowry 0060955228 Brock 0 to-read 3.78 1947 Under the Volcano
author: Malcolm Lowry
name: Brock
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1947
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Pedro Páramo 38787
As one enters Juan Rulfo's legendary novel, one follows a dusty road to a town of death. Time shifts from one consciousness to another in a hypnotic flow of dreams, desires, and memories, a world of ghosts dominated by the figure of Pedro Páramo - lover, overlord, murderer.

Rulfo's extraordinary mix of sensory images, violent passions, and unfathomable mysteries has been a profound influence on a whole generation of Latin American writers, including Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Gabriel García Márquez. To read Pedro Páramo today is as overwhelming an experience as when it was first published in Mexico back in 1955.]]> 124 Juan Rulfo 0802133908 Brock 0 to-read 4.06 1955 Pedro Páramo
author: Juan Rulfo
name: Brock
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1955
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sister Deborah 203914673 135 Scholastique Mukasonga 1953861946 Brock 2 3.83 2022 Sister Deborah
author: Scholastique Mukasonga
name: Brock
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:

]]> The Slynx 310722 299 Tatyana Tolstaya 1590171969 Brock 0 to-read 3.77 1999 The Slynx
author: Tatyana Tolstaya
name: Brock
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Twelve Chairs 158516 395 Ilya Ilf 0810114844 Brock 4 4.43 1928 The Twelve Chairs
author: Ilya Ilf
name: Brock
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1928
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]> Death and the Penguin 152893 228 Andrey Kurkov 1860469450 Brock 0 to-read 3.81 1996 Death and the Penguin
author: Andrey Kurkov
name: Brock
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Yama: The Pit 805630 356 Aleksandr Kuprin 1426416334 Brock 0 to-read 4.37 1909 Yama: The Pit
author: Aleksandr Kuprin
name: Brock
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1909
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Time, Forward! (European Classics)]]> 866959 Time, Forward! is a classic of Soviet Realism. Written in 1932, the novel captures the enthusiasm and the optimism of the First Five-Year Plan in its portrayal of the construction of Magnitogorsk, an enormous metallurgical plant considered one of the finest industrial achievements of the period. Time, Forward! embodies the beliefs of the era--that the collective (here a multinational brigade) through its determination and the application of technology can accomplish the impossible, conquer nature, even overcome time. Utilizing cinematic technique, Kataev focuses on a single twenty-four hour period when one of the Magnitogorsk shock-brigades breaks a world record for pouring cement; the result is galvanizing and remarkably affecting.]]> 345 Valentin Kataev 0810112477 Brock 0 to-read 3.11 1976 Time, Forward! (European Classics)
author: Valentin Kataev
name: Brock
average rating: 3.11
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Piranesi 50202953
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.]]> 272 Susanna Clarke 163557563X Brock 0 to-read 4.22 2020 Piranesi
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Brock
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fur Hat 74402 132 Vladimir Voinovich 0156340305 Brock 0 to-read 3.92 1988 The Fur Hat
author: Vladimir Voinovich
name: Brock
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Blinding 17288801 464 Mircea Cărtărescu 1935744844 Brock 4 Orbitor, Blinding is not merely a recapitulation of his childhood, but serves as the magical foundation for his herculean task of searching for metaphysical truth. Infused with spiritual investigations, surreal architectural landscapes, and mesmerizing language, this work exhibits Cărtărescu’s literary genius with no guard rails sending readers into both confusion and entrancement.

In Part One, Cărtărescu introduces us to his beloved Bucharest “Held like a gemstone in the ring of stars, nocturnal Bucharest filled my window, pouring inside and reaching into my body and my mind so deeply that even as a young man I imagined that I was a melange of flesh, stone, cephalo-spinal fluid, I-beams and urine, supported by vertebrae and concrete posts, animated by statues and obsessions, and digested through intestines and steam pipes, making the city and me a single being.� His use of highly technical, biological language at times makes the narrative hard to follow, but also showcases the deliberate detail maintained in translation by the magnificent Sean Cotter. Following Part One, the story becomes a bit hard to follow bouncing around chronologically and switching across various points of view. However in the midst of confusion, each page happily draws you deeper into hallucinogenic prose blending religious doctrines, Gnosticism, historic Bucharest, and dream-like reflections from Mircea’s childhood. In Part Two, we follow his mother Maria through jazz-age Bucharest and wartimes, while also meeting impactful characters like Cedric who reappear in the climactic ending. Mircea’s point of view returns in Part Three as he reflects deeply on his metaphysical concern over existence, sensibility, and supersensibility. He also returns to an idea briefly expressed in Part One surrounding the concatenation of identities over the continuum of time, “The me of today englobes the me of yesterday, who encompasses the one from the day before yesterday and so on and so on, until I am only an immense line of Russian dolls buried one in the next, each one pregnant with its predecessor, but still being born from it…� (pg. 311) Winding through his flowery metaphors and allegories, we reach an apotheosis in the final 40 pages that reads like a biblical revelation. Various characters from throughout the book return together in this surreal hall, each entering from a different path, “…all dreams, all mantras - all of it leads here, to this hall, and you have all arrived here by searching along one of the endlessly multiple paths,� (pg. 434) but all headed towards the same salvation.

Cărtărescu possesses the same unique ability to make fireworks out of quotidian experiences, like beloved Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgård � a style that bewitches some readers while putting off others. His esoteric language and labyrinthine plot makes readers happily lost and carries them along a surreal experience rarely derived from literature. Despite the pyrotechnics, the lack of restraint showed in the middle of the book and many ideas trickled throughout are fleshed out with greater precision in Cărtărescu’s masterpiece Solenoid.

In the end, Cărtărescu’s linguistic genius and inventive mind distracts away from any minor defects and sends readers into a trance from page one. We can only hope that the remaining two books in this trilogy are translated into English in the near future.]]> 4.26 1996 Blinding
author: Mircea Cărtărescu
name: Brock
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves:
review:
Audaciously structured and pyrotechnically written, Cărtărescu pulls readers into the same euphoric trance he entered when writing this kaleidoscopic dream-memoir. Written as the “Left Wing� or the first part of a trilogy called Orbitor, Blinding is not merely a recapitulation of his childhood, but serves as the magical foundation for his herculean task of searching for metaphysical truth. Infused with spiritual investigations, surreal architectural landscapes, and mesmerizing language, this work exhibits Cărtărescu’s literary genius with no guard rails sending readers into both confusion and entrancement.

In Part One, Cărtărescu introduces us to his beloved Bucharest “Held like a gemstone in the ring of stars, nocturnal Bucharest filled my window, pouring inside and reaching into my body and my mind so deeply that even as a young man I imagined that I was a melange of flesh, stone, cephalo-spinal fluid, I-beams and urine, supported by vertebrae and concrete posts, animated by statues and obsessions, and digested through intestines and steam pipes, making the city and me a single being.� His use of highly technical, biological language at times makes the narrative hard to follow, but also showcases the deliberate detail maintained in translation by the magnificent Sean Cotter. Following Part One, the story becomes a bit hard to follow bouncing around chronologically and switching across various points of view. However in the midst of confusion, each page happily draws you deeper into hallucinogenic prose blending religious doctrines, Gnosticism, historic Bucharest, and dream-like reflections from Mircea’s childhood. In Part Two, we follow his mother Maria through jazz-age Bucharest and wartimes, while also meeting impactful characters like Cedric who reappear in the climactic ending. Mircea’s point of view returns in Part Three as he reflects deeply on his metaphysical concern over existence, sensibility, and supersensibility. He also returns to an idea briefly expressed in Part One surrounding the concatenation of identities over the continuum of time, “The me of today englobes the me of yesterday, who encompasses the one from the day before yesterday and so on and so on, until I am only an immense line of Russian dolls buried one in the next, each one pregnant with its predecessor, but still being born from it…� (pg. 311) Winding through his flowery metaphors and allegories, we reach an apotheosis in the final 40 pages that reads like a biblical revelation. Various characters from throughout the book return together in this surreal hall, each entering from a different path, “…all dreams, all mantras - all of it leads here, to this hall, and you have all arrived here by searching along one of the endlessly multiple paths,� (pg. 434) but all headed towards the same salvation.

Cărtărescu possesses the same unique ability to make fireworks out of quotidian experiences, like beloved Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgård � a style that bewitches some readers while putting off others. His esoteric language and labyrinthine plot makes readers happily lost and carries them along a surreal experience rarely derived from literature. Despite the pyrotechnics, the lack of restraint showed in the middle of the book and many ideas trickled throughout are fleshed out with greater precision in Cărtărescu’s masterpiece Solenoid.

In the end, Cărtărescu’s linguistic genius and inventive mind distracts away from any minor defects and sends readers into a trance from page one. We can only hope that the remaining two books in this trilogy are translated into English in the near future.
]]> Waiting for the Fear 197522384
Adored in Turkey for his post-modern fiction and regarded internationally as one of Turkey’s greatest writers, Oğuz Atay remains largely untranslated into English. First published in 1975, Waiting for the Fear is Atay's only collection of short stories, a book that is routinely praised in Turkey, by, among others, the Nobel Prizewinner Orhan Pamuk, for having transformed the art of short fiction.

The eight stories that the book contains, all of them focused on characters living on the margins of society, are dramatic and even tragic, while also being shot through with irony and a humor. In the title story, a nameless young man, of a thoughtful and misanthropic turn of mind, returns to his home on the outskirts of a enormous nameless city to find waiting for him a letter in a foreign language of which he has no knowledge at all, and from this anomalous, if seemingly trivial, turn of events, one thing after another unfolds with with stark inevitablity. Another story nods to Gogol's "The Overcoat": its hero is a speechless beggar wandering around the back streets of Istanbul dressed in a woman’s fur coat who will end up stuck in a shop window like a manikin. Elsewhere, a professional story peddler lives in a hut beside a train station in a country that is at war--unless it isn't. He can't remember. What do such life and death realities matter, however, so long as there are stories to tell? Atays' stories are full of a vivid sense of life's absurdities while also being psychologically true to life; his characters, oddballs and losers all, are also utterly individual with distinctive voices of their own, now plainspoken, wistful, womanly, now sophisticated and acerbic, with a dangerous swagger. And if Atay is a brilliant examiner of the inner life, he is no less aware of the flawed social world in which his people struggle to make their way

Waiting for the Fear is a book that, page by beguiling page, holds the reader's attention from beginning to end, the rare collection of short stories that not only reflects a unique authorial vision but reads like a pageturner. Ralph Hubbell's new translation will introduce readers of English to a still insufficiently known giant of modern Turkish and world literature.]]> 240 Oğuz Atay 1681377969 Brock 3 Waiting for the Fear makes a boisterous statement with eight eccentric and highly amusing stories. While each story stands alone with its own jarring plot, psychological strain and a self-critical narrative voice permeate the entire collection. Through his depiction of a misunderstood vagrant, paranoid recluse, mourning son, and other bizarre personas, Atay constructs a world full of oddities and complexities, while showcasing his ability for effective storytelling.

The collection begins with the curious tale Man in a White Overcoat, which follows a mute beggar who is carried along by the vicissitudes of the day. Repeatedly misinterpreted by strangers, he wanders around the town square in his newly acquired white overcoat attracting attention, which opportunistic vendors leverage to sell their garments. Pushed along by chance, he travels on a train with “all the people who were tired like him, and dirty like him, and indifferent, just like him, to the world they'd been forced to live in,� (pg. 18) until he arrives at a beach, walks into the water, and drowns. This desire to resist the random occurrence and enact control over own’s one life is a frustration that plagues many of the narrators in this collection; such as the manic, over-thinker found in the title story Waiting for the Fear. Paranoiac and anxious, the narrator’s innate unease becomes heightened when he is greeted with an envelope containing a threatening, cryptic message in a secret language. Unable to find relief through his usual "which meant”s and comforting explanations, he spirals in delirium and self-contempt for his own ineptitude. However, after his fear is assuaged, he finds the return to his predictable life uninspiring, “At least the time I'd spent at home waiting in fear, or waiting for the fear, mattered, it had a future. And the time I spent prior to receiving the letter also seemed more valuable now.� (pg. 93)

One of the standout stories is The Forgotten, which pulls readers into the mind of a woman grieving over her former lover’s suicide. As she cleans out the attic stumbling upon old relics and envisioning the body of her deceased partner, she struggles to accept the reality of it, “No, he isn't really dead; if he was, I couldn't have gone on living. He knew that.� (pg. 25) Her reluctance to accept the past and inability to relieve herself of her own perceived guilt, “Why didn't I call to him? I suppose I just never had the chance; something always came,� (pg. 16) makes a somber impression on the hearts of readers. Atay revisits a similar emotional tone in Letter To My Father where a son laments over his ambivalent feelings towards his father and fears his growing resemblance to him.

Despite his consistent eloquent prose, Atay misses the mark with a few stories in this collection, particularly due to his stylistic or structural choices. A Letter contains a sporadic telling of events from the writer of an unsent letter to an unspecified recipient. Not Yes Not No has moments of comedic comments and ideas, but is riddled with constant interjections that make the story frustrating to read. The Wooden Horse is a promising story with a rebellious contrarian, but is one that likely becomes more compelling with additional reads.

As one of the most revered writers in Turkish literature, Atay delivers not only arresting stories full of quirky characters and memorable storylines, but does so with a distinct voice and vivacious language.]]> 3.90 1973 Waiting for the Fear
author: Oğuz Atay
name: Brock
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1973
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves:
review:
Previously untranslated and unknown to an English audience, Atay’s Waiting for the Fear makes a boisterous statement with eight eccentric and highly amusing stories. While each story stands alone with its own jarring plot, psychological strain and a self-critical narrative voice permeate the entire collection. Through his depiction of a misunderstood vagrant, paranoid recluse, mourning son, and other bizarre personas, Atay constructs a world full of oddities and complexities, while showcasing his ability for effective storytelling.

The collection begins with the curious tale Man in a White Overcoat, which follows a mute beggar who is carried along by the vicissitudes of the day. Repeatedly misinterpreted by strangers, he wanders around the town square in his newly acquired white overcoat attracting attention, which opportunistic vendors leverage to sell their garments. Pushed along by chance, he travels on a train with “all the people who were tired like him, and dirty like him, and indifferent, just like him, to the world they'd been forced to live in,� (pg. 18) until he arrives at a beach, walks into the water, and drowns. This desire to resist the random occurrence and enact control over own’s one life is a frustration that plagues many of the narrators in this collection; such as the manic, over-thinker found in the title story Waiting for the Fear. Paranoiac and anxious, the narrator’s innate unease becomes heightened when he is greeted with an envelope containing a threatening, cryptic message in a secret language. Unable to find relief through his usual "which meant”s and comforting explanations, he spirals in delirium and self-contempt for his own ineptitude. However, after his fear is assuaged, he finds the return to his predictable life uninspiring, “At least the time I'd spent at home waiting in fear, or waiting for the fear, mattered, it had a future. And the time I spent prior to receiving the letter also seemed more valuable now.� (pg. 93)

One of the standout stories is The Forgotten, which pulls readers into the mind of a woman grieving over her former lover’s suicide. As she cleans out the attic stumbling upon old relics and envisioning the body of her deceased partner, she struggles to accept the reality of it, “No, he isn't really dead; if he was, I couldn't have gone on living. He knew that.� (pg. 25) Her reluctance to accept the past and inability to relieve herself of her own perceived guilt, “Why didn't I call to him? I suppose I just never had the chance; something always came,� (pg. 16) makes a somber impression on the hearts of readers. Atay revisits a similar emotional tone in Letter To My Father where a son laments over his ambivalent feelings towards his father and fears his growing resemblance to him.

Despite his consistent eloquent prose, Atay misses the mark with a few stories in this collection, particularly due to his stylistic or structural choices. A Letter contains a sporadic telling of events from the writer of an unsent letter to an unspecified recipient. Not Yes Not No has moments of comedic comments and ideas, but is riddled with constant interjections that make the story frustrating to read. The Wooden Horse is a promising story with a rebellious contrarian, but is one that likely becomes more compelling with additional reads.

As one of the most revered writers in Turkish literature, Atay delivers not only arresting stories full of quirky characters and memorable storylines, but does so with a distinct voice and vivacious language.
]]> My Childhood 163620 240 Maxim Gorky 0140182853 Brock 4
The work begins with the traumatic death of Gorky’s father, Maxim Savvatyevich Peshkov, which leaves his mother sobbing in agony before she leaves young Alexei (Maxim) with his grandparents. He spends much of his formative years with his two uncles and his grandparents, who present various dualities. His grandmother is endearing, resilient, and believes in a loving God, whereas his cantankerous, abusive grandfather lives in a manner comparable to the God of the Old Testament � that is angry and vengeful. When Gorky is initially beaten unconscious by his grandfather, his temperament becomes permanently altered as he develops a somber, empathetic view of the world, “During that time I seemed to suddenly grow older and develop a new quality� that of being deeply concerned about all people. It was as though the skin had been torn off my heart, making it unbearably sensitive to every injury, my own or another's.�

Beyond the brutality of his upbringing, readers are introduced to a slew of transient characters that briefly befriend Alexei and offer him advice before being ripped from his life either via death or other circumstances. Whether it’s Tsignaok advising how to handle beatings or “That’s Fine� (or “Just the Job� in other translations) exemplifying grace in the face of contempt, Alexei is able to keep his head above water and refrain from adopting a misanthropic worldview. Instead, he’s able to regain his composure and emotional rigidity, “Such moments give rise to thoughts which are particularly pure, but fragile and transparent as a spider's web, defying capture in words. They flash and fade like falling stars, searing the soul with sadness, or fondling it, disturbing it, causing it to seethe and crystallize into permanent contours. At such moments character is moulded.�

Throughout the story, like any great autobiography, Gorky depicts characters with an ambivalence labeling them neither good nor evil, but simply as they are. This allows readers to find sympathy for dishonorable individuals and casts a light on humanity’s fallibility. Woven into the prose and themes of the work is the Russian spirit � staunch resilience, meddle, and optimism even in the face of incessant torment. This is shown through his grandmother’s pride in handling punishment and also in Alexei’s ability to roll with the punches of life. By the end, Gorky makes his choice to view his childhood not for the bleak, darkness that shrouds it, but for the “bright and wholesome creative forces gleaming beneath. And the influence of good is growing, giving promise that our people will at last awaken to a life full of beauty and bright humanity.�

Paced well and packed with striking accounts, Gorky invites you into an all-too common childhood for Russian children in the late 19th century, while also speaking to universal truths about mankind. I eagerly look forward to reading the other two books within this trilogy.]]> 4.06 1913 My Childhood
author: Maxim Gorky
name: Brock
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1913
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/23
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves:
review:
As the opening work in a trilogy of autobiographies covering the despondent, turbulent life of Maxim Gorky, My Childhood (Детство) contains more than a recapitulation of a troublesome childhood and offers a glimpse into the Russian spirit. Gorky’s raw rhetoric softens no rough edges and pulls readers into the psyche of a young fatherless boy trying to make sense of the harsh environment he’s immersed within. Itinerant visitors, mentors, and family members come and go as young Gorky grapples with abuse and the cultural fomentation occurring around him.

The work begins with the traumatic death of Gorky’s father, Maxim Savvatyevich Peshkov, which leaves his mother sobbing in agony before she leaves young Alexei (Maxim) with his grandparents. He spends much of his formative years with his two uncles and his grandparents, who present various dualities. His grandmother is endearing, resilient, and believes in a loving God, whereas his cantankerous, abusive grandfather lives in a manner comparable to the God of the Old Testament � that is angry and vengeful. When Gorky is initially beaten unconscious by his grandfather, his temperament becomes permanently altered as he develops a somber, empathetic view of the world, “During that time I seemed to suddenly grow older and develop a new quality� that of being deeply concerned about all people. It was as though the skin had been torn off my heart, making it unbearably sensitive to every injury, my own or another's.�

Beyond the brutality of his upbringing, readers are introduced to a slew of transient characters that briefly befriend Alexei and offer him advice before being ripped from his life either via death or other circumstances. Whether it’s Tsignaok advising how to handle beatings or “That’s Fine� (or “Just the Job� in other translations) exemplifying grace in the face of contempt, Alexei is able to keep his head above water and refrain from adopting a misanthropic worldview. Instead, he’s able to regain his composure and emotional rigidity, “Such moments give rise to thoughts which are particularly pure, but fragile and transparent as a spider's web, defying capture in words. They flash and fade like falling stars, searing the soul with sadness, or fondling it, disturbing it, causing it to seethe and crystallize into permanent contours. At such moments character is moulded.�

Throughout the story, like any great autobiography, Gorky depicts characters with an ambivalence labeling them neither good nor evil, but simply as they are. This allows readers to find sympathy for dishonorable individuals and casts a light on humanity’s fallibility. Woven into the prose and themes of the work is the Russian spirit � staunch resilience, meddle, and optimism even in the face of incessant torment. This is shown through his grandmother’s pride in handling punishment and also in Alexei’s ability to roll with the punches of life. By the end, Gorky makes his choice to view his childhood not for the bleak, darkness that shrouds it, but for the “bright and wholesome creative forces gleaming beneath. And the influence of good is growing, giving promise that our people will at last awaken to a life full of beauty and bright humanity.�

Paced well and packed with striking accounts, Gorky invites you into an all-too common childhood for Russian children in the late 19th century, while also speaking to universal truths about mankind. I eagerly look forward to reading the other two books within this trilogy.
]]> Stone Upon Stone 7938070 Stone Upon Stone is Wiesław Myśliwski’s grand epic in the rural tradition—a profound and irreverent stream of memory cutting through the rich and varied terrain of one man’s connection to the land, to his family and community, to women, to tradition, to God, to death, and to what it means to be alive.

Wise and impetuous, plainspoken and compassionate Szymek, recalls his youth in their village, his time as a guerrilla soldier, as a wedding official, barber, policeman, lover, drinker, and caretaker for his invalid brother.

Filled with interwoven stories and voices, by turns hilarious and moving, Szymek’s narrative exudes the profound wisdom of one who has suffered, yet who loves life to the very core.
]]> 537 Wiesław Myśliwski 098262462X Brock 0 to-read 4.44 1984 Stone Upon Stone
author: Wiesław Myśliwski
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]]> Roadside Picnic 331256
First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years.]]> 145 Arkady Strugatsky 0575070536 Brock 0 to-read 4.16 1972 Roadside Picnic
author: Arkady Strugatsky
name: Brock
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1972
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