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Wolken Boven Berlijn (2009)

by Chloe Aridjis(Favorite Author)

3.4 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

9020410172 (ISBN13: 9789020410174)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Atlas-Contact

review 1: A stunningly beautiful novel of a young Mexican-Jewish woman wandering the streets of Berlin after the fall of the wall. Her walks explore the underlying history of WWII, of Gestapo and Stasi. She wanders isolated, only slightly engaged with the people around her, connected to her employer through dictated observations of the city. The novel is Her quest for understanding,of making sense of the world she inhabits. One of my favorite books of the year.
review 2: After a few chapters I thought: a ghost story. And indeed at the end the narrator notes that "there was little difference between clouds and shadows and other phenomena given shape by the human imagination."Is there any substance to this story? It's not just that Tatiana sees and feels and hears ghos... morets; every action, every thought, every word seems haunted by the past and the horrors of humanity. There is no anchor, no context to make anything real. Changes are too vast and unpredictable to find a place in. All is disguise, smoke and mirrors, chalk on the wall.In some respects the unresolved narrative reminds me of another book I recently read, "Event Factory". As with that novel the writing is crisp, precise, simple, yet also eloquent, creating tension with atmosphere rather than action. Tatiana is going back, attempting to escape to a solid past, but her ability to reconnect and fit into its substance is elusive and unknown. Clouds both surround and fill a formless future of uncertainty. less

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