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Gli Occhiali Di Heidegger (2010)

by Thaisa Frank(Favorite Author)

3.39 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

8854504386 (ISBN13: 9788854504387)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Neri Pozza

review 1: Lately I've been shying away from World War II books that deal with the holocaust and Nazism, because usually these stories are always so horrific, that it really saddens and depresses me to read them. After reading the premises of Heidegger's Glasses, I thought this might be an interesting and different view of the war. The book is based loosely on the Reich's obsession with the occult, they decide that all the letters from the dead must be answered to guarantee their war victory. The book starts each chapter with notes, that I wasn't able to decide was written by the victims or by the Scribes (prisoners) who were ordered to answer them. In any case the notes didn't do much for me, they just seemed like made up nonsense.I was very disappointed with the cast of characters ... morethey were so flat and unbelievable. I'm not sure what Thaisa Frank was aiming for horror, romance, comic relief? This book did not evoke any kind of a normal emotional response out of me, that someone should feel when reading about the holocaust. I actually felt nothing but annoyance and just wanted it to be over with.
review 2: I wasn't sure I was going to connect with this story at first, due to its absurd premise. Patience is definitely an asset, and the payoff is exceptionally rewarding. The surreal, unique conceit takes the Holocaust as background and purpose and weaves a persuasive tale. Frank's oblique narrative approach is strange, and myth-like, so that the reader is initially at arm's length, bemused at what appears to be an inconceivable plot. However, it all comes together in a compelling, tender, plausible, and richly woven testament to humanity, hope, and love. Moreover, the themes are powerful and wholly relevant today.In northern Germany, in the thick of the woods and ten meters below the ground, is a mineshaft converted into a Compound. Sixty people who were headed for the death camps in Nazi Germany were spared because of their multilingual talents. Instead of deportation, they are ordered to the Compound to answer letters written by people in the camps, even though the senders and receivers are likely dead.Himmler and Hitler were obsessed with the occult and the astral plane. Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, has reasons for going along with it. Propaganda is crucial at this time when Germany is creating an atmosphere of denial, especially after their failure at Stalingrad. They want the letters for a twofold reason--to conceal the truth of the Final Solution via bogus documentation of life at the camps, and to pacify the dead. The Reich's preoccupation with orphic beliefs opens channels for this novel to make credible sense, as odd as that may seem, and for profound metaphors about the unearthly, concealed, hidden, and recondite to take form. What presents as fantastical myth transcends into sound verisimilitude.Elie Schacten, a Polish blonde beauty, is the central character in the book, and the Scribe that tethers the Compound to the world-at-large. She exchanges flirtations with SS officers in return for supplies and food for the Scribes, and when possible, assists refugees to escape from death. Her lover, Lodenstein, the Oberst of the Compound, is torn between concern for her safety aboveground and jealousy at her contrived flirtations with Nazis.Dieter Stumpf is the only member not a Scribe, because he doesn't know any foreign languages. He's a pitiful but dangerous buffoon who was demoted from Oberst to patrol guard, and who is outwitted by the Scribes at every turn. Stumpf dreams of decorated heroism and recognition by the Reich.The sense of place is riveting, from the Compound below the earth to the vast and midnight sky at night. I saw billions of stars and the changing phases of the moon, heard the footfalls in the snow, the crunch of crackling ice, and felt the dense wood of trees in the dark and haunting Black Forest."It's a strange world...But we can never fall out of it because we live in it all the time.""...what it felt like to fall out of a world made safe by human meaning. A fragile world...poised to fall apart."This is not a history lesson, although the Holocaust is the catalyst for everything that happens. It is also an elegiac love story, a suspense thriller, a philosophical inquiry, a brush with the Cabala and a timeless, thought-provoking meditation on how the dead are remembered. It is darkly enchanting, intellectually stimulating and emotionally spellbinding. This will undoubtedly be one of the most mesmerizing books I've read this year. less

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