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coffeebooksrepeat's review against another edition
4.0
I dropped a Lispector because I had difficulty reading it, only to pick up another book that’s even harder to read.
The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller, set in Romania during the dictatorship of Ceaușescu, is a story of young individuals wanting to be free, to run free -- free from their impoverished lives in the provinces and free from despotic leadership.
The book started engrossing. I was flipping pages faster than expected and even failed to notice I was already around 30-40 pages in it. Then came the first suicide. I don’t know if it’s just me, but after the death of Lola, the writing style got more and more fragmentary. Have you ever tried having a diary while you were younger? You just kept on writing whenever you like, whatever you want, sometimes continuing one subject and other times starting a new one unrelated to the previous entry.
Müller was not only able to capture the fear of the characters but also that of the regime. The latter may have all the machinery to preserve its position, yet it still consistently feared one thing — education. Like all other despots, they fear the learned, the educated.
Every time I was reading it, be it in the car, the house, or at the office, I almost always wanted to be somewhere else. It is one of those books which require the readers to be in a dim-lit room where wood creaks are welcome distractions, and good lighting is not mandatory.
If you have the heart for it, read it at your risk.
The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller, set in Romania during the dictatorship of Ceaușescu, is a story of young individuals wanting to be free, to run free -- free from their impoverished lives in the provinces and free from despotic leadership.
The book started engrossing. I was flipping pages faster than expected and even failed to notice I was already around 30-40 pages in it. Then came the first suicide. I don’t know if it’s just me, but after the death of Lola, the writing style got more and more fragmentary. Have you ever tried having a diary while you were younger? You just kept on writing whenever you like, whatever you want, sometimes continuing one subject and other times starting a new one unrelated to the previous entry.
Müller was not only able to capture the fear of the characters but also that of the regime. The latter may have all the machinery to preserve its position, yet it still consistently feared one thing — education. Like all other despots, they fear the learned, the educated.
Every time I was reading it, be it in the car, the house, or at the office, I almost always wanted to be somewhere else. It is one of those books which require the readers to be in a dim-lit room where wood creaks are welcome distractions, and good lighting is not mandatory.
If you have the heart for it, read it at your risk.
lizsg's review
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
madalinacalmuc12's review
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
4.0
robertlashley's review
5.0
The Land of Green Plums, Herta Müller's novel about student life in Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania, is a welcome addition to anyone's library. Müller details the ravages dictatorships put on the individual in a voice resonant, devastating, and unbearably beautiful. The novel established her as a leading figure in European fiction and stands today as a fine case for her merit as 2009's Nobel Laureate in Literature.
Plums follows two different plotlines: a world-weary young woman struggling under Romania's Communist regime and the same woman as a child growing up. After the traumatic death of a close friend, she connects with her three classmates Edgar, Kurt and Georg; friendships that, like those of many twentysomethings, are tenative yet genial. After graduation all four are forced to work in menial positions for the state, and each of them -- smart, witty, and hip in their own way -- hate their assigned jobs with a passion. The government puts its foot down, and they are fired, persecuted, and tormented to the point of death solely for failing to subscribe to Ceausecu's cult of personality.
"Because we were afraid, Edgar, Kurt, Georg and I met everyday. We sat on the table but our fear stayed locked within each of our heads , just like when we brought it to meetings. We laughed a lot, to hide from each other. But fear always finds out. If you control your face, it slips past your voice. If you manage to keep a grip on your face and your voice, as if they are deadwood, it will slip out your fingers. It will pass through your skin and lie there. You can see it around on objects lying close by."
--from The Land of Green Plums
The traumatic power of Plums lies in its narrative arc, how each individual loses their identity (and then their minds) under a system that wants to control every aspect of their existence. The novel triumphs not in declaration of politics, but in narrative exposition. The Land of Green Plums is not explicitly polemical; Müller gets her point across through the recollections, threats, interrogations, and mob harassment that come upon each character. Their disparate stories weave together in a way haunting, poetic and reserved; postmodern in structure with the character-driven gravity of 19th century realism.
It's easy to read this novel and see what the AIPAC and Nobel committees saw in Herta Müller. Though The Land of Green Plums tells a story all Müller's own, its themes - friendship, death, the individual in conflict with the group as political extension - tie her to many of the great works of world literature.
Plums follows two different plotlines: a world-weary young woman struggling under Romania's Communist regime and the same woman as a child growing up. After the traumatic death of a close friend, she connects with her three classmates Edgar, Kurt and Georg; friendships that, like those of many twentysomethings, are tenative yet genial. After graduation all four are forced to work in menial positions for the state, and each of them -- smart, witty, and hip in their own way -- hate their assigned jobs with a passion. The government puts its foot down, and they are fired, persecuted, and tormented to the point of death solely for failing to subscribe to Ceausecu's cult of personality.
"Because we were afraid, Edgar, Kurt, Georg and I met everyday. We sat on the table but our fear stayed locked within each of our heads , just like when we brought it to meetings. We laughed a lot, to hide from each other. But fear always finds out. If you control your face, it slips past your voice. If you manage to keep a grip on your face and your voice, as if they are deadwood, it will slip out your fingers. It will pass through your skin and lie there. You can see it around on objects lying close by."
--from The Land of Green Plums
The traumatic power of Plums lies in its narrative arc, how each individual loses their identity (and then their minds) under a system that wants to control every aspect of their existence. The novel triumphs not in declaration of politics, but in narrative exposition. The Land of Green Plums is not explicitly polemical; Müller gets her point across through the recollections, threats, interrogations, and mob harassment that come upon each character. Their disparate stories weave together in a way haunting, poetic and reserved; postmodern in structure with the character-driven gravity of 19th century realism.
It's easy to read this novel and see what the AIPAC and Nobel committees saw in Herta Müller. Though The Land of Green Plums tells a story all Müller's own, its themes - friendship, death, the individual in conflict with the group as political extension - tie her to many of the great works of world literature.
jenpenbuck's review against another edition
Narrative was too fragmented and confusing! Would be a better read as part of a class or book club that would help analyze it.
tanemariacris's review
A work of poetic sensibility that captures the disruptive effects of fear in a world marked by constant surveillance. The themes are impactfully conveyed through the employment of a paratactic, often allegorical writing style leaving gaps in the narrative structure in a similar manner to how trauma decomposes the cohesion and flow of memories and also creating a sense of perpetual tension and dread.
thedreadcat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25
coffeebooksrepeat's review
4.0
I dropped a Lispector because I had difficulty reading it, only to pick up another book that’s even harder to read.
The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller, set in Romania during the dictatorship of Ceaușescu, is a story of young individuals wanting to be free, to run free -- free from their impoverished lives in the provinces and free from despotic leadership.
The book started engrossing. I was flipping pages faster than expected and even failed to notice I was already around 30-40 pages in it. Then came the first suicide. I don’t know if it’s just me, but after the death of Lola, the writing style got more and more fragmentary. Have you ever tried having a diary while you were younger? You just kept on writing whenever you like, whatever you want, sometimes continuing one subject and other times starting a new one unrelated to the previous entry.
Müller was not only able to capture the fear of the characters but also that of the regime. The latter may have all the machinery to preserve its position, yet it still consistently feared one thing — education. Like all other despots, they fear the learned, the educated.
Every time I was reading it, be it in the car, the house, or at the office, I almost always wanted to be somewhere else. It is one of those books which require the readers to be in a dim-lit room where wood creaks are welcome distractions, and good lighting is not mandatory.
If you have the heart for it, read it at your risk.
The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller, set in Romania during the dictatorship of Ceaușescu, is a story of young individuals wanting to be free, to run free -- free from their impoverished lives in the provinces and free from despotic leadership.
The book started engrossing. I was flipping pages faster than expected and even failed to notice I was already around 30-40 pages in it. Then came the first suicide. I don’t know if it’s just me, but after the death of Lola, the writing style got more and more fragmentary. Have you ever tried having a diary while you were younger? You just kept on writing whenever you like, whatever you want, sometimes continuing one subject and other times starting a new one unrelated to the previous entry.
Müller was not only able to capture the fear of the characters but also that of the regime. The latter may have all the machinery to preserve its position, yet it still consistently feared one thing — education. Like all other despots, they fear the learned, the educated.
Every time I was reading it, be it in the car, the house, or at the office, I almost always wanted to be somewhere else. It is one of those books which require the readers to be in a dim-lit room where wood creaks are welcome distractions, and good lighting is not mandatory.
If you have the heart for it, read it at your risk.