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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.
831677's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
lukiut's review against another edition
5.0
Am adorat cartea asta din tot sufletul.
O lectură potrivită pentru final de octombrie și început de noiembrie. Fiori la tot pasul, atât al tău printre cuvinte, cât și al personajelor prin viața de zi cu zi. O portretizare a comunismului ca niciuna din cele pe care le-am citit până acum, poate chiar cu mai mult impact emoțional decât o carte de memorii în adevăratul sens al cuvântului.
Pe lângă asta, oh, stilul de scriere m-a dat pe spate. Abia aștept să mai citesc și altceva de la Herta Müller, pentru că „Animalul inimii” sigur mi-a rămas la inimă!
O lectură potrivită pentru final de octombrie și început de noiembrie. Fiori la tot pasul, atât al tău printre cuvinte, cât și al personajelor prin viața de zi cu zi. O portretizare a comunismului ca niciuna din cele pe care le-am citit până acum, poate chiar cu mai mult impact emoțional decât o carte de memorii în adevăratul sens al cuvântului.
Pe lângă asta, oh, stilul de scriere m-a dat pe spate. Abia aștept să mai citesc și altceva de la Herta Müller, pentru că „Animalul inimii” sigur mi-a rămas la inimă!
mangliu0130's review
4.0
“如果我们沉默，别人会不舒服，埃德加说，如果我们说话，别人会觉得可笑”
开场白是这一句，结尾也是这一句。只有在极权的恐惧下长期生活过才能立刻理解到赫塔·米勒的意思吧。
一开始觉得米勒的语言很破碎，适应了以后感觉是写成了小说的诗，有韵律有歌曲有无言的恐怖和足够的想象空间让读者自己去填补。很庆幸先读了《每一句话语都坐着别的眼睛》，里面有一段写得非常非常好：
“如果有人问我，为什么这本书严肃，而另外一本肤浅。我只能回答，那要看它在大脑中引发的迷失的密度，那些能立刻吸引我的思想、词语却无法驻足的地方的密度。文章中这样的地方越多，就越严肃，这样的地方越少，就越平庸。一直以来，我评价一篇文字的优劣，这是唯一的标准。每一个好句子都会使大脑无声地迷失，把读者带到一个它所释放的内容迥异于词语之表达的境界。如果说一本书带给我改变，那就是基于这样的原因。尽管大家总是强调诗歌与散文的不同，但在这个问题上，二者没有区别。”
《心兽》也是这样在语言中让我迷失，无声地改变了我。
（btw心兽Herztier比英译名The Land of Green Plums好太多了，阻止自杀的心兽，从女人身体里跳出来的心兽，栖息在活人身上的已逝亲人的心兽）
开场白是这一句，结尾也是这一句。只有在极权的恐惧下长期生活过才能立刻理解到赫塔·米勒的意思吧。
一开始觉得米勒的语言很破碎，适应了以后感觉是写成了小说的诗，有韵律有歌曲有无言的恐怖和足够的想象空间让读者自己去填补。很庆幸先读了《每一句话语都坐着别的眼睛》，里面有一段写得非常非常好：
“如果有人问我，为什么这本书严肃，而另外一本肤浅。我只能回答，那要看它在大脑中引发的迷失的密度，那些能立刻吸引我的思想、词语却无法驻足的地方的密度。文章中这样的地方越多，就越严肃，这样的地方越少，就越平庸。一直以来，我评价一篇文字的优劣，这是唯一的标准。每一个好句子都会使大脑无声地迷失，把读者带到一个它所释放的内容迥异于词语之表达的境界。如果说一本书带给我改变，那就是基于这样的原因。尽管大家总是强调诗歌与散文的不同，但在这个问题上，二者没有区别。”
《心兽》也是这样在语言中让我迷失，无声地改变了我。
（btw心兽Herztier比英译名The Land of Green Plums好太多了，阻止自杀的心兽，从女人身体里跳出来的心兽，栖息在活人身上的已逝亲人的心兽）
sloatsj's review
5.0
I’d not intended to read this book. When Herta Müller won the Nobel Prize for literature last year, I shrugged and went on with my life. My mother picked this up, found it dull, and passed it on to me without much encouragement.
This book was strong on neither plot nor character and yet it was a marvelous book.
The plot is straight-forward: Romania under dictatorship, its citizens making themselves into “tin sheep” and calling it “metallurgy,” working then drinking in bodegas like “refugees from a meaningless afternoon.”
The characters weren’t much fuller than stick figures sent out to do their various jobs like the paper chickens on the protaganist’s puppet board, which she calls the “chicken torture.”
Yet the book was striking because of the writing. So often a sentence or sequence morphed into a strange birth. You’re reading and suddenly something remarkable happens.
“On my way home I was carrying a nutria fur cap in my hand and a whole sunset on my head.” (p. 184)
“Mother didn’t put down her knife while eating, even though everything had already been cut into bite-sized pieces. She needed it to speak with.” (p. 142)
“In the factory I was translating instructions for hydraulic machinery. For me, the machines were one big dictionary.” (p. 106)
The book isn’t meant to be funny and yet at times the absurdity of it is funny. For example, there’s Captain Pjele the interrogator and his dog, also named Pjele. It’s weird and the tension of that weirdness makes it scary and hilarious.
I must claim enormous ignorance on the political background of this story, of Müller’s own story, but while it’s understated or expressed absurdly the oppression is quite clear. You don’t feel it’s something that can be escaped even when someone escapes the country.
If you are interested in surreal prose, you'll love this. If you need fleshed-out characters and twisty plots, it's not for you.
This book was strong on neither plot nor character and yet it was a marvelous book.
The plot is straight-forward: Romania under dictatorship, its citizens making themselves into “tin sheep” and calling it “metallurgy,” working then drinking in bodegas like “refugees from a meaningless afternoon.”
The characters weren’t much fuller than stick figures sent out to do their various jobs like the paper chickens on the protaganist’s puppet board, which she calls the “chicken torture.”
Yet the book was striking because of the writing. So often a sentence or sequence morphed into a strange birth. You’re reading and suddenly something remarkable happens.
“On my way home I was carrying a nutria fur cap in my hand and a whole sunset on my head.” (p. 184)
“Mother didn’t put down her knife while eating, even though everything had already been cut into bite-sized pieces. She needed it to speak with.” (p. 142)
“In the factory I was translating instructions for hydraulic machinery. For me, the machines were one big dictionary.” (p. 106)
The book isn’t meant to be funny and yet at times the absurdity of it is funny. For example, there’s Captain Pjele the interrogator and his dog, also named Pjele. It’s weird and the tension of that weirdness makes it scary and hilarious.
I must claim enormous ignorance on the political background of this story, of Müller’s own story, but while it’s understated or expressed absurdly the oppression is quite clear. You don’t feel it’s something that can be escaped even when someone escapes the country.
If you are interested in surreal prose, you'll love this. If you need fleshed-out characters and twisty plots, it's not for you.
socorrobaptista's review against another edition
4.0
Uma narrativa difícil, muitas vezes confusa, que nos mostra como regimes autoritários mexem com a vida das pessoas em situação de vulnerabilidade. Muito bom.
asad261's review against another edition
4.0
"سرزمین گوجه های سبز"جذاب بود و خواندنی و در عین حال تلخ و نفسگیر.هرتامولر زندگی در یک جامعه خفقان زده را به زیبایی روایت کرده بود.کلیت داستان با خواندن برشهای کوتاه و منقطع از دل خاطرات و گفتگوها بروز پیدا میکرد.کتابی بود که دوست نداشتم زود تموم بشه و لذت خواندنش رو از دست بدم.
pjv1013's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0