Reviews

Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck

Only show reviews with written explanations

drwilko's review

challenging emotional informative lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

"Or have the people living here under untroubled circumstances and at so great a distance from the wars of others been afflicted with a poverty of experience, a sort of emotional anemia? Must living in peace — so fervently wished for throughout human history and yet enjoyed in only a few parts of the world — inevitably result in refusing to share it with those seeking refuge, defending it instead so aggressively that it almost looks like war?"

"He sticks his fork in the amply filled salad bowl, telling himself it would be a logical fallacy to just stop eating one day out of solidarity with this or that poor, desperate person somewhere in the world. He’d still be trapped in his cage of free agency, imprisoned by the luxury of free choice."

"This isn’t the first time he’s felt ashamed to be eating dinner in front of a TV screen displaying the bodies of people felled by gunfire or killed by earthquakes or plane crashes, someone’s shoe left behind after a suicide bombing, or plastic-wrapped corpses lying side by side in a mass grave during an epidemic."

emilymsimpson's review

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

styllebad's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

gadicohen93's review against another edition

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4.0

A retired man, a widower, adopts a community of African refugees in Berlin of the 2010s. It is a beautiful book. I particularly loved the moments of reflection, the man thinking on his life, relating on his pain and on the extraordinary pain of his new friends, who exist in the legal and geographical limbo of asylum seekers in the EU.

Perhaps it seemed a bit ordinary, a type of book I've read before — "white savior" complex-y, I guess, a man who through conversations with people different than him becomes kinder, happier. The poor black refugees, hated and despised in Germany, and yet he shelters them, and in turn is elevated by them! In this sense the story felt tired. Though the texture — the setting of Berlin, parallels to re-unification — made it feel real.

The voice is distant, detached from Richard, so much so that some of the other more grabbing scenes were the narratives of the refugees he meets, stories so harrowing — the boats capsizing, the fighting in Libya — that it's impossible not to scour the dialogue for its effect on Richard. The writing is simple but flows, with moments of symbolism and rich philosophical musing.

lil1inblue's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

amanova's review

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slow-paced

3.75

I read this for the StoryGraph reads the world challenge for Germany. I wanted something not set during WWI or WWII.

I’m glad I read it even though it was slow and heavy. It’s a beautiful and important story that I believe will become increasingly important as climate aggravates poverty and war and increases the numbers of refugees that must be accommodated by wealthy nations if we are to maintain our humanity.