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3.3 AVERAGE
3.3 AVERAGE
Translated from the German by Philip Boehm, The Fox was Ever the Hunter was longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2017. The book is a novelisation of the film Der Fuchs der Jäger (1993), co-produced by Germany and Romania, whose script was written by Herta Müller alongside Harry Merkel. The premise of the story is actually interesting and I expected a lot from this book. It focuses on Adina, a teacher in Romania in the last days of Ceaușescu’s regime in 1989. Aside from Adina, there are also Paul, who is Adina’s ex-boyfriend, Clara, and Pavel, Clara’s lover who works covertly for the Securitate, the secret police agency in communist Romania. The problem begins as Adina was harassed after her anti-regime activities, with the tail and limbs of fox’s fur in her house cut down several times and the subtle ransacking of her house by an unknown person.
To be fair, this is the first prose by Herta Müller that I've ever read and I struggled to follow the plot in the first half of the book. The prose is written in the style of poetry, which is good, considering the motivation for awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature to Herta Müller in 2009 was: "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed." However, this book seems to be missing character developments and minor details. Throughout my reading, I was under the impression that I’d been glancing at a painting that contains the depictions of landscape, yet they fail to capture the humane essences of the artistic expression.
Herta Müller describes places and situations in concentrations of lyrical poetry, but they seem to be unconnected from one chapter to another. The depictions are clear such as the frequent blackouts at night at the town where Adina lives, the clothes that each character wears, or the frequent gunshots heard at night near the Danube River where the intersections between Romania and Yugoslavia met. However, it’s a cold and unemotional painting of the daily life in communist Romania in which the people are likened to the fox itself whose furs were cut down several times at Adina’s place. The fox was the hunter, but under the system, it was also possible for the fox to be hunted. So the saying goes: the fox was ever the hunter.
Adaptations in various forms sometimes could produce better results, while some other times could result in worse media than the originals. But this book is an example of a forced adaptation. I have not yet watched the original film, so I couldn’t comment on the quality of the story. Despite the lack of plots, I think the book would be enjoyable if read individually for each chapter as lyrical poetries to describe the terrors for Romanians living under Ceaușescu. Herta Müller’s prose also heavily uses various literary devices to craft meanings, such as the repetitions of the phrase “Everything that shines also sees” throughout the story to imply Adina’s anxieties of being followed by the Securitate agents. Overall, not a great reading experience.
To be fair, this is the first prose by Herta Müller that I've ever read and I struggled to follow the plot in the first half of the book. The prose is written in the style of poetry, which is good, considering the motivation for awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature to Herta Müller in 2009 was: "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed." However, this book seems to be missing character developments and minor details. Throughout my reading, I was under the impression that I’d been glancing at a painting that contains the depictions of landscape, yet they fail to capture the humane essences of the artistic expression.
Herta Müller describes places and situations in concentrations of lyrical poetry, but they seem to be unconnected from one chapter to another. The depictions are clear such as the frequent blackouts at night at the town where Adina lives, the clothes that each character wears, or the frequent gunshots heard at night near the Danube River where the intersections between Romania and Yugoslavia met. However, it’s a cold and unemotional painting of the daily life in communist Romania in which the people are likened to the fox itself whose furs were cut down several times at Adina’s place. The fox was the hunter, but under the system, it was also possible for the fox to be hunted. So the saying goes: the fox was ever the hunter.
Adaptations in various forms sometimes could produce better results, while some other times could result in worse media than the originals. But this book is an example of a forced adaptation. I have not yet watched the original film, so I couldn’t comment on the quality of the story. Despite the lack of plots, I think the book would be enjoyable if read individually for each chapter as lyrical poetries to describe the terrors for Romanians living under Ceaușescu. Herta Müller’s prose also heavily uses various literary devices to craft meanings, such as the repetitions of the phrase “Everything that shines also sees” throughout the story to imply Adina’s anxieties of being followed by the Securitate agents. Overall, not a great reading experience.
informative
medium-paced
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Poate cea mai ciudată carte pe care am citit-o. Pătrunzi într-o lume care te apasă, haotică, în care frica domină. A fost lumea părinților noștri. O lume ce pare că nu au sens. Stilul e unul deosebit, pe alocuri, complicat. Îți ia ceva timp până ce te deprinzi, iar după apreciezi originalitatea. Lectura îți provoacă angoase și o stare de anxietate, de parcă ai fi acolo. Crimele comunismului, dar și ale oamenilor simpli sunt prezentate vag, le deducem. Securistul era parcă un Procust, ce tăia blana ca Adina să se conformeze regimului. Comunismul a distrus vieți, prietenii, familii, a zdrobit caractere.
Noi nu uităm, iar romanul acesta e un reminder. Unul care te lovește, te zdruncină, te face să plângi.
Noi nu uităm, iar romanul acesta e un reminder. Unul care te lovește, te zdruncină, te face să plângi.
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It took me forever to read this book for some reason, despite the stellar prose.
Have tried to get into this book before but I just can’t. I can’t abide the writing unfortunately; it’s too metaphorical for me.
I have never read anything by Herta Muller before and I'm glad I gave her books a try. She writes both beautiful and emotional which was both engaging and captivating. I have to admit I know nothing about the events describes in the book but I thought it was a very good book nevertheless