A review by samwreads
Europe Central by William T. Vollmann

5.0

Absolutely brutal in the best of ways. Not recommended if you want to be happy. Within are intense character portraits, history, minutiae and a bit of mysticism and poetry thrown in for good measure. I love the way each story builds on the earlier sections, whether explicitly or implicitly. The flights of fancy Vollmann seems prone to are kept largely in check but come out at just the right time to complement the narrative rather than supplant it. When he builds a psychological/mnemonic architecture for Shostakovich's music, the blocks (blocs?) he draws on serve to paint not just the music but the times themselves and the horrors and joys of which they are formed.

The Shostakovich sections (including the Leningrad siege) are easily my favorite, though I enjoyed the Vlasov and Paulus pairing as well. While the Shostakovich narrative does a really good job of conveying oppression, fear and dread, I have to say the Gerstein passage was so bleakly depressing that it made me sad for several days.