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A carregar... Maybe Esther (2014)por Katja Petrowskaja
Review 3 (20) A carregar...
Adira ao LibraryThing para descobrir se irá gostar deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. Ancora un libro sulla memoria e dopo tanto Modiano è inevitabile il confronto. Anche qui frammenti del passato in cerca di faticosa ricomposizione, ma lo stile è severo e asciutto - anche se talora condito da un residuo di Jewish humour - molto lontano dalla malinconica poesia di Modiano. Infanzia sovietica, presente berlinese, passato familiare tra Vienna e Varsavia segnato dalla tragedia della Shoa. Famiglia decimata, con i componenti sopravvissuti dispersi ai quattro angoli della terra, come in tutte le famiglie ebraiche del novecento. Il pregio maggiore del libro è la capacità di mescolare tragedia e quotidianità e di mostrare efficacemente il carico emotivo che grava sui ‘figli della Shoa’ nonostante il molto taciuto dei loro genitori e l’apparente, ma solo apparente, lontananza dall’ebraismo. Lettura tutt’altro che banale e certamente interessante per la specifica e (almeno per me) nuova prospettiva sovietica, ma non esente in certe pagine da una certa pesantezza. Forse con un più radicale intervento di editing, la compattezza e incisività della narrazione ne avrebbero tratto vantaggio. Un racconto per frammenti, la storia di una famiglia che si ricostruisce poco per volta da ricordi che appaiono all'improvviso, racconti frammentari, ricerche in archivi, viaggi. Un libro dalla struttura complessa che a tratti ho faticato a gestire, così che a parti addirittura avvincenti alternavo momenti di disorientamento e anche, a volte, di difficile comprensione. Intravedo che c'è di più di quanto io ho colto, però a me non tutto è arrivato. Contento comunque di averlo letto. De Joodse schrijfster vertelt in dit boek over haar zoektocht naar sporen van haar familie. Een familiegeschiedenis die zich vormt om twee wereldoorlogen en in een tijdsgewricht waarin Joden werden vervolgd en uitgemoord. Concentratiekampen en Stalinistische dictatuur hebben ertoe bijgedragen dat sporen grotendeels deel zijn verdwenen en vervaagd. Het boek is daardoor verworden tot een verslag van het zoeken naar dingen die er niet meer zijn, maar ook van het vinden van mensen die op wonderlijke wijze alle verschrikkingen hebben overleefd. Ondanks dat het een eerbiedwaardig relaas is, is het jammer dat het op een wat ‘hoekige’ en te literaire wijze wordt verteld. Veel boeiender had het kunnen zijn wanneer de schrijfster het gegeven dat zeven generaties van haar familie doofstomme kinderen het spreken heeft bijgebracht, nog wat meer uitgewerkt zou hebben. Daar zou toch -in perspectief van plaats en tijd- een prachtig verhaal over geschreven kunnen worden Een vergelijking met “Verloren” van Daniel Mendelsohn dringt zich op; en ja, dan verliest dit boek op alle fronten. Het is vermoeiend om te lezen en te literair gecomponeerd. Jammer. Katja Petrowskaja raconte par fragments dans "Vielleicht Esther" l'histoire des membres de sa famille, Juifs d'Europe centrale, en remontant jusqu'à la 4ème génération avant la sienne. C'est à cette plus ancienne génération qu'appartient "peut-être Esther", cette aïeule dont ne restent "qu'une photographie et une histoire", abattue à Kiew pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale par d'élégants officiers SS dont elle pensait, cultivée et germanophile, qu'ils allaient la sauver Les destins multiples décrits dans "Vielleicht Esther", sinueux, souvent tragiques et parfois glorieux, typiques dans leur variété, font toute la puissance et l'intérêt du récit. De ce puzzle que le lecteur reconstitue patiemment, même s'il se perd parfois un peu parmi les oncles, tantes et grands-tantes, surgit toute l'histoire douloureuse de l'Europe centrale et orientale au XXème siècle. La reconstitution historique s'assortit d'une odyssée personnelle, celle de la narratrice, désormais berlinoise (retour à la première germanophilie des Juifs de l'Est...), mais en quête de ses racines, et d'une réflexion aigüe mais jamais envahissante sur la l'histoire, la littérature et la transmission du souvenir. Une belle oeuvre, parue en Allemagne en 2014, à paraître en français au Seuil en janvier 2015. sem críticas | adicionar uma crítica
Pertence à Série da EditoraKeltainen kirjasto (463) PrémiosDistinctionsNotable Lists
An inventive, unique, and extraordinarily moving debut memoir that pieces together the fascinating story of one woman's family across twentieth-century Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Germany. Katja Petrowskaja wanted to create a kind of family tree, charting relatives who had scattered across multiple countries and continents. Her idea blossomed into this striking and highly original work of narrative nonfiction, an account of her search for meaning within the stories of her ancestors. In a series of short meditations, Petrowskaja delves into family legends, introducing a remarkable cast of characters: Judas Stern, her great-uncle, who shot a German diplomatic attaché in 1932 and was sentenced to death; her grandfather Semyon, who went underground with a new name during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, forever splitting their branch of the family from the rest; her grandmother Rosa, who ran an orphanage in the Urals for deaf-mute Jewish children; her Ukrainian grandfather Vasily, who disappeared during World War II and reappeared without explanation forty-one years later--and settled back into the family as if he'd never been go≠ and her great-grandmother, whose name may have been Esther, who alone remained in Kiev and was killed by the Nazis. How do you talk about what you can't know, how do you bring the past to life? To answer this complex question, Petrowskaja visits the scenes of these events, reflecting on a fragmented and traumatized century and bringing to light family figures who threaten to drift into obscurity. A true search for the past reminiscent of Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated, Daniel Mendelsohn's The Lost, and Michael Chabon's Moonglow, Maybe Esther is a poignant, haunting investigation of the effects of history on one family. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — A carregar... GénerosSistema Decimal de Melvil (DDC)834.92Literature German literature and literatures of related languages German essays Modern period (1900-) 1990-, 21st centuryClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos EUA (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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Petrowskaja is one of those people who see meaning in absolutely everything and insist on telling you all about it in great detail. Nothing is ever just a coincidence. A random example: "In Linz, I ask for the bus to Mauthausen at the central bus station. Sure enough, it's bus number 360 to Mauthausen, a circle around the world." She goes on about how this confirms she's on the right path: "I'm moving in a circle. It would also prove that I'm still at the beginning of all journeys, but I continue calculating..." This goes on for a paragraph, and I just keep thinking "Why are you telling me all this? Who cares?" It's like someone telling you in detail about their dreams. It reminds me of those long screeds schizophrenics leave on telephone poles explaining how everything is connected to everything else.
I realize this is a personal reaction, but I doubt I'm the only potential reader who is impatient with that sort of self-absorbed rambling, so if you find yourself nodding in agreement with my reaction, trust me, you won't like the book. I did enjoy the parts about Kiev, though. She writes well when she's not writing about the inside of her head.