http://www.granta.com/authors/1884
It was a good bookgroup choice. it was not a book i would have picked myself but I was really pleased to read it.. both because it was educational and cos she did a great job of telling the individual tales by which was illustrated the inhumanity of the vast impersonal and absurd bureaucracy of the Stasi.
Although you often felt that she only touched the surface.. that it was almost an offhand account casually assembled from the anecdotes of acquaintances. True these were remarkable tales but one came away with the impression that they were just a few among thousands. Which they were and faced with something as huge as this, she tackled it in perhaps the only way she could..
however, now that the book has been such a success and so widely read I hope that she (or someone else) revisits the story in a more measured and meticulous way.. I’m sure more people will come forward with their tales and contrary to the feeling she seems to have had while writing it.. people are interested and do not want to forget.
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