Berlin, Summer 1945

Berlin, summer of 1945 was a nightmare. By June, the majority of the people left in Berlin were women, and the Soviets - in retribution for St. Petersburg among other German atrocities - marched into the city, raped as many women as they could find, including the pregnant ones, and pillaged as many homes, businesses, and other establishments as possible. By then of course, no one was a Nazi (convenient, right?), so everyone was an innocent victim of Hitler's egotistical malfeasance and the Soviets' penchant for plunder. When the Americans and British arrived in the city, a degree of normalcy entered the picture: the rape and pillaging slowed down a bit and the city was divided into zones to governed by the individual Allied forces. Food was brought in, and the process of rebuilding commenced.

Two books that I read recently focus on this eventful summer from two different perspectives: A Woman in Berlin and Joseph Kanon's The Good German.

A Woman in Berlin is a journal kept by an anonymous woman during three weeks at the beginning of the summer 1945 in Berlin, between when the Soviets marched into the city and the Americans and British arrived. Her journal chronicles her efforts to find food, dodge the bombings, and keep as far away from the Soviets as possible, which proved to be difficult. She was a journalist who spent some time in Russia, so she knows a little of the language and uses this to her advantage. It is inevitable that she will be forced into relations with a Russian, so rather than waiting for one of the carousing foot soldiers to choose her, she enters into a relationship with an officer and then a major to create some control over her horrible circumstances. They are not unkind to her, bring her food, and keep the other Soviet men away from her, so her situation is better than many, but it's still deplorable.

The fascination of this journal lies not only in its glimpse into historical events, but also in the way that it is written. This woman is clearly a talented writer and a shrewd observer of humanity. In one fail swoop, we find out about small, human events like the chatter in the bomb shelter and then are led to see a man in the street below wheeling the dead in a cart. In the end, when her boyfriend returns to her and the rape and pillaging stop with the arrival of the other Allied forces, we are forced to understand the true tragedy of her experience: her tactics for survival have made her completely unsuitable to her boyfriend who blames her (and himself) for her relations with the Russians. There is no winner here, no happy resolution, just a series of horrible circumstances and shattered lives. Unfortunately, she provides little insight into what the German mind thinks about the end of the war, and it would have been fascinating had she offered some thoughts about what the average German thought about the end of Nazi rule.

I have to run and put dinner on - rosemary chicken with potatoes..yum - so I'll finish The Good German review tomorrow, if I'm not at the hospital having a baby....

Alex Reader, Kirkus, and Bookify

1. Alex Reader made a deal with Google to feature Google Books for download. I think this could be super cool, especially since Google will shortly have every book ever published (that it can find) in its catalog...or isn't that the plan? If the Alex Reader is allowed to access all that, I might eat curried book and buy myself an e-reader.

2. Kirkus isn't dead yet. According to PW Daily, Kirkus has announced that they are working on an arrangement with an acquiring company and that they will continue to publish - at least for January 2010. The next edition should hit stands late January, and they will see "how things go" for February. At this point, all publishing houses are encouraged to "begin sending galleys to the appropriate editors immediately."

3. A Guardian blog entry presents a wonderful idea to re-invigorate the book industry. This notion is so cool, I think someone needs to jump on it and make it happen. I'd do it, but I'm barely able to move my mouse around the mouse pad, let alone build a site. I'm better with pen and paper.

Bookin' it in 2010

Favorite books of 2009 and reading resolutions have filled the book blog world this week, and I was thinking about adding my extensive thoughts about these things to the maddening din and then decided that I really only have one resolution and don’t want to actually list out all the books I’ve read this year – which comes to a shameful 57 and 4 of them are the Twilight series. Yikes.

This year may not actually be any better on the number of books front – what with a new baby on the way – but there is one resolution I’d like to make and keep, which is to actually BLOG (imagine that) about ALL the books that I read. I often spend so much time trying to come up with something substantive to say that by the time I have determined my substantive thought, the drive to share it has flown the coop. Perhaps this resolution will also bring about a slightly higher frequency of blog posting, which I’m sure my loyal readers will appreciate.

With that, I sign off, but plan to return tomorrow – barring debut of baby – with a few thoughts about Elizabeth Kostova’s newest book, The Swan Thieves.