⇒ [PDF] The Appointment A Novel Herta Müller Michael Hulse Philip Boehm 9780805060126 Books

The Appointment A Novel Herta Müller Michael Hulse Philip Boehm 9780805060126 Books

Download As PDF : The Appointment A Novel Herta Müller Michael Hulse Philip Boehm 9780805060126 Books

The Appointment A Novel Herta Müller Michael Hulse Philip Boehm 9780805060126 Books

Incredible writing. Some of the most poignant, while detailed, stream of consciousness I have ever read in literature. Considering that it is a translation from German, it is amazingly compelling reading, but one must do it in long stretches. I have read several interpretations that say at the end the narrator gets off at the wrong stop. I have read and reread it and can't figure out how the reader should know that. The exact purpose of the "appointment" remains obscure, but if you know any of the German-Romanian history (my relatives all stemmed from the Banat region in which Ms. Mueller lived and about which she wrote), you can guess. Would love to correspond with someone who has studied this novel in depth and others by Mueller.


Tags : The Appointment: A Novel [Herta Müller, Michael Hulse, Philip Boehm] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <DIV>From the winner of the IMPAC Award and the Nobel Prize, a fierce novel about a young Romanian woman's discovery of betrayal in the most intimate reaches of her life<BR><BR> I've been summoned. Thursday,Herta Müller, Michael Hulse, Philip Boehm,The Appointment: A Novel,Metropolitan Books,080506012X,Historical,Literary,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction Historical,Fiction Literary,General,German (Language) Contemporary Fiction

The Appointment A Novel Herta Müller Michael Hulse Philip Boehm 9780805060126 Books Reviews

THe reviewer who said s/he didn't like Picasso and felt this book was Picasso-esque provided, I think, the most accurate and succinct description of this book. However, unlike the other reviewer, I enjoy Picasso's cubism and expressionistic figures, and I was moved by this book.

I found that it was important to read every word, because if I read to quickly and skipped over words and sometimes sentences, I missed important moments in the book. I had to re-read the last 5 pages to make sense of the ending. Reading every word of a novel can be taxing - and many novels don't warrant a close reading. But this one does.
The opening sentences of Herta Muller's haunting novel, The Appointment, expresses what it must be like to live under an oppressive regime "I have been summoned. At ten, sharp." The novel is about a tram ride taken by the unnamed narrator to her mandated appointment with the Securitate, Romania's secret police under the tyrannical dictator, Nicolae Ceuasescu, who ruled the country for twenty two years. Muller maps out life for the average Romanian citizen under Ceausescu rule, in a dysfunctional world turned upside down, where no one can be trusted. As the last sentence reinforces "The trick is not to go mad."

As I began reading, I was totally absorbed in the novel. The plot line is not linear, but the narrative structure lent itself to conveying to the reader a sense of fear, disorientation, confusion, and instability. As I continued reading I found the work to become a little tedious. It is worth putting in the effort, however, as the unnamed narrator's musings about the people on the tram and her past and present life produces a rhythm that manifests the disorientation and uncertainty of a life lived under tyranny. Not to mention that the novel is beautifully written.
Ceaucescu's Romania is smothered in paranoiac uncertainty in this chilling novel of friends who must disavow each other in public and lovers who cannot be certain who the other person really is. Identities are obscure; histories untrustworthy; employers witlessly duped by the security forces who are implacable and cunning. This is a dark but very poetic novel of helplessness and struggle to maintain sanity in an insane world. The poetry is a dark shroud over a dead land. The border curtains are not iron; they are lead, guarded by village boys who shoot to win a week's vacation or a promotion and leave dead bodies and suitcases for farmers to plow under. Or else as luck may have it, they are returned to their village in zinc coffins welded shut at the family's expense and guarded so that the ravaged bodies cannot be described. This is a world none of us wants to experience and we can be grateful that Herta Mueller has survived it to reveal what we never want to know for ourselves. She does so with an insight and poetic, surreal vision that is as memorable and chilling as a thunderstorm.
The author of this novel was born in Romania in 1953, and after becoming a teacher, butted heads with Ceaucescu's Securitate. She was subjected to repeated threats until she got to Berlin in 1987. "The Appointment," brilliantly written about this horrendous time, shows why she was chosen for a Nobel Prize.

The narrator is a young woman living in a desolate Romanian city who is ordered to appear before a Major Albu several times a week for being a suspected spy. The informer is the boss of a clothing factory where she had worked, whose advances she spurned. His retaliation was to report that she had been slipping notes into some of the men's jackets they made, which had been a desperate attempt on her part to try to reach out to anyone in another country who might help her.

The Major warns that she must arrive by 10am sharp on various days of his choosing. The shoddy, irregular tram she rides to his office building forces her to allow two hours traveling time to make sure she's not late. Aside from worrying about being on time, she tries to calm herself and be alert for the questioning. When she arrives, Albu never fails to brutally pinch her fingertips while slobbering on her hand. This annoying gesture becomes something much worse later on.

Looking out at bleak images along the route and being in the company of the various and strange people that ride the tram, the narrator tries to make sense of her life. The plot is framed around these trips to the appointments, which she notices are becoming more and more frequent. As time passes, her thoughts and memories become more revealing, but they also become more confusing. This is a very intriguing way to build to the climax, which takes some careful reading to understand.
Incredible writing. Some of the most poignant, while detailed, stream of consciousness I have ever read in literature. Considering that it is a translation from German, it is amazingly compelling reading, but one must do it in long stretches. I have read several interpretations that say at the end the narrator gets off at the wrong stop. I have read and reread it and can't figure out how the reader should know that. The exact purpose of the "appointment" remains obscure, but if you know any of the German-Romanian history (my relatives all stemmed from the Banat region in which Ms. Mueller lived and about which she wrote), you can guess. Would love to correspond with someone who has studied this novel in depth and others by Mueller.