1001 Books Round-up May 2023

This months winners and losers

I’m Not Stiller by Max Frisch. BOTM #1. What GR Says: ‘Every word is false and true, that is the nature of words’

So how can we ever know for certain the identity of the man in the cell? He claims to be an American citizen named White but the police are unshakeable in their belief that he is Anatol Ludwig Stiller, the Swiss sculptor who vanished nearly a decade before. Despite the insistence of Stiller’s wife, brother and mistress, and in the face of every incentive to admit that he is Stiller, the man perseveres in his denial. Yet he betrays uncanny perceptions of the personality he disclaims – sculptor, husband, lover… prisoner.

I’m Not Stiller reveals the comic and disturbing literary powers of Max Frisch as he explores the nature of identity. Argghh my mind has been messed with.

My Thoughts: This one started out strong and then kind of fizzled out. At first I was intrigued by “not Stiller” a man identical to the missing Stiller who is identified by everyone who knew the original as Stiller. This man has his own backstory and his own life, the only problem? The details keep changing as if his life is a lie.

There are a few hints in the book that he is “not Stiller” and hints that he is Stiller and by the end I am not sure what to believe.

This lost its way for me when he gave up being “not Stiller” and settled into the life of Stiller because…what was the point of denying it in the first place if that is what you are going to do?

3 Stars – If you like your reading to be unclear and rambling go for it. If you prefer straight answers and a book that gets to the point move this down your list.

The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Quarterly Read: What GR says: At the height of Stalin’s postwar terror, Innokenty, a young diplomat and scion of a corrupt ruling class, discovers an earlier and more spiritual tradition than that adopted by the October Revolution, the beginning of a process which is Solzhenitsyn’s basic theme: the individual’s experience of acquiring an immortal soul.

Unwisely but generously, Innokenty helps a friend in danger of arrest, only to be arrested himself and sent to a special prison. This, the archetype of the Gulag, is described with masterful psychological insight. There are no heroes and hardly any villains; oppressors are no less victims then the oppressed.

In the great tradition of the Russian novel, The First Circle is both a brooding account of human nature and a scrupulously exact description of a historical period. Hell is other people

My Thoughts – This is a really tough one as when I was reading it I appreciated what the author was doing and the message about justice vs punishment and what it meant to live under Stalin and then as soon as I put it down whoosh everything went out of my head, I couldn’t keep track of characters and so I am left with an overall impression rather than a detailed knowledge of the book.

3 Stars – be prepared to dedicate the time to this.

Have you read any of these? Let us know what you thought.