Europe Central

[B C Johnson]

As goes much of my reading these days.  I thoroughly enjoyed the Stephenson 
trilogy, but I'm a sucker for science jokes.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "bekah" <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
To: "B C Johnson" <bjohnson02 at insightbb.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 12:44 AM
Subject: Re: Europe Central


> Thank you!  Yes,  Krupskaya was something else.   I hope you enjoy the 
> book.   It's not a book you have to finish in one fell swoop. You can read 
> those two linked chapters and put it up for awhile, mulling on it.
>
> Bekah
>
> At 8:09 PM -0400 5/29/06, B C Johnson wrote:
>>I had forgotten about poor Krupskaya.  I gotta read this! p.s.excellent 
>>synopsis
>>----- Original Message ----- From: "bekah" <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
>>To: <mikebailey at speakeasy.net>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>Sent: Monday, May 29, 2006 6:42 PM
>>Subject: Europe Central
>>
>>>At 3:53 AM +0000 5/29/06, mikebailey at speakeasy.net wrote:
>>>>Would you be willing to post your impressions of Europe Central?
>>>
>>>
>>>I don't do this type of thing well but here goes -
>>>
>>>Europe Central is long (752 pages of text plus another 50 pages of notes 
>>>and source material) but well,  well worth the read and I think that many 
>>>on this list would appreciate it.  Vollman writes his own kind of 
>>>incredibly dense and powerful  prose.  It can be overwhelmingly intense 
>>>at times and then mellow out, almost lyrically turning,  somehow,  into a 
>>>fugue.  It can be truly exhausting to read a book about a war written 
>>>with the same intensity as a  symphony with the same theme.    Somehow 
>>>that was my reaction and it seems very appropriate because one of the 
>>>numerous main characters is a Russian composer named  Dimitri 
>>>Shostakovich and Vollmann describes Shostakovich's music in detail (and 
>>>never,  ever,  boringly). Also, there are many interwoven allusions to 
>>>Wagner's The Ring . (Mythologizing WWII?)
>>>
>>>To me,  the book was redolent of DeLillo's scope (Underworld), McCarthy's 
>>>intensity (Blood Meridian),  Bulgakov's magic  (Master and Margarita) and 
>>>TPR's  research and subject-matter (M&D, and GR)..  In fact,  there are 
>>>direct allusions to GR.    (How's that for a single book?)    Yet 
>>>Vollmann maintains his own style throughout.
>>>
>>>Structurally,  the book is different and possibly "meaningful"?. The tome 
>>>(truly!)   is comprised of  36 chapters ranging between 5 and 100 + pages 
>>>each.   In the Table of Contents Vollmann graphically pairs the chapters 
>>>under the heading "Pincer Movements" because the two conjoining  chapters 
>>>are related. somehow although one is about a USSR incident or person and 
>>>the other is about something in Germany.    Combined for a whole work, 
>>>the chapters don't all really mesh together like a conventional novel 
>>>although they are all definitely linked in numerous ways.
>>>The intro chapter is about the technology and hardware impacting both 
>>>Germany and the USSR.
>>>
>>>In the first chapter of main narrative,  Vollmann uses the term "parable" 
>>>more than once  and I suppose that's a good term for what he's working 
>>>toward.   Many of the  chapters (most ?  all?)   pose a moral dilemma and 
>>>decision (I don't know about the lesson part of a parable.  Existential 
>>>lessons?   ??  Thematically,  I  got the impression of larger-than-life 
>>>mythologies and  memory vs forgetting, love,   loyalty,   being an artist 
>>>through the purges of  Stalin's regime,  being a commander after Hitler 
>>>lost Stalingrad,   the historical and individual consequences of moral 
>>>acts,  and so on.
>>>The remaining chapters  occur in varied places in Russia and Germany from 
>>>the days of Lenin through the  aftermath of WWII,  the Cold War and 
>>>further.   The focus is WWII itself, it's foreshadowing and it's 
>>>aftermath.  Some of the most interesting chapters took place at the 
>>>actual war fronts,  in Hitler's residences,   in Moscow  for 
>>>Shostakavich's dealings with Stalin, and in Germany for the retribution 
>>>of the  Red Guillotine (Hilde Benjamin).   Every chapter has its own 
>>>narrator, mostly first person and frequently omniscient. Shostakovich has 
>>>more than one chapter,  I think three?
>>>
>>>The major characters and events are historical and the book is incredibly 
>>>well researched although Vollmann says in his notes that he has taken 
>>>some poetic license with the central triangular love affair.     Other 
>>>characters include Krupskaya (Lenin's wife),  Van Paulus (a very loyal 
>>>German general),  Adolph Hitler,  Elena Konstantinovskaya  (a 
>>>translator), Roman Karmen (Russian film-maker),  Kåthe Kollwitz (German 
>>>artist),   Kurt Gerstein (a not-so-loyal German general)  General A.A. 
>>>Vlasov (a Russian spy/ traitor?)  and  Van Cliburn (an American pianist).
>>>
>>>That's as good as I can do for this book.  It's deserves more.
>>>
>>>Bekah
>>>hoping someone will have read it or be inspired to read it