Comments on: The Passport – Book Review

By: Caribousmom

Caribousmom — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:38:35 +0000

Swapna: I will be really interested to read your thoughts on this one.

By: S. Krishna

S. Krishna — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:58:05 +0000

I’m really glad you gave some background on the book – I’m bookmarking your review and am going to come back and read the history part before I read the book.

By: Caribousmom

Caribousmom — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:24:55 +0000

Kathy: This is a very powerful, very challenging book. I hope more readers will read and review it so I can see their take on it.

El Fay: The book you’re reading sounds very intense and interesting. I like these kinds of books…although I need to intersperse them in my reading as they are often ‘dark’ and dreary.

Aarti: Thanks! I haven’t read either of the books you mentioned – must check them out. I’ll be interested to see your thoughts on the book if you read it…it is harsh, but so beautifully written…just like poetry.

By: Aarti

Aarti — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:16:05 +0000

GREAT review! Wow, this sounds intense. It reminds me, in terms of short length packing a huge philosophical punch, of Hilary Mantel’s Fludd, or Kazuo Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day. Though this seems harsher. I have been wanting to learn more about Muller since she won the Nobel Prize- thanks for giving me a glimpse!

By: EL Fay

EL Fay — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:48:09 +0000

I’m reading an anthology of short stories, essays, photography, and poetry from Russia and Eastern Europe called The Wall in My Head. It’s about the fall of communism and the post-communist era. I just read several poems by a Romanian who was ostensibly quite fond of Ceausescu, but whose poems are actually really dark and ambivalent. The introductory blurb claimed that this poet actually represents a lot of the collective Romanian mindset at the time.

The very first piece in The Wall in My Head is an essay about how Kaftaesque the Communist Era really was – that the state and bureaucracy existed as mechanisms unto themselves. They were like independent forces that just carried people along with them.

Anyway, I found this review very timely. From what you described, the mood and setting sound very similar to what I’ve been reading.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:05:12 +0000

Wow! What a story – I can’t imagine what it would be like to live where I would even entertain a thought like that. If this book challenged you, I know it would challenge me for sure!