IN TIMES OF FADING LIGHT PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Eugen Ruge | 320 pages | 04 Jul 2013 | FABER & FABER | 9780571288571 | English | London, United Kingdom In Times of Fading Light PDF Book However, I would love to notice the same powerful historical or political background of times which I felt was somehow quite weak. Be warned, though, all characters are very pessimistic in their outlook on life, and it can feel draining at times. Community Reviews. Also, Eugen Ruge's writing style is great! Welcome back. They are not just some kind of 'sidekick', but occupy a prominent role in the novel, and have to struggle with their own tragedies. Finishing it, I was left with mixed feelings, like, less than excellent better than average, a book that pays justice to what 3 stars are described when you move the cursor on them, "I liked it" without being so excited, perhaps a 3,5 would be fairer. I felt I leaned more about East Germany in a quarter of the space from the relevant chapters in Jenny Erpenbeck's Visitation , also set in the environs of Berlin. Threads collapsed expanded unthreaded. The latest game console, that's important. About Eugen Ruge. Yet it is not quite flawless. There are a number of comical situations, and also humour in the book. Alas, family snapshots are always more interesting for family members than they are for outsiders. Indeed Ruge himself downplays the link having his character surprisingly, indeed unrealistically, unaware of what had happened "all the passengers seemed to be reading the same newspaper with a picture on the front page of an airplane flying into a skyscraper? Open Preview See a Problem? Not if you transcribe it correctly, mate: it's 'druzhba'. The disillusionment of communism is felt through each succeeding generation. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. The book gradually pulls you in almost as though you are an extra family member helplessly watching. It is not a nostalgic book. Good story to read. Ruge writes his chapters set in different times from the s to , but he returns in several chapters to Oct. Alexander's character is perhaps the most interesting-we see him over the course of 30 years, directly, then through the eyes of others, the latest time as he travels through Mexico, trying to retrace his grandparents' journey, using misappropriated money, while he battles terminal illness. Moving back and forth in time, the book examines family and political history through the eyes of family members old and young, centering around the celebration of grandpa's 90th birthday in October , which plays a role in each of t Spanning decades and continents, the story follows four generations of a German family from the s via fall of the Berlin Wall in all the way into the new millenium while shining a light onto life in the GDR from its beginnings until and beyond its end. The book was very favorably reviewed after publication; it was awarded the Deutscher Buchpreis German Book Award in , and sold more than half a million copies on the German-language market. Alexander's defection to the west in the late s is disclosed almost casually, in an early chapter. Still living in the decaying home where Alexander grew up, Kurt was once a prominent historian in the GDR. Their differing views and those of other members of the family, friends and colleagues are explored in varying ways throughout the different episodes. Looked down to see the cat purring'. Ruge starts his historical time line in , with Wilhelm and Charlotte, the family stanch Communists, returning to Soviet Berlin from Mexico. Certain charismatic people easily remember the names of new acquaintances post- introduction. His mother, Irana, a Russian who struggles with alcohol and her philandering academic husband, Kurt, also makes an interesting journey. Having read many non-fiction books on the GDR I fee This novel follows the Umnitzer family, viewing life through the eyes of different family members. However, these details underline the reality of life not only in the GDR, but generally such as ageing parents and the baggage of previous relationships. The masterful narrative makes halt in Mexico, Siberia and East Berlin, climbing the summits and charting the abysses of the 20th century along the way. There are other interesting elements in the book; particularly the role of the women in the family as opposed to the men. Kurt never dared cross or question the Party again until his last book, which detailed his time in the gulag for an offhand anti-Stalin comment in a letter to his brother , but even that was after German reunification had begun. But the most important is anyway always missing in official resumes - a truth that Wilhelm discovers surprisingly once his memory becomes very weak as a result of beginning dementia or is it the medication that his wife is supervising? And while there is a detective element to his excursion to Mexico, Ruge is so busy dropping in other periods that he loses sight of it. I would have liked to have seen more working through of plot lines to understand why bringing flowers to Wilhelm and the vases were an inside joke, why his punchline of "Bring these vegetables to the garbage dump" was laughed at. Though the family lives throug For some reason this novel of the gray and deeply unsatisfying lives of three generations of an East German family was engaging and kept me reading. Luckily, this book is so much more than what I was expecting: It portraits four generations of the same family and their changing relationships to each other and to GDR socialism over time, it touches on many different topics including dementia and terminal cancer, it jumps back and forth between different decades, countries and different points of view, and it does all that on less than pages. I've heard the word "dysfuntional" used to describe the Umnitzers, I'm very pleased that I got around to reading this. In Times of Fading Light Writer A Novel. This is a very well-put-together novel, an intriguing jigsaw of human experience, relationships and cause and effect that delicately comes together through back-and-forth episodes in the life of the Umnitzers over 50 years. Why did Kurt and Werner go to the Soviet Union? Or was it a cruise missile" - which begs the question of why set the chapter then. The book was very favorably reviewed after publication; it was awarded the Deutscher Buchpreis German Book Award in , and sold more than half a million copies on the German-language market. Berlin Germany. Pages It spans the building and fall of the Wall and reunification, but its roots go further back still, to the immediate aftermath of WW2, when one of the Umnitzers, Kurt, spent a decade in a Soviet camp, eventually returning with a Rusian Family Snapshots The description "family snapshots" comes from the book jacket, and it is a good one. I'm still not sure how I feel about it being left so open. Yes, four generations of the Umnitzer family form the main trunk of the narrative. It is sometimes sad and disturbing but at times also extremely funny. Their stories are told in three alternating, subtly interwoven strands. View all 20 comments. There is a conviction to all of these scenes which suggests that the author has lived through similar experiences himself—though I hope the Ruge family is more sympathetic than the Umnitzers. Wilhem Powileit is the epitome of a family patriarch — stubborn, domineering and uncompromising. Be the first to ask a question about In Times of Fading Light. I don't know how accessible it might be to readers less familiar with circumstances and general ways of life in the GDR - one day, I might try reading the English translation to compare how well things come across while missing much of the typical terminology and patterns of speech that give me an immediate sense of time and place in the German original. Every year a speech of some kind was made. Alexander, who left the GDR shortly before its complete collapse, thinks about his failed career in West Germany, his inability to feel at home anywhere, his failed relationships with the women in his life, his complete failure as a father. Look, Nadezhda as in Mandelshtam, right is a common Russian woman's name and is 'Nadezhda' in English - not 'Nadyeshda', which sounds in English like someone trying to do Biblical. Off work. Indian scholar and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was awarded the German Book Trade's annual peace prize for his work combating social inequality. Polyphony, but not cacophony. To ask other readers questions about In Times of Fading Light , please sign up. Foreign rights have been sold to 28 countries so far. One recurring precise date, October 1, , is given special importance, both in terms of a central family event and developments in the GDR in general. Their lives mirror and illustrate political history; the private is the political, the political is the private. The ending causes me more problems, though. Apart from proving that even simple arithmetic is beyond me, it also reveals a certain pattern in my reading pleasure. Why did Alexander emigrate to the West? This is my top ten Everything Under. Purchase at:. The title of the book is a reference to the potato harvest in the village in the Ural in early fall in which Kurt lived, but it is also a metaphor for the fading light that the communist ideal shines on the Umnitzer family and that gets weaker with every generation.