Publisher's
write-up :
“Set in Romania at the height of Ceausescu's reign of terror,
The Land of Green Plums tells the story of a group of young students,
each of whom has left the impoverished provinces in search of better
prospects in the city. It is a profound illustration of a
totalitarian state which comes to inhabit every aspect of life; to
the extent that everyone, even the strongest, must either bend to the
oppressors or resist them and perish.”
The Land of Green Plums is supposedly a work of fiction written by
the Romanian-German author Herta Muller. This was published in 1994
and has won several awards, including the Nobel prize for literature
in 2009. Originally written in German, it was translated into English
by the German poet, Michael Hofmann.
Lola, a student, records her experiences in a diary – where she
writes about her attempts to escape the totalitarian world and her
affairs with anonymous men. She eventually joins the Communist party.
This part of the plot comes to an end when she commits suicide and
leaves her diary in the narrator's suitcase. Having committed suicide
and thus, having betrayed her country and her party, Lola is publicly
denounced in a school ceremony. Then, the narrator shares the diary
with three male students, Edgar, Kurt and Georg, all from the German
speaking community in Romania (including the narrator herself). They
sing banned hymns and thus, they're often interrogated by Captain
Pjele. They also had to communicate using code language since in the
totalitarian regime, any letter could be opened and read by the
authorities.
There was no plot. The character description was poor – although,
the justification for it is Muller is naturally a poet and hence, it
doesn't matter. Several images were used which is subject to the
interpretation of the reader – and I couldn't interpret anything.
The story went back and forth – all of a sudden, the narrator is in
Germany and after a couple of chapters, she is again in Romania with
her three friends. Though this was said to have taken place during
Ceasescu's regime, the name “Ceausescu” was mentioned only twice
and they were also quite insignificant. The author never used
quotation marks – nothing wrong in writing the whole book in
indirect speech but, I don't find a point in using a colon instead of
a quotation mark.
“I asked:Transfinite?
She said : Finite.
I said: Transfinite.
She asked : How should I know?”
-Page 140
Unfortunately, I can't write anything more about this book – since
I didn't find anything so significant to mention here. I think this
is a type of book which you'll either like or loathe and it so
happens that I fall under the latter category. I'd say that I'm being
generous when I'm giving this book a 1/10.
Rating – 1 / 10
Have a nice day,
Andy
