Nachdenken über Christa T

by Christa Wolf

Paperback, 1981

Status

Available

Call number

B WOLF

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collections

Fiktion/Fiction, Roman/Novel

Publication

Luchterhand (1981)

Description

Christa is a young girl in Hitler's Germany; she survives to embrace the new order but her idealism withers as crass materialists corrode its dream. Her story is the story of a whole generation, and a celebration of the unique value of each human being and all human life.

User reviews

LibraryThing member bluepigeon

The best book I have read in a long while. Perhaps a bit too melancholic at times, what Wolf does with language and story arc is mesmerizing. I don;t need to say more.

To some, the way it is written may be inaccessible. This book requires focus, attention, and an understanding that you have to let

go of understanding everything right away, that things will be revealed in good time. (That said, I read it during my commute in the subway, so certainly not too hard to understand or read by any means.)

Recommended to those who like to contemplate life, existence, and death.

Show Less

1 more

LibraryThing member iansales

I stumbled across this in a charity shop, and since Wolf was a name I’d come across in my search for postwar British women writers (even though she’s German), I decide to buy it. Besides, you just don’t see enough of those green Virago paperbacks in charity shops. The title character and the

narrator meet while at school during World War II. They go their separate ways, but meet up again at university in the early nineteen-fifties. The book then follow them through to the nineteen-sixties. It all takes place in East Germany. The story is phrased as a commentary on Christa T by the narrator, almost as if she’s telling it to someone. It’s a style that takes some getting used to, especially in these times of immersive prose; and although it’s considered “experimental” I have to wonder if it’s not how stories were originally told before the advent of the realist novel. I can’t say I’ll be hunting down any more of Wolf’s work – although I’ll keep an eye open for green Virago paperbacks, of course – but I’m glad I read The Quest For Christa T..

Show Less

Fewer