Europe Central is an unyielding exploration of the impact of war and ideology on individuals, both significant and minor, along the eastern front of World War II.

I proposed this novel for the digital collection of my library, and they acquired the WMA version instead of the EPUB version.

Consequently, I started listening to the audiobook, mainly because Goodreader PR Griffis claimed it could be done and I might enjoy it.

Listening to this book is rather challenging as it is filled with a plethora of facts, impressions, and at times, dreamlike sequences.

Nevertheless, the narrator is outstanding and provides a superb reading.

After listening to a few tracks, I proceeded to order the book as I expect to read it again in the future, most probably through the G.R Brain Pain group's William T. Vollmann project.

In my future reading, I will obtain some of the Shostakovich recordings that are examined in detail, and I would highly recommend this to first-time readers as well.

Overall, I rate this book 4.5 out of 5.

**"A Review of 'Europe Central' by William T. Vollmann"**

"Europe Central" is a collection of interconnected or morally relevant stories about historical figures, with a focus on Nazi Germany and Stalinist USSR. It starts on a Pynchonian note with a prologue about the telephone at the heart of Europe. However, after that, the book turns out to be almost entirely about historical figures and their actions. Vollmann's research is meticulous, with 50 pages of source material. But the book's complexity, with multiple narrators, difficult names, and its length, makes it not a great choice to listen to.

The stories in the book are a mix of history and fiction. Some parts are moving and illuminating, while others are less interesting. Vollmann limits his views of Hitler and Stalin and focuses on the stories of Nazi and Soviet party apparatchiks, those who tried to stay free, and those who switched sides. The central question of the book seems to be what could people do in impossible situations. While Vollmann's exploration of this question is interesting, 800 pages may be too long to ask it.

The Audible version has some benefits, such as not having to stumble over foreign words and names. However, the narrator seems to have stumbled a few times, and the corrections are very distinct from the rest of the story. Overall, "Europe Central" is an ambitious and well-researched book, but its complexity and length may make it a challenging read or listen.

WM, apparently, not for me.

I had high hopes when I first came across WM. I thought it might be the perfect fit for my needs. However, as I delved deeper into it, I quickly realized that it wasn't what I expected.

The interface seemed cluttered and confusing, making it difficult for me to navigate. The features that were supposed to be beneficial turned out to be more of a hindrance. I found myself spending more time trying to figure out how to use WM than actually getting any work done.

Maybe it's just me, but I couldn't seem to find the value in WM. It didn't offer anything that other similar tools didn't already have. In the end, I had to conclude that WM is simply not for me. I'll be looking for something else that better suits my requirements and can help me be more productive.

Most Americans are aware of the American contribution to the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany. However, according to the accounts of most Europeans, it was the victory of Russia that determined the fate of the Third Reich. In contrast to the 400,000 American deaths, Russia lost a staggering twenty-three million.

The cities and vast expanses of Central Europe were strewn with bodies as these two enormous armies engaged in a fierce battle. This book presents a remarkable portrayal of that struggle and its aftermath, filled with individual moral dilemmas and the search for personal expression. America is only briefly mentioned once or twice. For many of us, this period in history is almost unimaginably bleak. The participants in the European 'Total War' are depicted as trying to survive under horrific totalitarian regimes, grappling with inescapable moral choices: whether to speak out against cruel dictators, whether to hinder the architects of the gas chambers and thereby endanger one's own family, whether to betray one authoritarian regime for another, and so on.

Vollmann is a highly literary writer, sometimes a bit obtuse and undisciplined, as he applies his talents to telling the stories of field marshals, defectors, dictators, poets and writers, SS officers, spies, and assassins. He appears to be inspired by a wide range of literature, from fairy tales to Wagnerian opera to Tolstoy. His most sympathetic attention is given to narrating the life of Dmitri Shostakovich, the composer who spent his life on a precarious balance between expressing his profound inner music and incurring the wrath of Stalin, perhaps the most bloodthirsty dictator in human history. While most of the book is meticulously researched and footnoted, a significant portion is dedicated to a fictional love affair between the sensitive composer and Elena Konstantanovskaya, a seductive translator. Their passion, and the composer's experience of terror, contribute in varying degrees to Shostakovich's musical creations. There is a great deal of passion in this book, not much humor, and a very heavy philosophical burden. It is too large a book to describe in just three paragraphs. My advice: if it sounds interesting, give it a try!

Some of the writing is undergoing transformation.

The two pages that describe the early Nazi book burnings, as narrated by a Luftwaffe pilot, are truly awe-inspiring. It gives us a vivid picture of that dark and disturbing period in history.

However, the long book does have its drawbacks. It tries too hard to be a fly-on-the-wall in the Kremlin, which sometimes makes the narrative a bit cumbersome. But despite this, the author is factually accurate, as has been repeatedly demonstrated by the late Robert Conquest. His research and attention to detail add credibility to the work.

Overall, while the book may have its flaws, it still offers valuable insights into important historical events and figures.

Trrim, trrim, ligue-me à central...

This is a truly fantastic book of colossal dimensions. In it, Vollmann reflects, with the use of a vast number of characters, on evil, ethics, and history. Stalin and Hitler unleash chaos and destruction in Europe, but will they be just characters endowed with malice? According to Vollmann, even Hitler is human.

Music, legends, history: Vollmann masterfully packs it all together and the result is beautiful. The prose is imaginative but probably won't please many readers who are less inclined towards a so-called cerebral narrative. It's a large-scale European bomb, but one that detonates quite quickly.

This book is not for everyone's hands.

*Started on May 4th, finished in the early morning of May 14th.*

LIFE HAS BECOME BETTER COMRADES; LIFE HAS BECOME MORE JOYFUL.

For my initial encounter with Vollmann's work, I am greeted by a Red Russian rhapsody, a thundering, meandering Reich, and a black telephone. Its consciousness fills the black pits of Central Europe, and its receiver captures only the screaming atomic a(chord)ance of a tortured wartime symphony, a sound that Michael Silverblatt describes as a "worded silence" (thanks to Leaf by Leaf for this wonderful expression).

In this remarkable piece of WW2 historical fiction, Vollmann presents a Motherland (Russia) and a Fatherland (Germany), whose offspring is Europe Central. The mother is a Realist (Stalin), and the father is a sleepwalker (Hitler). Under this warped parentage, we witness individuals being crushed by the all-encompassing powers of their respective extremes. Artists, poets, field marshals, soldiers, SS members, Kaballist assassins, Soviet filmmakers, telephonists, judges, spies - all of them endure the delirium of their crippling moral dilemmas and the impossible task of being an ethical being in an unethical world.

At the forefront is Russian composer Shostakovich, hunched over his black and white piano keys like a grey walrus. His sarcastic wit and sad tremulous features evoke pity for the constant surveillance and tactical pressures he faces to appease the Soviet dictatorship. Vollmann writes: "Petersburg remains above all the city of Raskolnikov, who exists only in Dostoevsky's nightmares but whose crime, murder for the sake of an idea, proves its reality again and again." Shostakovich's muse and lover, Elena Konstantinovskaya, infuses his many Opuses and symphonies with pain and regret as he ages, having submitted to the white nights of insufferable Leningrad. Elena, whom Vollmann refers to as "Europa," pervades the text as a texture of greyness in a black (tanks) and white (snow) warzone.

While reading Europe Central, I listened to Shostakovich's "time-blackened" symphonies, especially his Opus 110, which contains an "airless chamber" and an "X-ray beam" that "shines through the earth to illuminate the mangled, tortured skeletons; we close our eyes but can't stop seeing right through our eyelids." When Vollmann states that this tale is told "in grey," I understand him to mean that, in cases like that of K. Gurstein, who oversaw the so-called "hygiene" of the Nazi gas chambers and hid the ghastly chemicals in a nearby forest while gathering incriminating evidence against the Nazis, although it is difficult to have "clean hands" in a hellhole, "forgiveness need not exclude contempt." Most of the characters in Europe Central are not likable; even if they are admirable and heroic, they are also villainous, and this is where the "hermeneutic darkness" that guides the book like a Hebrew parable lies.

Europe Central has its numerous "organs," both politically and musically, which dissect and diffract the "dark, sharp-edged eye-sockets" of the skeletonized poor, miserable, hungry, and abused victims of the conflagrations in central Europe. This Europe is not composed of countries at all but rather a "blank zone" on which the Sleepwalker and Realist ravage the land. It is these figures - these mystics and misanthropes - who must ride through dark forests to reject knowledge and, on the fear and trembling of the Eastern front, be asked the only question that ultimately matters: "What are you, actually?"

I don't know. I truly wanted to love it.

It was, without a doubt, an ambitious work. It delved into themes, times, and places that held great allure for me.

The concept of examining Nazism, Stalinism, and the Second World War from the combined perspectives of artists, soldiers, and spies was fascinating.

Moreover, Mr. Vollman's prose had an intense and original rhythm, like a beating heart pumped up with an overdose of adrenaline.

So, with all these positive aspects in its favor, why didn't I love the book?

I'm struggling to put my finger on it. I'm afraid I might be engaging in some post hoc rationalization.

However, my overall impression was that the book was deeply impersonal.

Yes, what could I have expected in an epic account of momentous events?

And wasn't the character of Shostakovich personal enough for me?

I don't know. In a story about a time of great human suffering, I would have preferred it if there was more humanity within it.

But what about Shostakovich? He is indeed an interesting character.

Mr. Vollman portrays him as a weak man who desperately desires to be virtuous and brave, yet is a coward at his core.

He is also a brilliant composer who manages to create extraordinary works of genius amidst purges, wars, starvation, death, destruction, terror, and endless arrests.

Certainly, he is a failure in his personal life.

Nevertheless, he has friends who remain loyal to him throughout his life.

And although unfaithful to his wife, he is at least emotionally faithful to his mistress, who is his one true love.

He is a mass of contradictions, and that alone should have been sufficient to make me love him, but I simply couldn't.

Absolutely beautiful!

This book was truly a masterpiece. It took me quite a while to get through this thick doorstopper of a book, but I can firmly say that the journey was more than worth it.

From the very first page, I was captivated by the author's vivid descriptions and engaging storytelling. The characters came to life in my mind, and I found myself completely invested in their lives and adventures.

The plot was full of twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat, eager to see what would happen next. I also loved the way the author explored different themes and ideas, making me think deeply about various aspects of life and human nature.

Overall, this book is one that I will cherish and remember for a long time. It has left a lasting impression on me, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great read.

Every few years, I embark on the journey of reading a William Vollmann novel. His work often has a tendency to be a little ponderous, but once you manage to get into its unique rhythm, it flows smoothly and packs a powerful punch.

Europe Central is an incredibly powerful read, one that might take its toll on the unsuspecting reader. Through a series of interlinking stories, it delves deep into the history of totalitarianism between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, serving as a grim reminder of the violent insanity that stems from blind adherence to ideology.

At the core of this work is a brilliant retelling of the life of composer Dimitri Shostakovich. Readers who don't possess his Chamber Symphony, Opus 110 might want to obtain it since it is so frequently alluded to that it becomes an essential companion to the reading experience.

As is customary with Vollmann, the research is meticulous, and any points of factual departure are carefully explained in an appendix. Vollmann zeroes in on the historical figures of these warring empires as they grapple with moments of great decision-making.

For me, this novel lifted a veil on an aspect of World War II that I had not given much thought to before. However, the events recounted precede and follow WWII by several decades, providing more than adequate background.

This is a heavy read, one that I undertook during a time of great happiness. Had I not been in such a state, I might have been overcome by the tragedy and gravity of the subject matter. Nevertheless, I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who has the time and the strength of spirit to read it. You will emerge from this reading experience transformed.

In general, the chapters dedicated to Shostakovich, who for some reason keeps coming up often these months, and to what are two of the most perfect and harrowing compositions of the century of horrors. It is natural that when wanting to address what V. Grossman's book has already painted in a, precisely, perfect and harrowing way (and the debt is admitted, in any case), one must seek a different form, perhaps spurious, since one is doomed to remain second, thus carving out one's own personal space of action. This does not mean that the objective is not fully centered equally, and that Shostakovich is exactly the right exemplum of an experiential and ethical-moral nature (on the same line of fascination, but much poorer and more banal is also the last Barnes, "The Noise of Time"). Because in the end the absolute exempla, as these novels that are the children of Grossman show, to resist and oppose Evil in life are those that we already know: Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Shostakovich. To which is here added Kurt Gerstein, with all the benefits of the doubt and also because of them. If the question is always the same (does opposing Evil from within automatically make one complicit or, on the contrary, does it make sense and is it even more noble?), it is precisely these people to look to, these books to read.

Magnificent, in size and scope, unique, evocative, sometimes cryptic and difficult to understand, Central Europe is undoubtedly one of the important books of our time.

Starting from the interwar period and ending in the 1970s, it tells about the totalitarian regimes of Hitler and Stalin that marked the history of the continent through a collage of stories of real people of the era. The protagonists of the book are not the main characters of the events, but rather secondary characters who lived in crucial moments of history, in a very difficult period, and pose to all of us the question of what we would do if we were in their place.

The great Russian composer Shostakovich and his, fantastic, great love for the translator Elena Konstantinovskaya, are the main hero of the book. A man who was accused of collaborating and serving Stalinism with his music, but lived his entire life in fear and anxiety under the threat of an irrational and tyrannical regime that alternately deified and condemned him.

Beside him in the pages of the book pass, among others, Fanya Kaplan, a young Jewish woman who tried to assassinate Lenin, Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin's teacher wife who shaped the Soviet educational system, the German general Paulus and his Soviet counterpart Vlasov, both of whom defected to the opposing camp when they were faced with irrational and autocratic orders, Kurt Gerstein, an SS officer who vainly tried to reveal the Holocaust to foreign leaders and the Catholic Church, the German artist Käthe Kollwitz and her works on the poverty and pain of the mother who loses her child, the Russian documentary filmmaker Roman Karmen, the German judge Hildegard Benjamin, known as the "red executioner" for the people she sent to the gallows, and others in a book river that deserves to remain a classic.