An abbreviated buddy-read-review- with Violet

A sensitively imagined portrayal of a small German town in the fateful years between the first and second World Wars narrated from the perspective of an appealing main character who is both of the town in that she is the keeper of their secrets and the source of their gossip, but also other due to her diminutive size, there's a lot to like about this rich and colourful web of life. For me personally it has the added attraction of this fictional town being situated just down the road, the locations ones that I know well. So why did I find myself skipping over huge chunks of it after a while? Well, the writing is plain and straightforward; nothing wrong with that, it's clear and lucid, you don't always want obscurity that makes you work hard, but occasionally it does lapse into history teacher mode.

...the long training in obedience to elders, government, and church made it difficult-even for those who considered the views of the Nazis dishonourable-to give voice to their misgivings. And so they kept hushed, yielding to each new indignity while they waited for the Nazis and their ideas to go away, but with every compliance they relinquished more of themselves, weakening the texture of the community while the power of the Nazis swelled.

It's almost as if Hegi couldn't quite trust her ability to show us this happening and has to resort every now and then to these kind of generalities to make sure we've got the message.

And then of course none of the snippets of songs or references to poems and stories have the appeal of the exotic for me, so that may also explain a little of my lack of enthusiasm for what is, actually, a very well-written book. It's a very digestible way of learning a lot about German modern history, but maybe I thought in my intellectual arrogance that I knew it all already.

A grim book about grim years. This is the story of a town in Germany from 1915 to 1952. More specifically, this is the story of a woman of that town and her relationship to other people and to the world.

Trudi was born with dwarfism. We see life through her eyes, through her experiences. We get to know most of the people in the town (and there are a lot of them) and how they respond to Trudi. We see how she creates a life for herself and how she deals with her physical limitations. Trudi is a strong character, but honestly not very likable even while you admire her courage.

There are many themes to the book, which feels appropriate, since that time in history was immensely complex. I am not sure that one reading allows a person to pick up completely on everything that is going on. And frankly, I thought the ending was a bit odd, but maybe that was simply because it was not at all what I was expecting.

Also, I couldn't stop myself from wondering about why the Nazis never came for Trudi for the mere fact of her dwarfism. We all know that they wanted to rid the world of anyone who did not fit their idea of 'Aryan perfection'. Why did they leave Trudi to live throughout the years of the book? I do not believe that would have been possible in real life.

A compelling if difficult book to read, but I do not think I will seek out this author in future.

This book is amazing. It gives you a new perspective on what hardships are and how we live our lives. I found it to be a tough read but in a good way. It really made me think and feel.

I loved this book. When it was first published everyone said how much they liked it. I was a bit sceptical about the fuss, because often times the book becomes dated. I read it about three years ago and discovered that the quality of the writing, the plot and especially Trudi, are wonderful. Highly recommended to those who want to learn a little bit more about small town German life in the first half of the 20th century.

Sul come la recensionista sbarazzina si lasci andare a rivelazioni autobiografiche che vanno ben oltre i suoi dati anagrafici

Quando andai a Trieste per l'Università, non so se per la legge degli opposti, o per la tendenza bislacca della vita a scherzare coi pardossi, mi ritrovai a frequentare assiduamente due bellezze indigene.
La Betta e La Claudia erano due valchirie alte 1,80 ciascuna, bionde, fascinose, giunoniche e con proporzioni da manuale.
Il primo anno eravamo inseparabili. Ma ovviamente c'era anche il rovescio della medaglia. Io esistevo solo per loro. Tutti gli altri non mi vedevano.
Per quanto anch'io vantassi delle proporzioni canoniche, e guardassi il mondo con due occhi da cerbiatta, come solo le ventenni sanno fare, dal basso del mio 1,63, quando stavo con loro, diventavo magicamente invisibile. Non c'era verso di spiccare manco grazie alla mia pelle ambrata, che faceva da contrasto alle loro pelli seducenti, ma chiare come il calcestruzzo.
Così quando accadeva che qualche ragazzo si fermasse a parlare con noi, la conversazione rimaneva sempre ad altezza sventole (nel senso letterale della parola).
L'asterisco nero coi capelli arruffati, in mezzo ai due punti luminosi passava in secondo piano, anzi.. al pian terreno.
All'epoca risolsi il problema frequentando di meno le stangone, e mettendomi col fratello della Betta; che sfiorava gli 1,90 e faceva collezione di fatine in miniatura, e che probabilmente mi aveva notato per associazione di idee.

Allora di certo, non l'avrei saputo cogliere, ma adesso potrei dire che quell'invisibilità coatta aveva un po' il sapore della frustrazione, a cui non facevo troppo caso, perché mitigato dalla leggerezza di una matricola universitaria, che ha toute la vie devant soi per rifarsi.

Trudi, la protagonista del libro, non avrebbe potuto gestire la cosa con la mia stessa noncurante faciloneria. Prché lei invisibile ci è nata.
E la coattività della sua frustrazione non dipende dal non volerne uscire, ma dal nanismo. Che in quanto malformazione genetica, non lo puoi togliere e chiudere nel terrazzino come fosse lo stendino dei panni.
Se i libri potessero essere concepiti come capi double-face, Come pietre nel fiume sarebbe la parte calda e vellutata de Il tamburo di latta. Laddove nel secondo trionfa il lucido cinismo, nel primo impera la potenza dell'umanità.
E così Trudi, soffre, si dispera, lotta e alla fine trova il modo per sopravvivere alla cattiveria della gente e alla guerra. Un modo tutto suo sicurmente, ma molto più duraturo e profondo, di quello che poterebbe escogitare chi si appoggia al comfort di un corpo normale.

Insomma: il nanismo è come il grasso.
Va saputo portare.
E Trudi lo porta in modo impareggiabile.
Una grande lezione in un piccolissimo corpo.

I am not in the right reading mood lately! Books aren't sitting right with me. I need to go to reading therapy and figure out what's going on.

I've had this borrowed from my friend for a whole year now; does this ever happen to you? She brought it over, so we could share.

Okay.

This is a really beautiful book. It is so well-written. The language is loving and rich. It's atmospheric and thoughtful; the characters are complex and relatable. Why didn't I love it? I don't know. It is totally fine! Don't worry. I'm in a funk, book.

This is one of those novels that follows its protagonist right from her birth. Trudi is still a small child for such a long time, for a huge portion of the novel. It doesn't skip any time in her life, treating the experiences of her childhood just as heavily in importance as the experiences Trudi has as an adult during wartime. And that's a weight indeed.

Trudi's childhood is not battle-less. She is born with dwarfism and there isn't really a time ever that she isn't dealing with the way that being different affects her. It's fascinating, of course, how we get to see Trudi come up against her feelings time and again, for very good reasons and bad ones. So believably, and in ways I can totally identify with, she grows up into a person who is both extraordinarily compassionate and also extraordinarily defensive. She also carries something very, very heavy with her into adulthood, a traumatizing experience in her adolescence that is so difficult, so difficult. Her personality is so well-drawn, it's fantastic. I understand why she is some readers' favorite character ever.

I have to admit, I was surprised how little Trudi's dwarfism mattered in the eyes of the Nazis in her town. As they gradually and cruelly blur the boundaries of what people they consider bad for Germany, and more people from the town are taken away (sometimes for nothing), I fully expected someone to turn on her. The novel dwells a good bit on the creepy emphasis that the Nazi-imposed culture placed on motherhood and, er, breeding. Yet, her physical differences are only brought up once in connection with politics, when an officer insults her (while intimating that he could do much worse). As is often the case in literature, Trudi's differences make her who she is, inside and out, and that's why she's important to us as a protagonist. I was sure that part of what would make our closeness with Trudi feel powerful in the story would be when the biggest fact of her life (her size) was transformed into a threat. But that didn't happen. Which is okay — I felt like I was braced for one blow that didn't come.

(Um, I did Google "Nazi Germany dwarfism" to learn a little bit more about real circumstances, but you know — be ready.)

Actually… I'm not sure how to explain this. But this book gave me one of those little wake-up moments where the realness of Hitler and the Holocaust leaked through and made me think, wow. WOW. Wow. Don't we all feel this way? This subject is very big. These facts are very hard. We know so much about it, too much to keep turned "on" in our minds at all times, I think. We intellectualize so we can stand to learn more. And the farther away we get, we rely a lot on fictional (or semi-autobiographical) narratives to explore the feelings we need to remember. But: sometimes it leaks back out of its container inside you, and makes you look around. These things truly happened, around people like me. It hurts and scares me. That's what it makes me think, that's what needs remembering. Who, who would know what to do?

Similarly, I do feel like mentioning that at times I felt on the edge of exasperation that the politics of the characters were a little too facile, in that the already-frustrating characters became Nazi supporters, and the wonderful Trudi and her father unwaveringly against. Trudi and her father are wonderful, they're great people, and it isn't surprising that they care and follow their instincts to be helpful. But… still. They practically never suffer a moment of keeping silence out of fear. Other sympathetic characters do, but not them. Nope. Trudi seems to have premonitions, sometimes, and while that could be kind of interesting… it really just means that she always makes the right choices. And she always gets out of trouble.

The real job of the book, I believe, is to give us this very normal portrait of life in a small village, in a place where people are not used to being bothered, and then let war creep in. We slowly watch it all happen, through the lens of this one place. It's really effective at this, spending decades with them (though for all the time I spent with them, I could never remember anyone's names), and knowing them so well. We get somewhere. The ending was kind of a puzzler, actually, but I was just glad to be there.

A very multilayered complex story which takes place in a small German town in the years leading up to world war II through the war and several years afterwards. The character of Trudi is extremely well developed, but there are so many charcters in this book, I had to make myself a list so I could keep track of them.

AS the Nazi's begin their reign of terror, neighbors are put to the test as to where their loyalties lie. As neighbor turns on neighbor, turning them in to the Nazi's for any activity deemed unacceptable to the ruling party, people being to live in secret for fear of being spied on by their neighbors.

However there is a secret underground movement to save their Jewish citizens from being captured by the Nazis during the war. The tables are turned when at the end of the war , those who supprted the Nazi party are now looking to their neighbors to vouch for them and not turn them over to the Allies

Abandoned at page 248 out of 525...I feel like I gave it a good effort. But when I'm starting to dread my daily reading time, it's time to choose a new book! I agree with these other reviewers' comments, and don't have much else to add:

“It's almost as if Hegi couldn't quite trust her ability to show us this happening and has to resort every now and then to these kind of generalities to make sure we've got the message.”

“There were parts of this book that I really enjoyed and the writing was good, but at 525 pages, it was too detailed and drawn out for my liking—with a wide cast of characters.”

“Author Ursula Hegi also has a bit of trouble handling the large number of characters. Because there are so many characters, she ends up having to provide contextual information each time they reappear. The result is that the writing becomes over expository. The reader is given all of the information, interpretations, and explanations; there is nothing subtle, nothing that goes unstated. It is a reasonably good story, but not a great novel.”

“I was very disappointed in this book.”

“Overall it was not really a book that keeps you willing to read on. More like a movie in which there is no tension at all.”

This book is epic! It is one of the most subtly complex books I have ever read. It is the story of Trudi who is a dwarf in Germany during WWII. The story spans her life from being very young to her mid to late 30's. This is a character who is neither good nor bad.......like most humans! She does some things that are not so good and some things that are good. We get to see the evolution of a young woman and the evolution of a country---what can happen when we are complacent and quiet about things that are WRONG. I, like other reviewers did have a hard time getting into the book in the beginning and the ending kind of left me saying "meh...." (that made it 4 stars over 5), but the book is definitely worth the time and effort to get through! Compelling read.

Re-read December 2018. As good and thought provoking as I remember.

First of all, I could have done without all the sexual moments. I know this is part of life, which is what this book is about, but much of it wasn't necessary. It ruined the book for me. I read this book with a lot of apprehension - not trusting it and expecting something horrible at any moment.

That being said, this book captures human emotions of all kinds, but focuses on being different. One of the morals I took from this story is how we let our differences become barriers. Like Trudi we often assume others are scorning our differences, when in reality many people don't notice or plain just don't care. We all walk through life with our own pair of "reality glasses", and this book reminds us that we all have a different perspective and a different pair of glasses.

This book is full of despair and suffering. I was hoping throughout that something wonderful would happen to someone, but even good things turned bad in the end. I've read depressing books before, but the author usually leads the reader to believe that despite the hardships, people are resilient and will carry on. There is usually some bright hope in the future. I just didn't get this same feeling from this book. Maybe it was just me, or maybe nothing good did come out of Germany in the 1940s, but I felt that these characters were just going to have to endure life's continuing disappointments until the day they died, either of old age or at their own hands.

Now, I need to go find me a fluffy book to read to get this one out of my head.