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Europe Central
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780143036593
ISBN: 0143036599
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 832
Publication Date: November 14, 2005
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Editorial Review:
In this magnificent work of fiction, William T. Vollmann turns his trenchant eye to the authoritarian cultures of Germany and the USSR in the twentieth century. Assembling a composite portrait of these two warring leviathans and the terrible age they defined, the narrative intertwines experiences both real and fictionala young German who joins the SS to expose its crimes, two generals who collaborate with the enemy for different reasons, the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich laboring under Stalinist oppression. Through these and other lives, Vollmann offers a daring and mesmerizing perspective on human actions during wartime.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Magnificent; unputdownable; terrifying
'Europe Central' surpasses genre. For all I learned about Germany and Russia from this book, it could well have been a history textbook; but the unflagging eloquence of its prose earns it a place amongst the great novels of our time. The novel grapples with vast, vast ideas, but the story is not crushed by didacticism. On the contrary, 'Europe Central' paints the struggles, whether military, political, ideological, psychological, or personal, in vivid and often nightmarish colors. I was extremely ... Read More
Rating: - A very fine novel
The winner of the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction, this is a copiously annotated historical novel of Europe in the first half of last century. "Interesting times" is an understatement. The scope of research that went into this work is staggering. All of the major players show here in multiple plot lines that meander in and around through central europe, converging and diverging.
As you can see, the reviews are mixed, and I think it's mainly because of the numerous plots, the license ... Read More
Rating:  - Ponderous Prose from a Sesquipedalian
I'll have to admit, I could not get past the first 16 pages. I'm a person with a rather large vocabulary, (I did crossword puzzles for years) and I found my self quite frequently running accross words I did not know. It reminded me of when a college professor told me my paper sounded like I had my head in a thesaurus (If you mean drunk, use drunk, not besotted!). Worse still, I found myself re-reading sentences frequently to decipher the meaning.
I thought maybe it would change and the later ... Read More
Rating:  - Thought-provoking but difficult
Europe Central is that "walled kingdom in the middle of the past. Every day here begins 'once upon a time.'" So says Vollman near the end of his sprawling novel of the intertwined history of Germany and Russia in the 20th century. Earlier, he has already told us that Europe Central was the name of the German telephone exchange that literally covered Europe to the west and center and . . . Never fully to the east, which is the crux of the matter.
Vollman's National Book Award Winner is a ... Read More
Rating: - One complaint
Vollmann's book is worth plugging through all 800 pages or more. The characters are interesting and live in the pages.
But, could we not go back to those days of yore when a book comes in two or more volumes? This book could crush a small person if she fell asleep while reading it and is nearly impossible to read in the bathtub.
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