Not Just Desserts

Tunbridge Wells Book Club

Book Reviews - The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller

Not a book to read in cold, miserable, grey February. The book portrays a bleak dehumanised society - presumably a realistic portrayal of life under Ceaucescu's dictatorship.

The book lead to an interesting discussion which actually improved several members' opinions - the starkness of the book and its lack of apparent purpose/storyline were felt to be an intentional design on behalf of the author to reflect the drudgery and oppression of Romanian life at that time.

Everyone felt that the book was disjointed - we all thought that the descriptive prose was fantastic and that the images it conjured were powerful, but that these were unordered snapshots and that the book lacked any continuity.

There was no-one in the group who enjoyed the book, but most were pleased to have had the opportunity to read it and discuss it as it was not a book anyone felt they would have read unprompted. Some felt they should reread it to get maximum benefit/understanding of the book and its metaphors, but equally felt that it would be a long, emotional drain to repeat!

Many felt that the quality of translation was poor and we wondered if the book would have been more powerful in its native language.