The Appointment in Constant Reader

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The Appointment

Herta M眉ller,

Michael Hulse (Translator)

Start date: June 16, 2011

Finish date: July 15, 2011

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Ruth

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What Members Thought

Nov 19, 2009 Ruth rated it it was amazing

This is a book that will haunt me. I picked it shortly after HM won the Nobel, because I鈥檇 never even heard of her, let alone read anything by her. The Appointment starts out with a young woman summoned to an appointment with the Romanian secret police. We soon learn this is the latest in a long series of these appointments, and this time she鈥檚 packed her toothbrush and towel. She leaves so early there is no possibility of her being late, and as we follow her on her way she muses about the past鈥� ...more

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Jun 09, 2011 Pang rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: constant-reader

Wow - what a book! I enjoyed it so much that I read the book again just after I finished it! The story was of life under in Romania the control of Nicolae Ceausescu and took place mostly on a tram, as the narrator (we never learned her name, by the way) was on her way to the "appointment." As the tram rode on, she recounted events and people in her life.

The book wasn't an easy read (the book jumbled around a lot and had no chapter break), but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really liked her writing s Wow - what a book! I enjoyed it so much that I read the book again just after I finished it! The story was of life under in Romania the control of Nicolae Ceausescu and took place mostly on a tram, as the narrator (we never learned her name, by the way) was on her way to the "appointment." As the tram rode on, she recounted events and people in her life.

The book wasn't an easy read (the book jumbled around a lot and had no chapter break), but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really liked her writing style. It was witty and imaginative, like "My heart turned so hard, it would have struck her dead if I had thrown it" or "Good. It was a beautiful word to say, because it couldn't be bad" or "My grandfather had brown eyes with that subdued gleam you can't get with glass because it hasn't suffered."

Not only the writing was witty, it was also sad and bleak. It felt detached... like her feelings on the situation that she was in. She said at one point that:

People who are summoned develop routines that help them out a little. Whether these routines really work or not is beside the point. It's not people, though, it's me who's developed them; they came sneaking up on me, one by one.

...It's too much to expect my routines to really help me. Actually they don't help me so much as help move life along from one day to the next. There's no point expecting them to fill your head with lucky thoughts. There's a lot to be said for moving life along, but there's essentially nothing to say when it comes to luck, because as soon as you open your mouth you jinx it away. ... The routines I've developed are about moving from one day to the next, and not about luck.

So sad : (

You had to really pay attention to the details, which was quite hard because her narratives were like random thoughts bouncing from one direction to another. Everything led to a puzzling ending. It was so intriguing, which was why I had to read it again!

***SPOILER ALERT***
My conclusion to the ending was that she believed Paul had betrayed her and that he actually was working for the government. (There's another theory that Paul and the old man were having relationship, but I think that was less likely.) The whole thing with the old man started when Paul had the accident with the gray truck. She said: "The more Paul talked about the old man, the less I thought his presence there was just coincidence." Paul actually commented that "there was something fishy about that old man," but concluded that he hardly knew what was going on when the accident happened. When the went to the flea market, the old man was there and "...Paul sold him the Java and decided that the old couldn't have been from the secret police, otherwise he wouldn't have offered more than anybody else. I'm not so sure."

Also, she reminisced at one point:

I was wondering about the games that life plays, and on my way back from the shoemaker I went through all the possible ways of getting fed up with the world. The first and the best: don't get summoned and don't go mad, like most people. The second possibility: don't get summoned, but do lose your mind, like the shoemaker's wife and Frau Micu... The third: do get summoned and do go mad, like the two women in the mental home. Or else the fourth: get summoned but don't go mad, like Paul and myself. Not particular good, but in our case the base option.

So "the trick is not to go mad."

I'm not sure if my conclusion follows what the author had in mind when she wrote the book, but I think it's enough for me to have my closure and move on : )

...more

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