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80 hrs of reading over 11 months 🙂

Gesine Cresspahl‘s diary, generally in 3rd person, is half present day New York City, August 1967 to August 1968, peppered with NYTimes headlines. And half her childhood in Germany before, during and after WW2…and she was on the other side of the Iron Curtain, in the eastern GDR. An odd love/hate to lonely capitalist NYC, and an ode to survival in and, to the ghosts of, eastern Germany. #uwe

I finished Part 3, the shortest of the 4 volumes. Narrated in April-May-June 1968 New York, with the assassination of Robert Kennedy told through its press lens on TV and in the New York Times. With the backstory now in post-WWII Soviet Germany. What does a communist country do when it conquers a wealthy capitalist country? It‘s a very strange story. The first two parts were easier reads. History is just a little too messy here. #Uwe

I finished the 2nd book, so half way home, but also a month behind my year plan.

Bk2 has changes from Bk1. It‘s more distinctly Gesine‘s voice, but at the cost of much of the eerie feel of this climactic time, which he created by paraphrasing the NY Times. (An unfortunate cost) Also it covers all of WW2, so the backstory takes priority over the then contemporary NYC, excepting MLK‘s assassination. I did get really into it eventually.
#Uwe

I started Volume 2 this week, another 450 or so pages. I took a break for all of May, so I should say I _finally_ started again. So far Volume 2 is not as good. #uwe

I finished part I of this 1700 page book following a child of Nazi Germany living in New York City in 1967, a single mother, a professional in a giant bank building, living on Riverside Drive in Manhattan with her ten-yr-old daughter and no other family, but some Jewish heritage and many ghosts. While reading I had one day in NYC and we walked around a lot from Central Park to Columbia University. It felt to me like a city still in 1967. 👇👇

Another books I started the year off with. This one for a year long buddy read led by @JenniferP #uwe #anniversariesbuddyread

We are starting a year long group read of the tagged book in 2022. I've created a discussion thread on LT at https://www.librarything.com/topic/337722 and I will also post on Litsy if there is anyone who is interested but not on LibraryThing. Please join us - it looks like a fascinating book! #1001books #nyrb #yearlonggroupread