Život u mračnim vremenima

by Ernst Pawel, Miriam Pawel (Contributor), Indira Funduk (Translator)

U knjizi "Život u mračnim vremenima" Ernst Pavel iznosi zanimljivu povest o prvih 30 godina svog života. Njegova lična sećanja, osvežavajuće oštroumna i iskrena, katkad su brutalna, katkad preplavljena ljubavlju, često na ivici političke korektnosti a neizostavno razigrana i razdragana.

Upravo u vreme pisanja ove knjige, Pavel je umirao od raka pluća. Sa bolešću se suočio istom onom mešavinom iskrenosti, humora i besa, kojom se sučelio sa bežanjem pred nacistima iz Berlina u Beograd, gde je, kao četrnaestogodišnji dečak, zajedno sa porodicom bio primljen, premda teško da su zaista bili dobrodošli što se tiče tadašnje jugoslovenske vlasti. Postao je deo predratnog beogradskog, ilegalnog, pokreta otpora fašizmu (preko levičarskih organizacija i jevrejskog okrilja Hašomer hacair društva, kao i lokalne komunističke omladine). Pred sam rat, emigrirao je u Sjedinjene Države, gde je 1942. regrutovan kako bi se borio protiv nacista.

Zavodljivo i precizno, Pavel džangrizavim tonom pripoveda svoju priču, a ipak iza njegovog kritičkog pogleda prepoznajemo duboko humanog čoveka, čija je inteligencija oštra, a ljubav spram života strastvena ... i čiji integritet nadahnjuje.

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Ernst Pawel was a German American biographer, novelist, and translator who worked primarily for New York Life Insurance from 1946 to 1982. Pawel wrote about the Holocaust and Sigmund Freud in three novels from 1951 to 1960. From 1954 to 1965 he translated books by Georges Simenon and Lotte Lehman. During the 1980s, Pavel released biographies of Franz Kafka and Theodor Herzl. Following his death in 1994, Pawel's biography of Heinrich Heine and his own memoir were released.

The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography and was nominated for the American Book Award for Nonfiction in 1984.

Reviews

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

the 20th century alchemically condensed into a memoir drenched in wittiness and death

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ernst Pawel was a great writer of biographies. This was written in the last year of his battle with cancer and you tell, but it is still a great and inspiring book.