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Burgdorf Cycle #4
Children and Fire
The fourth novel in Ursula Hegi’s acclaimed Burgdorf cycle is “a thoughtful, sidelong approach to the worst moment in Germany’s history that invites us to understand how decent people come to collaborate with evil” (Kirkus Reviews).
Children and Fire tells the story of one day that will forever transform the lives of the people in Burgdorf, Germany, the fictitious village by the river in Ursula Hegi’s bestselling novels. February 27, 1934—the first anniversary of the burning of Reichstag, the Parliament building in Berlin.
Thekla Jansen, a gifted young teacher, loves her students and tries to protect them from the chaos beyond their village. Believing the Nazis’ new regime will not last forever, Thekla begins to relinquish some of her freedoms to keep her teaching position. She has always taken her moral courage for granted, but when each compromise chips away at that courage, she knows she must reclaim it.
Ursula Hegi funnels pivotal moments in history through the experience of Thekla, her students, and the townspeople as she writes along the edge where sorrow and bliss meet, and shows us how one society—educated, cultural, compassionate—can slip into a reality that’s fabricated by propaganda and controlled by fear.
Gorgeously rendered and emotionally taut, Children and Fire confirms Ursula Hegi’s position as one of the most distinguished writers of her generation.
Children and Fire tells the story of one day that will forever transform the lives of the people in Burgdorf, Germany, the fictitious village by the river in Ursula Hegi’s bestselling novels. February 27, 1934—the first anniversary of the burning of Reichstag, the Parliament building in Berlin.
Thekla Jansen, a gifted young teacher, loves her students and tries to protect them from the chaos beyond their village. Believing the Nazis’ new regime will not last forever, Thekla begins to relinquish some of her freedoms to keep her teaching position. She has always taken her moral courage for granted, but when each compromise chips away at that courage, she knows she must reclaim it.
Ursula Hegi funnels pivotal moments in history through the experience of Thekla, her students, and the townspeople as she writes along the edge where sorrow and bliss meet, and shows us how one society—educated, cultural, compassionate—can slip into a reality that’s fabricated by propaganda and controlled by fear.
Gorgeously rendered and emotionally taut, Children and Fire confirms Ursula Hegi’s position as one of the most distinguished writers of her generation.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
60 people are currently reading
2358 people want to read
About the author
Ursula Hegi
27 books1,073 followersUrsula Hegi is a German-born American writer. She is currently an instructor in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.
She was born Ursula Koch in 1946 in Düsseldorf, Germany, a city that was heavily bombed during World War II. Her perception growing up was that the war was avoided as a topic of discussion despite its evidence everywhere, and The Holocaust was a particularly taboo topic. This had a strong effect on her later writing and her feelings about her German identity.
She left West Germany in 1964, at the age of 18. She moved to the United States in 1965, where she married (becoming Ursula Hegi) in 1967 and became a naturalized citizen the same year. In 1979, she graduated from the University of New Hampshire with both a bachelor's and master's degree. She was divorced in 1984. The same year, she was hired at Eastern Washington University, in Cheney, Washington, near Spokane, Washington, where she became an Associate Professor and taught creative writing and contemporary literature.
Hegi's first books were set in the United States. She set her third, Floating in My Mother's Palm, in the fictional German town of "Burgdorf," using her writing to explore her conflicted feelings about her German heritage. She used the setting for three more books, including her best selling novel Stones from the River, which was chosen for Oprah's Book Club in 1997. Hegi appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 8, and her publisher reprinted 1.5 million hardcover copies and 500,000 paperbacks. She subsequently moved from Spokane to New York City.
Hegi's many awards include an NEA Fellowship and five PEN Syndicated Fiction Awards. She won a book award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) in 1991 for Floating in My Mother's Palm. She has also had two New York Times Notable Book mentions. She has written many book reviews for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post.
She was born Ursula Koch in 1946 in Düsseldorf, Germany, a city that was heavily bombed during World War II. Her perception growing up was that the war was avoided as a topic of discussion despite its evidence everywhere, and The Holocaust was a particularly taboo topic. This had a strong effect on her later writing and her feelings about her German identity.
She left West Germany in 1964, at the age of 18. She moved to the United States in 1965, where she married (becoming Ursula Hegi) in 1967 and became a naturalized citizen the same year. In 1979, she graduated from the University of New Hampshire with both a bachelor's and master's degree. She was divorced in 1984. The same year, she was hired at Eastern Washington University, in Cheney, Washington, near Spokane, Washington, where she became an Associate Professor and taught creative writing and contemporary literature.
Hegi's first books were set in the United States. She set her third, Floating in My Mother's Palm, in the fictional German town of "Burgdorf," using her writing to explore her conflicted feelings about her German heritage. She used the setting for three more books, including her best selling novel Stones from the River, which was chosen for Oprah's Book Club in 1997. Hegi appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 8, and her publisher reprinted 1.5 million hardcover copies and 500,000 paperbacks. She subsequently moved from Spokane to New York City.
Hegi's many awards include an NEA Fellowship and five PEN Syndicated Fiction Awards. She won a book award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) in 1991 for Floating in My Mother's Palm. She has also had two New York Times Notable Book mentions. She has written many book reviews for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 304 reviews
July 26, 2011
This book has inspired me to immediately seek out the rest of Hegi's Burgdorf cycle. I'd read and loved Stones from the River, and when I read a review of this book set in the same small German village in the first half of the twentieth century, a companion book to Stones, I got hold of it immediately. Characters who in the first book were minor here spring to full life. Wilhelm Jansen, the shell-shocked veteran, reveals here his earlier history, his marriage to a pregnant woman and the fate of their child, who becomes the central character in this book. Trudi Montag, the dwarf protagonist of Stones, is here merely an occasional background figure, though an interesting one to a reader who already knows her story and can see here, through Thekla Jansen, how Trudi is viewed by townspeople. It also presents a more complete portrayal of Bruno Stosick, the boy who committed suicide in Stones because he wasn't allowed to join the Hitler-Jugend. Particularly fascinating to me was the story of Ilse and Michel Abramowitz who are seen here from a different and deeper perspective than Trudi's. A wonderful, wonderfully written account of what happens when propaganda is substituted for truth, and fear for reason, an issue Americans should certainly be thinking about in our own current political climate.
January 11, 2012
Oh, Ursula Hegi, I so want to like your books, but, for some reason, I just can’t. You are firmly in the two star category for me: Stones from the River. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m lacking in some way? NAH. :) I think my real opinion is that everything is just too drawn out and too much time is spent on everything, as if the premise of the writing is, “why explain something in a paragraph when I can turn it into a whole chapter?” And people, therein lies one of the main reasons I read so much young adult fiction. I am busy. I work full-time. I have a husband. I have a toddler. I cook most of our meals. I try to bake the majority of our bread. I have a cat that never stops meowing. I have things to do and I cannot waste, yes, I wrote WASTE, my time on gratuitous descriptions of everything, especially when I am not overly in love with the book anyway. Young adult fiction? So fast and easy and if it’s lame, (shrug), it’s 185 pages. I’m done reading it in two hours. But Ursula Hegi, I slogged through this for four days, an unheard of amount of time for me and then, I admit to skimming the last 20% of the book. I had a life I needed to get back to.
And now I’m laughing at myself. You’re probably going, “you just wrote a huge paragraph overly describing why you don’t love this book without even mentioning what the book was about. You are just like Ursula Hegi.” And I would argue that my goodreads reviews have never been chosen for Oprah’s booklist and so, are held to a much lower standard.
This book centers on the life of Thekla Jahnsen, a teacher to a class of 10 year old boys. It’s set in 1934, a year after the burning of the Reichstag and the book jacket led me to believe it would be about how one woman (Thekla) could become so seduced by the Hitler propaganda that she would encourage her class of boys to join the movement. Instead, I got a warbling, timeline-jumping story about Thekla’s parentage which frankly ended up being so predictable that it caused the aforementioned skimming. And thus, I concluded my final attempt with Ms. Hegi’s writing.
And now I’m laughing at myself. You’re probably going, “you just wrote a huge paragraph overly describing why you don’t love this book without even mentioning what the book was about. You are just like Ursula Hegi.” And I would argue that my goodreads reviews have never been chosen for Oprah’s booklist and so, are held to a much lower standard.
This book centers on the life of Thekla Jahnsen, a teacher to a class of 10 year old boys. It’s set in 1934, a year after the burning of the Reichstag and the book jacket led me to believe it would be about how one woman (Thekla) could become so seduced by the Hitler propaganda that she would encourage her class of boys to join the movement. Instead, I got a warbling, timeline-jumping story about Thekla’s parentage which frankly ended up being so predictable that it caused the aforementioned skimming. And thus, I concluded my final attempt with Ms. Hegi’s writing.
October 25, 2013
My only complaint with this book (if it can be called that) was that I didn't want the book to end. It left me craving to know what happened next. Ursula Hegi has earned her place as my favorite modern day writer. I've read all of her novels and have yet to be disappointed. In my opinion, Stones From The River (the first book of this series) is one of the greatest novels ever written. No one weaves a story like Hegi and pulls the reader into the past, making the stories relevant and timely while evoking imaginative heights of a great novel. This is the fourth novel in Hegi’s Burgdorf series, but true to Hegi's talent, she creates a unique story which is free to stand on its own. Children and Fire takes place over the span of a single day, interspersed with occurrences from the past. Hegi is no Jodi Picoult (thank God). She doesn't churn out a book a month, but when she does write, it is a masterful creation and telling worthy of the reader's patience. As one of her biggest fans, Children And Fire has left me excitingly anticipating Hegi’s next book.
October 9, 2011
With the luxury of time, we look back and ask ourselves: how did so many educated and cultured people become manipulated by a madman – Hitler—to justify torture and genocide?
The answers we come up with are all too often dismissive and simplistic – a good vs. evil dichotomy. In reality, the answer is far more nuanced, and Ursula Hegi captures how a surge of national unity goes so very wrong and how the absence of complexity or doubt can lead even good people astray.
Set in Burgdorf, Germany, a teacher, Thekla Jansen, is entrusted with teaching a classroom of boys the year after the parliament building is burned. Like so many, she is not enamoured of Hitler and believes that his time will be limited and things will soon go back to normal. She even rationalizes that her charges may benefit from joining the Hitler-Jugend, with its unity and songs and bonfires.
As books get burned and the country becomes enraptured over a new savior, Thekla teaches a Schiller poem, about a young diver’s courage and death. But the last stanza – the one that focuses on his hubris, as the young diver steps toward the mad king and leaps into the rough waters, is left out. For now, she thinks, “let them believe that the young page gets to keep the golden cup. Let them believe he gets the princess and the fairy-tale ending…”
The problem is, it’s difficult to separate propaganda from truth and, as Thekla discovers “being true to yourself doesn’t necessarily mean you are truthful…After all, she has felt that reverence as child in church, the emotional pitch that proves your transformation. Easy enough to use that reverence in politics.”
Thekla’s awakening is gradual as she begins to realize that individual freedom is different from national freedom, and that it’s become too easy to rationalize giving up those freedoms to live. In this, Children and Fire is a cautionary tale, not only to understand the Hitler era but for our times.
I wanted to award this book its fifth star except for a few flaws. The author tries too hard – in my opinion – to weave in other books of the Burgdorf Cycle, most notably Stones from the River; it doesn’t quite feel organic. More troubling, she relies on a rather tired plot device about parentage to demonstrate how vulnerable we all are. Despite these flaws, this is a worthy, thoughtful, and important book that dares to ask the question: “What would YOU do in Thekla’s place?” Most of us, I’m afraid, would come up wanting.
The answers we come up with are all too often dismissive and simplistic – a good vs. evil dichotomy. In reality, the answer is far more nuanced, and Ursula Hegi captures how a surge of national unity goes so very wrong and how the absence of complexity or doubt can lead even good people astray.
Set in Burgdorf, Germany, a teacher, Thekla Jansen, is entrusted with teaching a classroom of boys the year after the parliament building is burned. Like so many, she is not enamoured of Hitler and believes that his time will be limited and things will soon go back to normal. She even rationalizes that her charges may benefit from joining the Hitler-Jugend, with its unity and songs and bonfires.
As books get burned and the country becomes enraptured over a new savior, Thekla teaches a Schiller poem, about a young diver’s courage and death. But the last stanza – the one that focuses on his hubris, as the young diver steps toward the mad king and leaps into the rough waters, is left out. For now, she thinks, “let them believe that the young page gets to keep the golden cup. Let them believe he gets the princess and the fairy-tale ending…”
The problem is, it’s difficult to separate propaganda from truth and, as Thekla discovers “being true to yourself doesn’t necessarily mean you are truthful…After all, she has felt that reverence as child in church, the emotional pitch that proves your transformation. Easy enough to use that reverence in politics.”
Thekla’s awakening is gradual as she begins to realize that individual freedom is different from national freedom, and that it’s become too easy to rationalize giving up those freedoms to live. In this, Children and Fire is a cautionary tale, not only to understand the Hitler era but for our times.
I wanted to award this book its fifth star except for a few flaws. The author tries too hard – in my opinion – to weave in other books of the Burgdorf Cycle, most notably Stones from the River; it doesn’t quite feel organic. More troubling, she relies on a rather tired plot device about parentage to demonstrate how vulnerable we all are. Despite these flaws, this is a worthy, thoughtful, and important book that dares to ask the question: “What would YOU do in Thekla’s place?” Most of us, I’m afraid, would come up wanting.
February 5, 2025
This was a compelling novel that takes place on one day in 1934 in Germany (and flashbacks) as Hitler’s cruel ideas are becoming more accepted by the populace. The main character, a teacher, sees how insidious it is when you go along with what is happening. The parallels to today are scary, as we watch many politicians and pundits fall all over themselves justifying the proclamations of the current administration. Glad I read this older book on my shelf!
June 14, 2011
NO SPOILERS!!!
Through Chapter Two and a little more: Yesterday I finished the marvellous memoir A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan by Netofer Pazira. I gave it five stars, but having just finished a memoir, I wanted a novel. But which? I had read all of the books loaded into my Kindle! Since I am so picky about how an author writes, I checked my GR list of books that are available on Kindle, deciding to sample a few until I found one I could not put down. I found it - Ursula Hegi's new historical fiction entitled Children and Fire. It portrays a wonderful teacher, a teacher of 10-year-old boys in a Catholic school, who is convinced that her kids should join Hitler-Jugend! How are we going to feel about a woman who is a marvellous teacher but is misguided?! How has she been fooled, and how did the German people get fooled by Hitler? It takes place on one day – February 27, 1934, one year after the burning of the Reichtag in Berlin. This was Shrove Monday, the end of the festivities before Lent. Every student and even the teacher remember exactly what they were doing when they heard of the burning. The shock they felt, and the fear that Hitler induced in them, this fear and hatred for the Communists, is vividly portrayed. We know now that the Communist/anarchist Van der Lubbe was not responsible, but this was not known then. Hitler accused the Communists to create fear and hatred. He did it for his own purposes. A year later the children were still scared that the Communists might come and burn their school, their homes, their…..Hitler was an adept manipulator of fear.
What I immediately noticed in reading just a few chapters of the sample was that the writing is intelligent, compassionate and humorous. Even serious topics can be humorous. Bruno's father exclaims that Hitler should be hung up by his balls, or maybe just one, if rumours are correct! I read samples from other books about us adults…… Really, they were so depressing - married couples having affairs, discrimination against blacks, rape and whatnot. I am not saying this book about the build up to the Second World War is light reading, but the difference is that some of the people portrayed, the school children and their teacher Thekla are good people, perhaps misguided and confused by events, but their hearts are in the right place. I really cannot take a book filled with depravity and coarseness when no characters make any effort to at least try and be good people. I don't mind mistakes, but I dislike reading about people who are not even attempting to be good or moral or kind. Such is just too dam depressing!
And I love Thekla's view on premarital sex and sensuality. Both the belief that God created the earth in six days and the sin of pre-marital sex could be thrown out together with the dirty dishwater! I simply adore Ursula Hegi's ability to string together words in an amusing, compassionate and intelligent manner.
One more thing - Thekla is one of those teachers that stands out above all the rest. We all look back at our years at school and if we have been lucky we will remember one teacher, maybe two, that meant the world to us. She teachers her students a given subject right when that topic captures their interest. On the curriculum she should be teaching "Lent", but what does she teach? Geography! Why? Well, because the students want to know where Berlin is. How close is it to their homes? How can you teach about the importance of giving up more food when poverty is strangling them? Acquaint yourself with this teacher:
She loves them all: the boys with crossed eyes and crooked teeth; the brainy boys and the beautiful boys; the boys from good families and the boys with "Rotznasen" – runny noses -who've been born into families with something as basic as wiping your nose is not done for you when you're little, and you never learn how to do it for yourself. Like the Führer. This is where he came from, and the uniform can't cover that. His skin may be clean and dry, but he'll always have "Rotznase". It's a way of living, a way of having been brought into life. (7%)
15% through the book: When I read a good book, I want to share my thoughts with others. I have noted that when I really like a book my reviews tend to get longer and longer. Gundula, here is a message just for you. This book discusses legends and myths and poetry and famous German authors. I just learned of Friedrich von Schiller who wrote "Der Taucher" – "The Diver". You will learn why the children decided to change the name of their classroom frog from Copernicus to Icarus. And poetry hasn't spoken to me before?!
Who is Fraulein Siderova? I know she was the boys' teacher before Thekla, but why is she no longer the teacher. It was her that started the routine of teaching the children one poem every week. They were not ordered to memorize the stanzas. Oh no! She aroused the children's curiosity so they wanted to recite the poem, so they each felt compelled to seek the meaning of the poem for themselves. Hegi pushes her readers just as Fräulein Siderova and Thekla pushed their students, by arousing our curiosity to seek out the answers. Here follows another example:
But the midwife, Lotte Jansen, knew there was no God. Of course, she kept this secret from the nuns who employed her to bring life into the world. At the St. Margaret Home, she was known for her kindness and skilful hands, but most of all because not one single death happened on her watch. It was said that her great tragedy protected anyone she touched because death would be embarrassed to come near her again.
In the dining room of the Home hung a diptych of St. Margaret. In the first panel, the patron saint of pregnant women was swallowed by a dragon. Actually, it was the devil disguised as a dragon – by divine preordination, so it was said – St. Margaret clutched her book-size cross as she was being sucked down the tunnel of the dragon's throat. The edge of her cross scraped and pierced the lining of the dragon's throat, causing his engorged body to contract, a brutal reminder – the midwife thought – to the pregnant Girls of what they had yet to endure. That's why she advised them to sit with their backs to the picture while they ate. (15%)
I do not know any than you how this connects to the plot. I only know that this is a flashback to 1899 to the St. Margaret Home on the North Sea. Lotte Jansen, is she related to Thekla Jansen? Questions???? I do know what is painted on the second panel of the diptych so I amon the way to find out how this is related to Thekla, her boys and Burgdorf, Germany. As I page through the table of contents I see that there are many flash backs, these chapters alternating with the events that take place February 27, 1934, i.e. one year after the burning of the Reichtag.
OK, I finished the book. Yes, I liked it, but for me three stars feel adequate. There is very good character development. The characters are multidimensional. For a while I thought Thekla was "holier than thou", but then she too fumbled and was brought down to earth. There are many characters. You have Thekla, her mother and father, the nuns, teachers, the students, villagers and friends. You learn to know the characteristics of all of these people. Maybe, a few less would have been better.... The relationships are complicated. You read the book to understand these relationships.
One can also choose to read this book for its excellent portrayal of how teaching should be done. However I felt the message got a bit preachy, a bit redundant, a bit too much of a lecture.. On the other hand, the reader is given interesting informations about a wide range of German authors.
I think Hegi's Stones from the River was better.
Through Chapter Two and a little more: Yesterday I finished the marvellous memoir A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan by Netofer Pazira. I gave it five stars, but having just finished a memoir, I wanted a novel. But which? I had read all of the books loaded into my Kindle! Since I am so picky about how an author writes, I checked my GR list of books that are available on Kindle, deciding to sample a few until I found one I could not put down. I found it - Ursula Hegi's new historical fiction entitled Children and Fire. It portrays a wonderful teacher, a teacher of 10-year-old boys in a Catholic school, who is convinced that her kids should join Hitler-Jugend! How are we going to feel about a woman who is a marvellous teacher but is misguided?! How has she been fooled, and how did the German people get fooled by Hitler? It takes place on one day – February 27, 1934, one year after the burning of the Reichtag in Berlin. This was Shrove Monday, the end of the festivities before Lent. Every student and even the teacher remember exactly what they were doing when they heard of the burning. The shock they felt, and the fear that Hitler induced in them, this fear and hatred for the Communists, is vividly portrayed. We know now that the Communist/anarchist Van der Lubbe was not responsible, but this was not known then. Hitler accused the Communists to create fear and hatred. He did it for his own purposes. A year later the children were still scared that the Communists might come and burn their school, their homes, their…..Hitler was an adept manipulator of fear.
What I immediately noticed in reading just a few chapters of the sample was that the writing is intelligent, compassionate and humorous. Even serious topics can be humorous. Bruno's father exclaims that Hitler should be hung up by his balls, or maybe just one, if rumours are correct! I read samples from other books about us adults…… Really, they were so depressing - married couples having affairs, discrimination against blacks, rape and whatnot. I am not saying this book about the build up to the Second World War is light reading, but the difference is that some of the people portrayed, the school children and their teacher Thekla are good people, perhaps misguided and confused by events, but their hearts are in the right place. I really cannot take a book filled with depravity and coarseness when no characters make any effort to at least try and be good people. I don't mind mistakes, but I dislike reading about people who are not even attempting to be good or moral or kind. Such is just too dam depressing!
And I love Thekla's view on premarital sex and sensuality. Both the belief that God created the earth in six days and the sin of pre-marital sex could be thrown out together with the dirty dishwater! I simply adore Ursula Hegi's ability to string together words in an amusing, compassionate and intelligent manner.
One more thing - Thekla is one of those teachers that stands out above all the rest. We all look back at our years at school and if we have been lucky we will remember one teacher, maybe two, that meant the world to us. She teachers her students a given subject right when that topic captures their interest. On the curriculum she should be teaching "Lent", but what does she teach? Geography! Why? Well, because the students want to know where Berlin is. How close is it to their homes? How can you teach about the importance of giving up more food when poverty is strangling them? Acquaint yourself with this teacher:
She loves them all: the boys with crossed eyes and crooked teeth; the brainy boys and the beautiful boys; the boys from good families and the boys with "Rotznasen" – runny noses -who've been born into families with something as basic as wiping your nose is not done for you when you're little, and you never learn how to do it for yourself. Like the Führer. This is where he came from, and the uniform can't cover that. His skin may be clean and dry, but he'll always have "Rotznase". It's a way of living, a way of having been brought into life. (7%)
15% through the book: When I read a good book, I want to share my thoughts with others. I have noted that when I really like a book my reviews tend to get longer and longer. Gundula, here is a message just for you. This book discusses legends and myths and poetry and famous German authors. I just learned of Friedrich von Schiller who wrote "Der Taucher" – "The Diver". You will learn why the children decided to change the name of their classroom frog from Copernicus to Icarus. And poetry hasn't spoken to me before?!
Who is Fraulein Siderova? I know she was the boys' teacher before Thekla, but why is she no longer the teacher. It was her that started the routine of teaching the children one poem every week. They were not ordered to memorize the stanzas. Oh no! She aroused the children's curiosity so they wanted to recite the poem, so they each felt compelled to seek the meaning of the poem for themselves. Hegi pushes her readers just as Fräulein Siderova and Thekla pushed their students, by arousing our curiosity to seek out the answers. Here follows another example:
But the midwife, Lotte Jansen, knew there was no God. Of course, she kept this secret from the nuns who employed her to bring life into the world. At the St. Margaret Home, she was known for her kindness and skilful hands, but most of all because not one single death happened on her watch. It was said that her great tragedy protected anyone she touched because death would be embarrassed to come near her again.
In the dining room of the Home hung a diptych of St. Margaret. In the first panel, the patron saint of pregnant women was swallowed by a dragon. Actually, it was the devil disguised as a dragon – by divine preordination, so it was said – St. Margaret clutched her book-size cross as she was being sucked down the tunnel of the dragon's throat. The edge of her cross scraped and pierced the lining of the dragon's throat, causing his engorged body to contract, a brutal reminder – the midwife thought – to the pregnant Girls of what they had yet to endure. That's why she advised them to sit with their backs to the picture while they ate. (15%)
I do not know any than you how this connects to the plot. I only know that this is a flashback to 1899 to the St. Margaret Home on the North Sea. Lotte Jansen, is she related to Thekla Jansen? Questions???? I do know what is painted on the second panel of the diptych so I amon the way to find out how this is related to Thekla, her boys and Burgdorf, Germany. As I page through the table of contents I see that there are many flash backs, these chapters alternating with the events that take place February 27, 1934, i.e. one year after the burning of the Reichtag.
OK, I finished the book. Yes, I liked it, but for me three stars feel adequate. There is very good character development. The characters are multidimensional. For a while I thought Thekla was "holier than thou", but then she too fumbled and was brought down to earth. There are many characters. You have Thekla, her mother and father, the nuns, teachers, the students, villagers and friends. You learn to know the characteristics of all of these people. Maybe, a few less would have been better.... The relationships are complicated. You read the book to understand these relationships.
One can also choose to read this book for its excellent portrayal of how teaching should be done. However I felt the message got a bit preachy, a bit redundant, a bit too much of a lecture.. On the other hand, the reader is given interesting informations about a wide range of German authors.
I think Hegi's Stones from the River was better.
August 26, 2020
Thekla Jansen is a gifted teacher who thinks that Hitler and his Nazis are boorish and not well brought up. At the same time, she wants to believe in Hitler's promises, and hopes that her students can gain advantage from the system he is creating. She tells herself that she is setting her moral courage aside only temporarily, and that it will be there waiting when all the Nazi hysteria inevitably dies down. This naïve hope is completely destroyed, however, when shallowly buried family secrets threaten to surface. This novel explores the process by which seemingly decent people either accommodate themselves to evil or resist it.
May 28, 2011
This is my first experience with this author and it was incredible. She paints pictures with her words, one brush stroke at a time. Concisely and clearly, she reveals the conflict and the shocking resolution, which - as a reader, you know that shortly after this day World War II will begin.
The book is many stories twisting together and introducing different characters. The main protagonist is Thekla, a German teacher who has finally secured a position in a Catholic school. The day is in 1934. Thekla is teaching the boys in her class through example, first hand experience, and redirecting their attention so the children will not tell on each other or turn in their own parents for not being patriotic.
Thekla's day progresses while we flash on her memories, her ideas, and her made-up conversation with Sonja Siderova, the converted Christian from Jewish teacher who was put on administrative leave once her Jewishness was uncovered.
The book flashes a lot on different times which is not confusing. There are actually 2 distinct times that alternate. The book starts with Thekla teaching her boys then flashes back to 1899 when Thekla was but an illegitimate fetus in her mother's womb at a Catholic home for unwed girls. It is here that we come to understand her mother, her father, and her biological father who plays a part in Thekla's upbringing without her knowing his true role.
Foreshadowing is beautifully weaved through the pages as the reader understands that the burning of the Reichstag, one year earlier, is only the beginning of the many fires. The most moving is a quote by Heinrich Heine: "That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also."
The book is beautifully written, drawing upon symbolism while Thekla grapples with her stance. She believes she can continue to sit on the fence. She can believe what she chooses and enjoy her moral standing while enforcing the new laws of the land that continue to constrict the freedoms of individuals.
The book is many stories twisting together and introducing different characters. The main protagonist is Thekla, a German teacher who has finally secured a position in a Catholic school. The day is in 1934. Thekla is teaching the boys in her class through example, first hand experience, and redirecting their attention so the children will not tell on each other or turn in their own parents for not being patriotic.
Thekla's day progresses while we flash on her memories, her ideas, and her made-up conversation with Sonja Siderova, the converted Christian from Jewish teacher who was put on administrative leave once her Jewishness was uncovered.
The book flashes a lot on different times which is not confusing. There are actually 2 distinct times that alternate. The book starts with Thekla teaching her boys then flashes back to 1899 when Thekla was but an illegitimate fetus in her mother's womb at a Catholic home for unwed girls. It is here that we come to understand her mother, her father, and her biological father who plays a part in Thekla's upbringing without her knowing his true role.
Foreshadowing is beautifully weaved through the pages as the reader understands that the burning of the Reichstag, one year earlier, is only the beginning of the many fires. The most moving is a quote by Heinrich Heine: "That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also."
The book is beautifully written, drawing upon symbolism while Thekla grapples with her stance. She believes she can continue to sit on the fence. She can believe what she chooses and enjoy her moral standing while enforcing the new laws of the land that continue to constrict the freedoms of individuals.
September 2, 2011
I listened to this one read by the author. She did a beautiful job, and her voice and accent were so soft and melodious, it really made the words "come to life," though I know that is cliche.
I read Stones from the River many years ago for book club, and when I read the review of this book, which takes place in the same town but among different inhabitants, I knew it was a world I wanted to explore again. It is pre-WWII Germany in a small town, which means everyone has secrets and they are all difficult to keep from one's neighbors. The characters are so flawed and melancholy, but there is something about Hegi's writing that draws me in and makes me care so much about them all.
Here's my blog entry:
Beautifully and emotionally written, Ursula Hegi's Children and Fire examines how good people with honest spirits and valid aspirations could succumb to the propaganda of Hitler's early regime.
Set in the same Burgdorf, Germany as Hegi's Stones from the River, Children and Fire follows the intertwining stories of some of the small town's inhabitants as they lead up to a single day and the heartbreaking event that will change them all. Since the burning of the parliament building one year before, teacher Thekla Jansen has slowly been relinquishing her freedoms in the name of better opportunities for her students, and though she hates to admit it, for herself. Through the histories of some of the townspeople first introduced in Stones, we get perspective of the climate of Germany at the time, and the physical and emotional oppression that helped make its people vulnerable to mass fear and manipulation.
It isn't necessary to read these books in order, but as companion books, their effect is deepened by experiencing them both.
I read Stones from the River many years ago for book club, and when I read the review of this book, which takes place in the same town but among different inhabitants, I knew it was a world I wanted to explore again. It is pre-WWII Germany in a small town, which means everyone has secrets and they are all difficult to keep from one's neighbors. The characters are so flawed and melancholy, but there is something about Hegi's writing that draws me in and makes me care so much about them all.
Here's my blog entry:
Beautifully and emotionally written, Ursula Hegi's Children and Fire examines how good people with honest spirits and valid aspirations could succumb to the propaganda of Hitler's early regime.
Set in the same Burgdorf, Germany as Hegi's Stones from the River, Children and Fire follows the intertwining stories of some of the small town's inhabitants as they lead up to a single day and the heartbreaking event that will change them all. Since the burning of the parliament building one year before, teacher Thekla Jansen has slowly been relinquishing her freedoms in the name of better opportunities for her students, and though she hates to admit it, for herself. Through the histories of some of the townspeople first introduced in Stones, we get perspective of the climate of Germany at the time, and the physical and emotional oppression that helped make its people vulnerable to mass fear and manipulation.
It isn't necessary to read these books in order, but as companion books, their effect is deepened by experiencing them both.
August 2, 2011
In Children and Fire, Hegi revisits the German town that was the setting for her earlier novel, Stones From the River. The era is the early twentieth century, post WWI, pre WWII, as Hitler and the Third Reich are changing the German political and social landscape as they rise to power. Hegi's theme, in both this book and "Stones" is the exploration of how it could have happened. I always wondered how good, kind, ordinary German citizens allowed the rantings of a madman to sway their good sense and over-ride their compassion. Hegi must have wondered that too, as it is a theme she returns to again and again. Children and Fire follows the life of one teacher...Thekla Jansen, a lively, nurturing, intellectual woman who tells herself that every concession that she makes is necessary in the moment- to keep her job, to stay alive, to wait out the madness. As she struggles with daily decisions related to the "new rules", we struggle along with her, asking ourselves "What would I do in that situation"? Ultimately, the question becomes: How many times can one compromise one's values and still be the person that one has always believed oneself to be? Ursula Hegi is a masterful writer and her stories are always beautiful and haunting. If you only read one of her books, choose Stones from the River as I think it's her best, and if you like it, try this one or any of her other novels or short stories. They're all really good!
June 9, 2018
Ursula Hegi has the talent to put into words emotions I have felt but not understood their roots. Children and Fire is a story within a larger story. The larger story being her novel, Stones from the River. You do not have to read one before the other. The characters from each book intersect and you see them with deeper meaning. Both books take place in a small German Village, Burgdorf. Children and Fire tells the story of a single day in the early months of Hitler’s regime. It’s beautifully written and although it takes place in 1934, the humanity, both good and evil is timeless.
June 26, 2012
I really liked Ursula Hegi's first book, Stones in the River, which I'd read a couple of years ago. However, this newest book was confusing and difficult to follow. It switches back and forth in time frames and, for me, nothing was ever very clear. Also, there's a non-too-surprising climax at the end which I'd figured out (as would most readers) way before it was put into words. All in all, disappointing.
November 11, 2021
Children and Fire is the story of a small-town, female teacher in Nazi Germany in 1934 around the time of the fist anniversary of the burning of the Reichstag. I found the first half of this book dragged for me and at times and I did not enjoy the writer's style of using very detailed descriptions. However, the second half of the book really paid off and made it a worthwhile listen. I found quite a few interesting observations about life throughout the novel, but the author was most effective when dramatizing the many moral dilemmas faced by Germans once the Nazi's took over their government. The book effectively showed how, in navigating these dilemmas, many basically good people ended up collaborating, in one way or another, with the evil that was Nazism. People made excuses and/or clung to foolish ideas in order to make their lives easier as the Hitlerites advanced their program. Many told themselves the Nazis would not last or that their violence wasn't a big deal ...or that some time in power would force them to moderate their policies. Every one of those rationalizations was sadly mistaken and people's belief in them proved tragic for Germany and the world. The parallels to the atmosphere around right-wing in extremism today in many democracies, especially the Unites States, was haunting. Democracy around the world is facing its greatest threat since the end of WWII and most people are ignoring it or dismissing the danger. Since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, death threats by right-wing extremists in the US have become normalized, and there is a frighteningly real chance that Trump and the Republicans will steal the Presidential election in 2024. If that happens, democracy in the US will be over, having disappeared in clouds of indifference and rationalizations, in much the same way it did in Germany in the 1930s. The lesson of this book is that good people should not make any moral compromises with right wing extremists. We should not give an inch morally and when fascists break the law, they must be prosecuted with vigour. I fear we have not learned this lesson from 1930s Germany and that failure is going to prove very costly.
September 4, 2020
Riveting to reread this book in the fall of 2020. Set in Hegi’s beautifully fictitious village of Burgdorf, Germany in 1934, the town is on edge as the first anniversary of the burning of the Reichstag approaches.
The Nazis claim the fire was started by a mentally ill Dutch communist. In 1934, the Dutchman is already dead, but rumors still abound and it feels impossible to know the truth about anything except the fevered split between right and left.
Similar to Trump’s 2020, it is very convenient to blame the “enemy” party for the violence, and then to use the violence as a reason to limit freedoms and swallow more control. Picture Trump sweeping the square of protesters to set up the video of his walk to a DC church. Remember him sending in federal agents without name tags to grab people off the streets of Portland.
At this writing, setting fire to buildings during protests here in this country is also making us collectively edgy. The result in both 1934 and 2020 is lots of finger pointing and shouts of propaganda: there is a vacuum in local and state leadership which needs to be filled—in our time, apparently by armed militias. It remains to be seen whether the answer in 2021 will be more authoritarianism.
Thekla, the protagonist and young teacher of a class of fourth grade boys, is very proud of her intelligence and also her quiet cynicism regarding the Nazi regime. However, she has a difficult time seeing herself (sound familiar to any liberals or progressives out there?).
Eventually, she learns about her own Jewish heritage. It may be a stretch to keep making the parallel, but it does echo to some degree the themes in 2020 of reflecting on white supremacy, culpability, and, finally, our universality as human beings.
The Nazis claim the fire was started by a mentally ill Dutch communist. In 1934, the Dutchman is already dead, but rumors still abound and it feels impossible to know the truth about anything except the fevered split between right and left.
Similar to Trump’s 2020, it is very convenient to blame the “enemy” party for the violence, and then to use the violence as a reason to limit freedoms and swallow more control. Picture Trump sweeping the square of protesters to set up the video of his walk to a DC church. Remember him sending in federal agents without name tags to grab people off the streets of Portland.
At this writing, setting fire to buildings during protests here in this country is also making us collectively edgy. The result in both 1934 and 2020 is lots of finger pointing and shouts of propaganda: there is a vacuum in local and state leadership which needs to be filled—in our time, apparently by armed militias. It remains to be seen whether the answer in 2021 will be more authoritarianism.
Thekla, the protagonist and young teacher of a class of fourth grade boys, is very proud of her intelligence and also her quiet cynicism regarding the Nazi regime. However, she has a difficult time seeing herself (sound familiar to any liberals or progressives out there?).
Eventually, she learns about her own Jewish heritage. It may be a stretch to keep making the parallel, but it does echo to some degree the themes in 2020 of reflecting on white supremacy, culpability, and, finally, our universality as human beings.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 10, 2022
Beautiful but also chilling. The story of a elementary school teacher in 1940s Germany, unsure how to act and react to the Nazis and the effect their propaganda has on her and her students and their families.
February 23, 2019
A beautifully written, wenching book set in Germany in the 1930s. Not going to summarize here, just highly recommend it for anyone who likes a good novel.
August 6, 2011
So you are sick to death of reading about the Holocaust?
Please just be quiet and read this book. Oh, but read "Stones from the River" first.
Better now?
(Page 69)"What the parishioners and the priest didn't know was that the Siderovas distrusted the ritual of confession. They seemed so devout as they knelt in the dim confessional. But all they fed the priest were made-up sins because they suspected all priests disturbed the garden of secrets by tearing at the roots."
(Page 165)"Exercising for the Fuhrer. Really. Thekla wants to laugh but keeps her face impassive. She can stay outside all of that. But just then she remembers the rally when, just for an instant, she felt part of it. Like touching a flame but getting burned instead and feeling tricked. Though she shook herself free from that spell and returned to who she believed she was, she felt agitated for days. But if she has to she'll tell her students that the Fuhrer wants them to exercise more. If that makes their lives easier while the regime lasts. But bad poetry? Never.
Please just be quiet and read this book. Oh, but read "Stones from the River" first.
Better now?
(Page 69)"What the parishioners and the priest didn't know was that the Siderovas distrusted the ritual of confession. They seemed so devout as they knelt in the dim confessional. But all they fed the priest were made-up sins because they suspected all priests disturbed the garden of secrets by tearing at the roots."
(Page 165)"Exercising for the Fuhrer. Really. Thekla wants to laugh but keeps her face impassive. She can stay outside all of that. But just then she remembers the rally when, just for an instant, she felt part of it. Like touching a flame but getting burned instead and feeling tricked. Though she shook herself free from that spell and returned to who she believed she was, she felt agitated for days. But if she has to she'll tell her students that the Fuhrer wants them to exercise more. If that makes their lives easier while the regime lasts. But bad poetry? Never.
December 27, 2022
Fourth and (sadly) last in Burgdorf cycle.
This is the story of a teacher of 4th grade boys in Hitler’s Germany. This young teacher has been hired when the usual teacher is fired (Jewish).
Our young teacher feels guilty about taking the job, but is enjoying her task of teaching these boys.
This is the time of exciting Nazi rallies and organizations. The boys are thrilled to join the Hitler Youth. An important character is a 10 year old boy whose parents will not permit him to join this group. Two boys leave the class when their (Jewish) families emigrate.
The teacher thinks it’s ok to go along with many of the changes, even book burnings, since she rationalizes that it won’t last that long. She tells herself that the all-pervasive propaganda and fear
that is spreading through Germany will soon resolve and all will be back to normal. She rationalizes that it’s nice to see her students having increasing sense of pride.
Really worth reading. We all know how things will go, but this is so well-written and well-plotted. Highly highly recommended
This is the story of a teacher of 4th grade boys in Hitler’s Germany. This young teacher has been hired when the usual teacher is fired (Jewish).
Our young teacher feels guilty about taking the job, but is enjoying her task of teaching these boys.
This is the time of exciting Nazi rallies and organizations. The boys are thrilled to join the Hitler Youth. An important character is a 10 year old boy whose parents will not permit him to join this group. Two boys leave the class when their (Jewish) families emigrate.
The teacher thinks it’s ok to go along with many of the changes, even book burnings, since she rationalizes that it won’t last that long. She tells herself that the all-pervasive propaganda and fear
that is spreading through Germany will soon resolve and all will be back to normal. She rationalizes that it’s nice to see her students having increasing sense of pride.
Really worth reading. We all know how things will go, but this is so well-written and well-plotted. Highly highly recommended
October 20, 2012
I was lucky and won CHILDREN AND FIRE: A NOVEL by Ursula Hegi on a Goodreads giveaway. I enjoyed reading it and am passing it on to my daughter. It was a very emotional story about a teacher and her young students in Germany in 1935 at the time of Hitler and the Nazis. The teacher, Theckla, is undergoing uncertainties about her own life (questions about her past, and her beliefs) as well as questions as to how best to teach and protect her class of fourth grade boys. The book focused on the lives of the characters on one select date in time alternated with flash backs to Theckla's life beginning before her birth. It all inter-relates and the reader can see haow Theckla's childhood has forged her into the adult she is now and how it effects everything she does and believes. It is a thought provoking book on all levels.
December 3, 2011
This is a must read for any Ursula Hegi fan. Set in Burgdorf, Germany, a popular setting for several of her books, Children and Fire tells the story of a single day that forever transforms the lives of the townspeople. The book explores the reactions of the German citizens to Hitler's rise to power one year following the Reichstag fire. Hegi masterfully weaves past and present events in order to explain the motives of her characters. Although this novel revisits a common place and theme for Hegi, readers can read this without having read the prior Burgdorf trilogy. As is always the case when I read a Hegi novel, I finished the novel craving for more.
July 22, 2012
This is a brilliant book about...moral choice, love, secrets, self knowledge. And more. Set on one day in Germany (February 27, 1934) in Burgsdorf, Hegi's village of the other books in this series (Stories from the River, Floating in My Mother's Palm, The Vision of Emma Blau) this novel is astonishing in the absolute rightness of each word.
That doesn't even begin to say how good this book is.
I received this as a Good Reads First Reads win (and there was some delay in receiving it from the publisher). Worth waiting for. Hegi is one of the most interesting contemporary novelists around.
That doesn't even begin to say how good this book is.
I received this as a Good Reads First Reads win (and there was some delay in receiving it from the publisher). Worth waiting for. Hegi is one of the most interesting contemporary novelists around.
July 27, 2014
It was nice to be back in Burgdorf, but I feel that Hegi only began to explore the possibilities of the character of Thekla Jansen, as compared with that of Trudi Montag in her earlier works. Chilling descriptions of Germany in 1934, already robustly beginning to follow Nazism and venerate Hitler. The denouement at the end should come as no surprise, but the story does provide an interesting platform for a discussion of what makes up any individual's true identity.
July 6, 2011
This book takes place over the course of one day in the early Nazi era in Germany, on the anniversary of the burning of the Reichstag. Chapters taking place on that day alternate with chapters flashing back to earlier times in the teacher's life. The book portrays the ways in which the German people were both seduced and betrayed by the Nazis. I love how the author had Thekla teaching her boys a poem that presaged how thoroughly they would be betrayed and used by the Nazis. Heartbreaking.
February 23, 2012
I am impressed by Hegi's skill in showing how a gifted compassionate teacher could let each silent agreement with an oppressive regime hurt her students and her. After living in Germany, I still haven't understood how people I liked could do such awful things. This impressive writer has helped me understand. I have been concerned that our country's extreme swing to the right could result in a situation like Nazi Germany and, after reading this, I am more convinced it is possible in the U.S.
April 18, 2019
Another good one from Ursula Hegi. This book is from the same fictional town of Burgdolf. My favorite character; Trudy Montag; is not very involved in this book with Thekla being the main character and doing a great job of telling her story. Once again Hegi brings her characters, town, time and era to life so you can drop yourself into the rabbit hole of Burgdolf.
October 2, 2012
I have read most of Ursela Hegi's novels and I love her writing style. But, I have to admit that I was disappointed by this read. It felt very fragmented to me.
I will continue to read her books, but this was not one I would highly recommend.
Her best was unquestionably "Stones from teh River."
I will continue to read her books, but this was not one I would highly recommend.
Her best was unquestionably "Stones from teh River."
February 11, 2016
Told through the eyes and mind of one woman, teacher Thekla Jansen, during one day in her life in the Germany of 1934, this is story of how the small compromises and rationalizations we all make on a daily basis can move us far off the course set by our own moral compasses.
December 20, 2016
Unsettling novel about the Third Reich and how even the most well-meaning people can allow evil to take hold.
April 24, 2023
The main plot of this novel takes place over the course of a single day with many expositional flashbacks which serve to inform the protagonist's (Thekla) pasts where we learn of her past as a child and that of her parents. We see Thekla struggle with her compliance with the Nazis which she has directly benefitted from during the rise of the regime only to find how precarious her own position is.
This book takes place during the events of Stones from the River in 1934 and covers the anniversary of the burning of the Reichstag and we follow how one class is covering the subject in Hitler's Germany, a class which includes ten-year-old Bruno Stosick (if you know, you know).
While reading this last installment of the Burgdorf cycle I really wasn't sure how much this would add to the overall series but now that I am done I do think it adds a perspective not covered for this period in history. Stones from the River covered a German town and how they reacted to the rise of the Nazi regime. While we saw some of the townspeople become fervent supporters of the government and its actions we mainly follow Trudi Montag and her circle who actively participate in the secret resistance. Floating in My Mother's Palm deals with the aftermath and serves mainly as an epilogue to Stones from the River. The Vision of Emma Blau follows Helene Montage, Trudi's aunt, who leaves Burgdorf on the eve of the rise of the Nazis to emigrate to the United States. She deals with 'survivor's guilt' (being the one who got away) while she desperately tries to send her town food and supplies, while she struggles with being German in the USA during WWII. So up until book three we saw active resistance and fleeing from the characters of Burgdorf and this final installment primarily deals with those who stayed silent through Thekla who did not speak up and whose career directly benefited from Jewish persecution. We follow her as she tried to rationalize and justify her silence and benefit while she also is learning how precarious everyone's safety is, from her students to her student's parents, to herself.
The big 'aha' moment came at around the 250 page mark which felt a little long and in general this was a slower read (which isn't necessarily bad). I think the series would have worked better as a whole if you switch the order and read this one as book 2 instead of Floating in My Mother's Palm. I think it would have worked better to contrast Thekla's silence against the Montags and Emil's decisiveness and steadfastness. In general, this was a good book and maybe borderline too long for only taking place over the course of one day.
This book takes place during the events of Stones from the River in 1934 and covers the anniversary of the burning of the Reichstag and we follow how one class is covering the subject in Hitler's Germany, a class which includes ten-year-old Bruno Stosick (if you know, you know).
While reading this last installment of the Burgdorf cycle I really wasn't sure how much this would add to the overall series but now that I am done I do think it adds a perspective not covered for this period in history. Stones from the River covered a German town and how they reacted to the rise of the Nazi regime. While we saw some of the townspeople become fervent supporters of the government and its actions we mainly follow Trudi Montag and her circle who actively participate in the secret resistance. Floating in My Mother's Palm deals with the aftermath and serves mainly as an epilogue to Stones from the River. The Vision of Emma Blau follows Helene Montage, Trudi's aunt, who leaves Burgdorf on the eve of the rise of the Nazis to emigrate to the United States. She deals with 'survivor's guilt' (being the one who got away) while she desperately tries to send her town food and supplies, while she struggles with being German in the USA during WWII. So up until book three we saw active resistance and fleeing from the characters of Burgdorf and this final installment primarily deals with those who stayed silent through Thekla who did not speak up and whose career directly benefited from Jewish persecution. We follow her as she tried to rationalize and justify her silence and benefit while she also is learning how precarious everyone's safety is, from her students to her student's parents, to herself.
The big 'aha' moment came at around the 250 page mark which felt a little long and in general this was a slower read (which isn't necessarily bad). I think the series would have worked better as a whole if you switch the order and read this one as book 2 instead of Floating in My Mother's Palm. I think it would have worked better to contrast Thekla's silence against the Montags and Emil's decisiveness and steadfastness. In general, this was a good book and maybe borderline too long for only taking place over the course of one day.
July 3, 2017
"That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also." Heinrich Heine
Books selected for Oprah's Book Club are not supposed to be ones that wind up having a profound impact on one's soul, but that's exactly what happened to mine when O named Ursula Hegi's Stones from the River as one of her 1997 selections.
For me personally, February 1997 was a bit of a challenging time (we were in Infertility Hell). So it's a bit of an understatement to say that I related to and connected with Ursula Hegi's story of Trudi Montag, a "zwerg" (the German word for "a dwarf woman") living in fictional Burgdorf, Germany between 1915 and 1951. The themes of feeling different, of being "set apart" (not to mention Trudi being the town's librarian and collector of the townspeople's stories) deeply resonated with me in ways that I cannot quite begin to describe other than saying it was just the right book at the right time.
So suffice it to say that Stones from the River remains one of my all-time favorite "take-to-a-desert-island" books to this very day and Ursula Hegi one of my very favorite authors. (With the one exception of her 2008 novel The Worst Thing I've Ever Done, which for me was absolutely unreadable. I couldn't get through more than a couple of dozen pages. It wasn't pretty.) I do remember enjoying Floating from My Mother's Palm and The Vision of Emma Blau, but since those were prior to my book blogging days, I don't remember much about them. (Time for a re-read!)
I mention all this - and these three previous books of Ursula Hegi's - because they are all part of what she refers to as the "Burgdorf Cycle," of which Children and Fire is the latest offering. (When I saw this on the library's shelf and saw that it was a continuation of the Burgdorf stories, I practically wept.)
And right from the get-go of Children and Fire, Ursula Hegi had me captivated again. I wouldn't say I loved this as much as Stones (because again, I think my love for that book stems from the time that I read it in, if that makes sense) but I really enjoyed this novel. I loved that Trudi Montag made several appearances in this one. (It was like saying hello to an old friend.) That being said, I don't think one has to have read the other Burgdorf Cycle books in order to appreciate this one, although it would probably be beneficial. (And if you're going to do that, read them in order: Floating, Stones, Children, and Vision. I think. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.)
Anyway.
If you're a teacher, you'll probably especially appreciate Children and Fire. Thekla Jensen teaches a class of 9 year old boys in Germany in 1937, and her style and approach to education is one of incorporating all subjects along with a strong sense of caring and compassion for her young students. She thrives on their very presence (almost a bit too much, in some cases) and is wholly invested in their lives. Thekla rents a room from the Sostick family, whose only child Bruno is one of her students. (In the Burgdorf Cycle of things, Bruno's mother Gisela was once one of Thekla's classmates and theirs was a bit of a strained relationship.)
Bruno, who clearly has what we now know as Asperger's Syndrome although that isn't mentioned by name (which it wouldn't have been, given that we're talking about 1937), wants desperately to join the Hitler-Jugend (Hitler youth). Thekla is conflicted about how best to support his individual decision as his teacher, while also struggling to do what's right by Bruno's family.
"When she followed Bruno to the rally, she could spot right away that it had been organized by people who understood about teaching, how to respect children and inspire them. It was the way Thekla taught, instinctively.
Too many of her students had been raised with the rule that children should be seen but not heard. Of course, it was intoxicating for them now to have a voice, to be told they were important, Germany's future. Alone, none of these children had power; yet, being part of the marching columns gave them a mysterious power, all of them moving as one. That part made Thekla uneasy, and she wouldn't mind saying that to Bruno's parents.
But what she wouldn't admit to them is how, from being critical one moment, she was sucked into the swirl of song and of fire, into the emotions of the mass, that passion and urgency, that longing for something beyond them, something great, till she could no longer separate herself, till those emotions became hers, too, that hand to her throat, that sigh, that upsweep of her arm. She felt repulsed. But she didn't let herself show it. Because someone might be watching. Because it might be a trap. And because just before that moment of repulsion - for the duration of a single heartbeat - she had felt the children's rapture as her own, felt their pride at being part of this ceremony that was as mystical as church and as lavish as opera with its pomp and music and processions." (pg. 12-13)
Internal and interpersonal conflicts, those spoken and unspoken, are at the heart of Children and Fire. Thekla's a complicated, conflicted woman, proud of her independence but who learns that it has come at a price paid by others' dependence and guilt. While she's thrilled to have finally landed a teaching position after ten years, it comes with a combination of guilt and loyalty to her beloved teacher and mentor, Sonja Siderova. There's the personal torment of those in her family (her mother Almut, her father Wilhelm) that they can never escape, that keeps them prisoners in their minds. There's Thekla's inability to commit to Emil, whom she loves but who she won't allow herself to fully love. ("Loving was different. It was only the falling she minded. She wished she could love like a man, be skin only, lust only. Her friend Emil was good practice." pg. 13)
The structure of Children and Fire works beautifully and provides for the novel's tension, particularly toward the end. The chapters alternate between February 27, 1937 as we follow Thekla and her students through their school day and the years 1899 - 1933 which provides the critical elements to the novel's backstory such as the relationship between Thekla's parents and a wealthy Jewish couple in town and her father's family tragedy. The day that the current action takes place, Tuesday, February 27, 1937, is not random; it's the one year anniversary of a fire that destroyed the Reichstag, the parliment building in Berlin. Even though that fire was hundreds of miles away from quiet and quaint Burgdorf, there is the fear that whatever evil force was responsible for the fire will eventually come to their small village. (And as the reader knows from history, it surely will.)
("But within a few weeks after Markus left [a Jewish family who left Germany for America, despite others saying leaving was premature] Jewish children were no longer allowed in her school. Instead, they were taught all their subjects in the synagogue across the street.
Thekla steps toward the window of her classroom. Steadies herself with one hand. How much do I know? How much must I try to find out? Once you know, it's tricky to keep the knowing at bay, to press it back into the before-knowing." pg. 22 "Must I keep asking till I find out what I'm afraid to know? Or can I decide to be satisfied with not knowing beyond what we are told? Because once I know, must I then come forth with that? The risk --" (pg. 24)
I loved this one for the timeless and universal questions that we can all relate to, that we continue to seek answers to. This one is going to stay with me for awhile for all of those reasons.
Books selected for Oprah's Book Club are not supposed to be ones that wind up having a profound impact on one's soul, but that's exactly what happened to mine when O named Ursula Hegi's Stones from the River as one of her 1997 selections.
For me personally, February 1997 was a bit of a challenging time (we were in Infertility Hell). So it's a bit of an understatement to say that I related to and connected with Ursula Hegi's story of Trudi Montag, a "zwerg" (the German word for "a dwarf woman") living in fictional Burgdorf, Germany between 1915 and 1951. The themes of feeling different, of being "set apart" (not to mention Trudi being the town's librarian and collector of the townspeople's stories) deeply resonated with me in ways that I cannot quite begin to describe other than saying it was just the right book at the right time.
So suffice it to say that Stones from the River remains one of my all-time favorite "take-to-a-desert-island" books to this very day and Ursula Hegi one of my very favorite authors. (With the one exception of her 2008 novel The Worst Thing I've Ever Done, which for me was absolutely unreadable. I couldn't get through more than a couple of dozen pages. It wasn't pretty.) I do remember enjoying Floating from My Mother's Palm and The Vision of Emma Blau, but since those were prior to my book blogging days, I don't remember much about them. (Time for a re-read!)
I mention all this - and these three previous books of Ursula Hegi's - because they are all part of what she refers to as the "Burgdorf Cycle," of which Children and Fire is the latest offering. (When I saw this on the library's shelf and saw that it was a continuation of the Burgdorf stories, I practically wept.)
And right from the get-go of Children and Fire, Ursula Hegi had me captivated again. I wouldn't say I loved this as much as Stones (because again, I think my love for that book stems from the time that I read it in, if that makes sense) but I really enjoyed this novel. I loved that Trudi Montag made several appearances in this one. (It was like saying hello to an old friend.) That being said, I don't think one has to have read the other Burgdorf Cycle books in order to appreciate this one, although it would probably be beneficial. (And if you're going to do that, read them in order: Floating, Stones, Children, and Vision. I think. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.)
Anyway.
If you're a teacher, you'll probably especially appreciate Children and Fire. Thekla Jensen teaches a class of 9 year old boys in Germany in 1937, and her style and approach to education is one of incorporating all subjects along with a strong sense of caring and compassion for her young students. She thrives on their very presence (almost a bit too much, in some cases) and is wholly invested in their lives. Thekla rents a room from the Sostick family, whose only child Bruno is one of her students. (In the Burgdorf Cycle of things, Bruno's mother Gisela was once one of Thekla's classmates and theirs was a bit of a strained relationship.)
Bruno, who clearly has what we now know as Asperger's Syndrome although that isn't mentioned by name (which it wouldn't have been, given that we're talking about 1937), wants desperately to join the Hitler-Jugend (Hitler youth). Thekla is conflicted about how best to support his individual decision as his teacher, while also struggling to do what's right by Bruno's family.
"When she followed Bruno to the rally, she could spot right away that it had been organized by people who understood about teaching, how to respect children and inspire them. It was the way Thekla taught, instinctively.
Too many of her students had been raised with the rule that children should be seen but not heard. Of course, it was intoxicating for them now to have a voice, to be told they were important, Germany's future. Alone, none of these children had power; yet, being part of the marching columns gave them a mysterious power, all of them moving as one. That part made Thekla uneasy, and she wouldn't mind saying that to Bruno's parents.
But what she wouldn't admit to them is how, from being critical one moment, she was sucked into the swirl of song and of fire, into the emotions of the mass, that passion and urgency, that longing for something beyond them, something great, till she could no longer separate herself, till those emotions became hers, too, that hand to her throat, that sigh, that upsweep of her arm. She felt repulsed. But she didn't let herself show it. Because someone might be watching. Because it might be a trap. And because just before that moment of repulsion - for the duration of a single heartbeat - she had felt the children's rapture as her own, felt their pride at being part of this ceremony that was as mystical as church and as lavish as opera with its pomp and music and processions." (pg. 12-13)
Internal and interpersonal conflicts, those spoken and unspoken, are at the heart of Children and Fire. Thekla's a complicated, conflicted woman, proud of her independence but who learns that it has come at a price paid by others' dependence and guilt. While she's thrilled to have finally landed a teaching position after ten years, it comes with a combination of guilt and loyalty to her beloved teacher and mentor, Sonja Siderova. There's the personal torment of those in her family (her mother Almut, her father Wilhelm) that they can never escape, that keeps them prisoners in their minds. There's Thekla's inability to commit to Emil, whom she loves but who she won't allow herself to fully love. ("Loving was different. It was only the falling she minded. She wished she could love like a man, be skin only, lust only. Her friend Emil was good practice." pg. 13)
The structure of Children and Fire works beautifully and provides for the novel's tension, particularly toward the end. The chapters alternate between February 27, 1937 as we follow Thekla and her students through their school day and the years 1899 - 1933 which provides the critical elements to the novel's backstory such as the relationship between Thekla's parents and a wealthy Jewish couple in town and her father's family tragedy. The day that the current action takes place, Tuesday, February 27, 1937, is not random; it's the one year anniversary of a fire that destroyed the Reichstag, the parliment building in Berlin. Even though that fire was hundreds of miles away from quiet and quaint Burgdorf, there is the fear that whatever evil force was responsible for the fire will eventually come to their small village. (And as the reader knows from history, it surely will.)
("But within a few weeks after Markus left [a Jewish family who left Germany for America, despite others saying leaving was premature] Jewish children were no longer allowed in her school. Instead, they were taught all their subjects in the synagogue across the street.
Thekla steps toward the window of her classroom. Steadies herself with one hand. How much do I know? How much must I try to find out? Once you know, it's tricky to keep the knowing at bay, to press it back into the before-knowing." pg. 22 "Must I keep asking till I find out what I'm afraid to know? Or can I decide to be satisfied with not knowing beyond what we are told? Because once I know, must I then come forth with that? The risk --" (pg. 24)
I loved this one for the timeless and universal questions that we can all relate to, that we continue to seek answers to. This one is going to stay with me for awhile for all of those reasons.
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