Frederick > Recent Status Updates

About the decision of TV channel to show footage of a murder on kids on TV: "Ein eventuelles Verbot würde belgische Verhältnisse fördern. Hier gilt es, nichts zu vertuschen" (A possible ban would promote Belgian conditions. Here it is important not to cover up anything). A nice reputation we have in the German-speaking world.

The German book cover of the "Effingers" contains the promising words "a Jewish "Epochenroman" between Fontane and Thomas Mann." Since these two are among my favourite writers, it was only natural that I would start reading this book. For now, it certainly does not disappoint, although it does not yet reach the level of the writers mentioned above.

An advantage of wonderful books is that they lead you to another interesting ones. Having read orlando Figes' "Europeans" , in which Ivan Turgenev plays a major part, I could not but turn to his novels. This Dutch translation contains his five major novels. Just finished "Rudin" and "A nest of gentlefolk" aka "Liza". Both portray the rural countryside in 19 th century Russia.