Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl (New York Review Books Classics) Kindle Edition

One of the great parts of being a heavy reader over the last few years has been the emergence of so many of the untranslated, or otherwise obscure, 'great giant novels' of 20th century world literature into the English language. Life and Fate, also from NYRB. Bottom's Dream as the other reviewer mentioned (along with the rest of Arno Schmidt's catalogue). Miklos Szentkuthy's Prae and St. Orpheus's Breviary. Adam Buenosayres. The list goes on.Anniversaries in many ways stands above and apart from these others in its intelligibility and in the simple, subtle poetry it brings into the events of everyday life, written with beautiful, refined prose. Even moreso, the book is intimately connected to the United States, our history and culture. It is written like a diary, covering the socially turbulent year from late '67 to late '68. The writer, a female Jewish immigrant to the U.S. from Germany, habitually reads the newspapers. Each entry recounts some of the day's news and goes on with anecdotes from her own life, from the distant past to the present day. The biography of the woman gradually takes shape as the novel progresses. Other than that it is not a novel with a clear narrative direction (at least as far as I've read so far).I am still only a fraction of the way through the1800-page book, but due to the lack of reviews here, felt compelled to write something. It is being distributed as a box containing two volumes, each one rather too large to carry around (I wish they'd printed it in four volumes, as it was originally printed). Unlike almost the entire NYRB classics catalogue, Anniversaries lacks a supplemental forward or afterward. I imagine production costs were high enough as it was, though this is one 'classic' where some introductory material would have been welcome to give some background to the text (though it turned out wikipedia was just fine for answering my questions).I'll back up what another reviewer has boldly stated, that this is the publishing event of the year. It's a big book, but not one that demands to be read exclusively or all at once.

One has, from quite early on, been skeptical of the variations on 'There is nothing that can possibly be added to fiction, viz. the possibility of literature.' The trouble with going against the grain is that (unless it is making one money or is tied to an element of inevitable creative prostitution) its lack of economic reason is by societal proxy tied to an obscure individualism taken for a general epistemological nihilism. This dogmatic slumber is accelerated by a planet addicted to shattering its attention and, further, with a weaponized technologically psychopathic plethora of illiterate 'entertainment.' The concept of insight thereby takes on a revolutionary role. This itself is not a recognized revolution, for it speaks to interiority rather than wearing genital hats in a meaningless parade. It is such a climate that four stages of wisdom may unfold for one; these four stages may occur to one and one only, or to a metaphysical 'One and Many.' They are:1. Hegel: 'To be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition to achieving anything great.'2. Bakhtin: Early on in The Dialogic Imagination, 'The novel is the only genre that is still young. It cannot be spoken of in the past tense.'3. 2016's publication of Bottom's Dream, by Arno Schmidt.4. 2018's publication of Anniversaries, Uwe Johnson.It is not so much about changing the world, for anyone who has read Herodotus has long realized the mutiny of ideological infantilism in such a widespread disease of mind. Nothing has changed since the cave save gadgetry. Man's issues and trends are still exactly the same as they ever were. Thus, one needn't 'look to the past'; rather, one need look alone at all, in pursuit of wisdom shouting in the streets.Although few will buy a copy of this book, those that do will undoubtedly be changed for the better in the realm of creative possibility concerning Roman Ingarden's cognition of the literary work of art. Of these few, the few who spend time immersed in Johnson and interrelated research will find themselves within a treasure chest of the aforementioned conceptual insight.In the unfathomable scheme of thing, what could be better than living a life wrestling between not the good and the bad, but the good and the great? Pick up thy cross, thou heathen, and follow!

Beautiful books in a hard slipcase. My husband loved them

Product as new. Speedy delivery. Good price.

Anniversaries (Boxed Set): From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl (New York Review Books, NYRB)ISBN : 9781681372037 (paperback)Amazon tends to mix up reviews of the same book by different publishers. It is even worse when the kindle edition and physical copy reviews are mixed up. So it will be better and useful for others if the reviewers add the full details of the book in their review, atleast the ISBN. I have seen a negative review of this very book about its poor paper quality. But after receiving this I understood that it should be of some other edition, probably by another publisher. This one is published by New York Review Books (NYRB), one of the best publishers of some classic works. The book is printed on high quality acid free paper and not on cheap newsprint as is the case of some penguin paperbacks. It doesn’t have a sewn spine, but still is glued perfectly.