The Conspiracy
(JAAN KROSS)
The unhappy fate of the Baltic States
during and after the Second World War, caught between two totalitarian states,
makes grim enough reading as history. Jaan Kross'' collection of six short
stories brings home its consequences for Estonians of his generation. The
stories are largely autobiographical; their protagonist, Peeter Mirk, is Kross''
alter ego. They involve the repatriation of German Estonians in 1939,
attempts to flee to Finland
during the German occupation, and imprisonment first by the Germans and then by
the Russians. These were not happy times and Kross'' are not, on the surface,
happy stories: four of them end with deaths and, moreover, deaths for which
Peeter bears responsibility. Nevertheless there is no bleakness or despair in
Kross'' writing. He has a wry, understated humor and a detachment which help him
to maintain an upbeat mood ? and which one suspects must have stood him in good
stead during his own time in prisons and labor camps.
Resumos Relacionados
- I, Robot
- Cat O? Nine Tales
- Interpreter Of The Maladies
- This Way For The Gas, Ladies And Gentlemen
- Aesop S Fables
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