Rithin Peter Peter itibaren 4924 Brackenberg, Avusturya itibaren 4924 Brackenberg, Avusturya

Excellent and well written story about two boys who are exiled to a remote village during China's cultural revolution to be re-educated. The harshness of their life is heart wrenching. Their only escape is a stash of forbidden western classic literature. I wasn't quite sure what to make of the ending and won't say anything else in case I ruin it for someone else. From back cover: "In this enchanting tale about the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening, two hapless city boys are exiled to a remote mountain village for re-education during China's infamous Cultural Revolution. There they meet the daughter of the local tailer and discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation. As they flirt with the seamstress and secretly devour these banned works, they find transit from their grim surroundings to worlds they never imagined." This was a very quick read.

I really wanted to give this book more than three stars and when I first started reading it was well on its way to getting them, then the story got a little too lost under the historical detail and the psychology aspects of the novel. Although I do like a bit of history here and there I think the amount of detail in this was slightly excessive. On the same vein the level of detail that Rubenfeld went into on the psychology and psychoanalysis aspect also detracted from the story rather than adding to it (although this may be because I'm not a pyschology person more than anything else). I was actually also a little disappointed in how small a role Freud actually had to play, he wasn't involved in the treatment of Nora, he didn't really get engrossed in the investigations of the murders or any individual aspect of them, he came across as more of a sounding board to Younger's analyses and theories. Despite all this as a first novel it was a good read, with a decent fast paced story line with plenty of red herrings, twists turns and surprising secrets. Overall it is worth a read (Freudian understanding not necessary)

Do you grok? A seminal work - to me - as it turned me on to other classics, and helped forge me into the dork I am today.