"Emil and the Great Escape" by Astrid Lindgren - Thoughts of Sweden

There is some catching up to do in this blog. We have had a tradition for a long time to read books aloud in our family. Numerous books have passed through our hands over the last ten years. One day I wished for an encounter with a famous book from my childhood. The 'Emil' books by Astrid Lindgren have barely been translated in the US. However, I found a copy in England, but it lacked the numerous illustrations found in the original Swedish edition. Fortunately, I had a copy so I spent the evenings doing direct translations from Swedish to English as we simultaneously got the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful drawings in the Swedish edition. Hanna and Jonah were spellbound by the mischief little Emil was up to in these stories. He never means to create the trouble, but people always end up in his web of circumstance. Lindgren paints the childhood of a boy on a farm brilliantly. She weaves the spell of forgotten summers, the scent of warm air hoovering over the flowering fields and the farmsteads of the past. Emil's adventures did indeed make us laugh. Jonah in particular remembered the greedy 'kommandoran'. The book also gave me a chance to explain some of the social history of Sweden with concepts such as a poor house and how the farm hands worked the land. Delightful books and a memory of my own readings when I was a child.

"Journey into the Whirlwind" by Eugenia Ginzburg - The Madness of Mankind

Over the last few days Eugenia Ginzburg's autobiography 'Journey into the Whirlwind' has been a constant companion. Her book is one of the more well known biographies describing the insanity of the Stalin era as it follows her descent into a bureaucratic and inhumane machine of torture and imprisonment seemingly designed to devour the strength and humanity of an individual's existence. She starts out as a devoted journalist, communist, spouse and mother of two small children that innocently becomes accused of political crimes. She was arrested in 1937. From a modern perspective the situation is Kafkaesque in its surreal embrace. However, as the pages and hours pass Ginzburg's voice describes a dizzying array of psychological and physical horror ranging from her interrogation, isolation and transfer to the Gulag, where the book abruptly ends. It is a painting of inferno and human misery although the glow of hope glimmers constantly through the memories she evokes. Her humanity shines through every page as she describes the life she is forced to endure. There are numerous moments that are luminous in allowing us to appreciate the simple things in life. Ginzburg's love of poetry and literature in general permeates her memoirs as it is one of the strengths that lifts her above the situation she is immersed in and allows her to keep struggling through the ruthless inferno.
I felt such an injustice in my heart that this woman had to be dealt such a fate. The horror is of course that millions of innocent people endured similar experiences as the ones Ginzburg describe. Beyond the human qualities in Ginzburg's writing a sense to explore the time of the Gulag is awakened. Ginzburg did indeed write a second part to her autobiography ("In the Whirlwind") that I am looking forward to read within the next few weeks. Of course, Solzhenitsyn's "The First Circle" and "The Gulag Archipelago" beckon in conjunction with Applebaum's study 'Gulag'. The book was not translated into English until 1975, and is currently out of print in the UK. Her life has been expanded on the web (Ginzburg). I am surprised that such a work has not received greater attention. Ginzburg's memoirs certainly makes one appreciate living in peace although it also makes one realize that such 'peace' cannot be taken for granted. Her voice and character lingers in my mind.