The Zone of Interest - Martin Amis

"Zone of Interest"  seems to be a Nazi term referring to death camps in general or perhaps specifically to Auschwitz.
The various characters present different lives within the camp as well as different views and reactions to both the Nazis and the camp itself.  There are hardcore Nazis, SS officers who support the war but see the Jewish death camps as pointless and unnecessary, there is an SS officer who works behind the scenes to slow and sabotage the Nazi war effort, there is the wife and family of the head of Auschwitz who also live at the camp, there is a Sonderkomando prisoner also.
It is a fairly heavy book, though not as much as you might expect.  The focus is not on the details of the exterminations and living conditions, but on the lives and minds of the people surrounding the camps.
There is also an exploration of the Nazi idealism - views on women, patriarchy, sexuality (male) - and some hints of the crazy ideas they came up with such as a extraterrestrial origin of Aryans.  Amis captures the strangeness, the craziness and the essential incomprehensibility of the whole period.

There is an excellent bibliography in the back of the book:

To Find:
- Primo Levi's books about his time in Auschwitz, If this is a Man & The Truce
- Explaining Hitler; Ron Rosenbaum
- Defying Hitler & The Meaning of Hitler, both by Sebastian Haffner
- The Journey Back from Hell, Anton Gill ( survivor accounts)
- book on Hitler by Alan Bullock
- Doctor 117641, Louis Micheels
- I Shall Bear Witness. Victor Klemperer
- Diary of a Man in Despair, Friedrick Reck
- (others there to pull out too)

Sogni di sogni - Antonia Tabucchi

A clever idea.  Tabucchi imagines one dream for a number of important historical artistic figures from Roman times to the 20th century - Villon, Rabelais, Leopardi, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rimbaud, Chekov, Debussy, Fernando Pessoa.
The dreams can be amusing if you know anything about the work and lives of the people chosen.

Not as gripping as Sostiene Pereira, but an amusing short read.

Armenian Golgotha - Grigoris Balakian

An account of Grigoris' life in Turkey during the Armenian genocide.  It traces his experiences from his arrest in Istanbul in 1915 until his departure after the war in 1918.  He also looks at many of the specific methods of deporting and killing the Armenians.  One thing that struck me was the similarity to some of the methods Nazis would adopt later when eliminating the Jews.
It seems a balanced account.  Their are monsters and morally reprehensible deeds on all sides - Turkish, German and Armenian.  There is also kindness, help and critical voices on all sides
Balakian also criticizes the Armenian leadership early on in the book for being so outspoken in their support of the Allies and the Russians at the beginning of the war, and so critical of the Germans and their allies.  He points out the folly of this when living amidst the enemy.
One definite purpose of this genocide was wealth transfer.  Leadership and officials often seem to have grabbed the best part of the wealth from the abandoned homes and also from the caravans as they slowly abandoned what they had brought.  The poorer Turks were left with taking the clothing and the last few personal belongings.  One effect of warning the Armenians before they were to be exiled was that they would pack up their most valuable items and hide gold in their clothes and in their baggage.  It was much easier to confiscate it once the deportation caravans were on route as the victims has gathered it all up beforehand.
Local villagers seem to have also played a willing role in the massacres and inhumane treatment not only for money but also for religious reasons.
The German military does not come off well at all, though the German civilians working on the Baghdad railroad seem to have done what they could to help and protect both Armenian employees and passing caravans.  This experience may have provided some critical insights used by the military and Nazis later.
I come away wondering why the Turkish government had such a fixation on eliminating the Armenians - they continued trying to eliminate every last one right up until the end of the war.  They also continued to chase the leadership arrested in Istanbul in 1915 right up until the end.  After all, this was wartime - to waste so much energy and manpower on chasing down the last few Armenians seems strange, a psychological affliction of some kind.  Similar questions could be asked about the Germans and the Jews.  It went far beyond breaking power and grabbing wealth; almost a bizarre crusade of some kind.

L'amour humain - Andrei Makine

Makine a une façon magique d'évoquer les lieux, les atmosphères, la vie intérieure de ses personnages.
L'histoire de rencontres à travers les années entre un journaliste russe et un africain révolutionnaire professionnel.  D'une façon c'est une critique de cette période des années 60, 70 et leur politique de libération et post-colonialisme.  D'un autre part c'est un lament pour le manque de sincérité, les masques, la corruption, le conflit entre la personne sociale et le coeur intérieur d'une vie.

J'ai déjà lu un livre de Makine, mais en traduction.  Peut-être Le Testament Français.  J'aimerais le relire dans l'original.

The Long Way Home - Louise Penny

Another one of her recent well-written mysteries.  Armand Gamache is now retired and living in Three Pines.  I think this is the first  book I have read by her where there isn't a moment in the plot where everything gets a bit improbable and fuzzy.

Barney's Version - Mordecai Richler

Another book of social satire, well-observed, from a perspective in line with the Hemingway/Layton period.  Many of the characters resemble the characters in the Solomon Gursky book.
Richler handles the characters slow descent into Alzheimers well as it slowly creeps in through the book.  There is also a critique of the hard-drinking, abrasive, cynical narrator type in that he manages to alienate just about everyone by the end of the book, but there isn't much personal insight there.
I notice a link between Duddy Kravitz and Barney, the narrator of the book - Kravitz is a competitive, crass business type, but in the need to be top dog, in the need to have the outward effects of the good life (cognac, scotch, cigars, expensive accoutrements), in the constant need to compete, put down, cut others, he resembles the narrator, Barney - and to a degree, the character Mike in the Solomon Gursky novel.

Four Fields - Tim Dee

An excellent example of a genre I really enjoy - reflections and explorations on encounters with a particular natural landscape.  Dee shows a great understanding of natural ecology and human history within the environment of fields - fens in England, grasslands in South Africa and the Midwest, exclusion zone around Chernobyl.

To Find
1. books/art by E A R Ennion (some in reference library TPL)

2. Sixty Years a Fenman, Arthur Randell (reference, TPL)

3. A.K. Astbury, The Black Fens (robarts)

4. The old stories : folk tales from East Anglia and the Fen country /

Kevin Crossley-Holland (Robarts)

5.  Tales from the fens / by W. H. Barrett Enid Porter. (request from Robarts/Downsview)

Life and Fate - Vasily Grossman

A gargantuan novel based largely on the seige of Stalingrad.  Mostly from the Russian point of view, but also some sections from the German point of view.
The real subject of the book is a critique of Russia under Stalin.  Never published in Russia, and when you read it, you understand why.  Grossman was ahead of everyone else I think, in his insight into the Russian communist project and how it went so totally off the rails.

Le complexe de Di - Dai Sijie

An account of the main character's ramble through both urban and rural China as wandering psychoanalyst offering his dream interpretation services.  The main character is heavily shaped by years in Europe studying psychoanalysis and is fanatically devoted to Freud.  His encounters with the lives and mentalities of Chinese characters in modern mainland China provides opportunities for lots of bizarre humour.  At the same time, he seems to be drawing a critical portrait of many aspects of China - politics, social relations, interpersonal relations, social norms.

If you can get into his unusual subtle humour, an interesting book to read.

A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe - Fernando Pessoa

A reference from Tabucchi.
A portuguese poet from the early/mid 20th century.  Wrote under several identities, each "author" with a distinct style, thematic.  Fairly philosophical as poetry
I enjoyed the unusual perspectives on the world in some of the poems, but some are a bit too heavy handedly idea based.
Worth flipping through.

The Great Catastrophe - Thomas de Waal

Thomas de Waal writes very well on the Caucasus region - his books are very well-balanced and thorough.

This book looks at the Armenian catastrophe or genocide but from a different perspective.  It begins with a good summary of the events of 1915 to 1916.  The rest of the book looks at what has happened within the Armenian community, between Turkey and Armenian organizations and also between Armenia and Turkey in the decades following the Catastrophe - the post WW 1 negotiations, the attacks on Turkish diplomats, in-fighting between different Armenian organizations, differences in points of view between diaspora Armenians and Armenia's government and citizens, recent diplomatic initiatives between Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Nothing earth shattering in terms of revelations, but very informative on the subject.

To Find
1. Caleb Gates, Not to Me Only
2.  Rafael de Nogales, Four Years Beneath the Crescent (period acc't from Ottoman officer)
3.  Grigoris Balakian, Armenian Golgotha (period acc't)
4.  Michael Mann, The Dark Side of Democracy (state-building and genocide)
5. Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands (Balkan history early 20th c)