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Title: The Wall
Author: Marlen Haushofer
Narrator: Kathe Mazur
Format: Unabridged
Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
Language: English
Release date: 06-01-13
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 41 votes
Genres: Fiction, Literary
Publisher's Summary:
I can allow myself to write the truth; all the people for whom I have lied throughout my life are dead.... writes the heroine of Marlen Haushofers The Wall, a quite ordinary, unnamed middle-aged woman who awakens to find she is the last living human being. Surmising her solitude is the result of a military experiment gone awry, she begins the terrifying work of not only survival but also self-renewal.
The Wall is at once a simple and moving journal - with talk of potatoes and beans, of hoping for a calf, of counting matches, of forgetting the taste of sugar and the use of ones name - and a disturbing meditation on 20th-century history.
Members Reviews:
Stunningly Gorgeous Once Past the Grief
I can see how listeners can go either way on this: I made myself listen to it at one go because I knew the sorrow of it all might make it difficult to pick up again, but there was soooo much there I wanted to see it through. I know others might listen, think, Crap, what a bummer, and just stop. Oh, DON'T! Yes, the woman (who doesn't bother giving her name as it doesn't matter any longer) speaks slowly, what's the rush after all? (By the way, I listened at x1.25, and it worked out splendidly, flowed well.) Yes, the world has, for all intents and purposes, ended and all she knows may very well be dead. Yes, her own death will be upon her. Yes, she suffers the deaths of animals she loves.
Sounds awful and depressing, right? But only those who aren't listening closely will turn it off and go on to another book because the prose is beautiful, the way the woman picks the truth from the tangles of her thoughts is beautiful, the way she learns to love what is around her is beautiful.
And the way that, through it all, AFTER the very worst, her heart beats with love and with hope, glorious hope? It's drop dead gorgeous! Because the whole book has these wonderful golden threads of love and truth woven in, quiet, yes, no bells or whistles, just simple warmth.
Extraordinary!
Plus, it made me start looking at the world around me, crows in particular, with new smiles, special affection.
Not the most interesting book
It seemed as if the same territory was covered over and over. I kept hoping and waiting for it to get more interesting, but it never did. I found myself relieved when it was finally over. The narrator wasn't the problem. The storyline was.
Haunting, yet unexpectedly realistic
Lots to think about in this book: how would I react in this situation, what would I do, what would be the worst parts, maybe some good parts? Just as one thinks there is something that has gone unconsidered or that one could argue with the character's actions, the story addresses that point. The narrator is pitch perfect to convey the feel of the story, which is in the form of a report written by perhaps the last person alive: quiet, yet urgent. One can clearly visualize the main character telling the story in her own head as she writes it down.
Introspective and a little hard to read/listen to
What made the experience of listening to The Wall the most enjoyable?
I have always had a curiosity about survivor stories. What does one need to know to survive? What does one really need? Consequently I have read a whole lot of books of this ilk.
