Media Reviews
Eugen Ruge's wonderful debut novel follows four generations of an East German family from 1952 to 2001 ... From start to finish, Ruge keeps the pages turning. His gift is to mesh the personal with the political, in an epic tale that alternately delights and instructs. It is not often that fiction of this quality comes along. Ian Thomson, Sunday Telegraph Utterly absorbing, funny and humane. A romp through a twisted century in the heart of Europe. Anna Funder, author of STASILAND Eugen Ruge is to the GDR what Hans Fallada was to the Third Reich. In Times of Fading Light may be a novel as important in the whole literature of the Cold War and its aftermath as anything written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Philip Kerr In life and in fiction family retains its old tyrannies as Eugen Ruge so brilliantly illustrates in this intelligent, factual and often shockingly funny debut novel ... So good, so funny, so robust, so cruelly realistic, Ruge's politically apolitical, heartbreakingly realistic narrative juxtaposing Thomas Mann with The Simpsons and collective generational gnashing of teeth, is, despite its candour, deceptively subtle; silent weeping undercuts even the loudest laughter: and this is a very funny, serious and exceptional novel. -- Eileen Battersby Irish Times With a deceptively unfussy narrative style, rich in dialogue and some tremendous set-piece monologues, Ruge's story of a family delivers a hugely informative, entertaining and thought-provoking panoramic view of Communism in Germany ... There is much detail to astound in Anthea Bell's impeccable translation, which captures all the charm of the original ... [Ruge] regards three generations' worth of experience with vivacity and humour, and the clarity of one aware of his own ticking clock. -- Rebecca K Morrison Independent 'A pulsing, vibrant, thrillingly alive work ... The scene of Alexander Umnitzer's final meeting with his father, Kurt, a once proud and pedantic historian who has lost much of his memory and power of speech, has a brutal honesty and an unsparing humor reminiscent of the best work of Jonathan Franzen ... the lingering sensation on finishing In Times of Fading Light is one not of despair but rather of triumph. You can see that from the ruins of the former Eastern bloc something has emerged with the power to survive and outlast the world from which it came: the art represented by Ruge's book, which has torn down the wall between Russian epic and the Great American Novel.' New York Times Ruge manages to unfold, alongside the story of the Umnitzers, the story of a state, drawing on the porousness of the public and the private, the diplomatic and sartorial ... It is Alexander, the character closest to Ruge in age and experience, who provides the clearest illustration of his strengths - the eloquent use of fleeting detail, the ability to catch the impact of history through the movement of a mind. Guardian Ruge moves back and forth in time to build up a textured portrait of a family and society where lines between the personal and political are blurred ... [he] uses individual stories and even the mediocrity of daily life to reveal warmth and humour but also suffering, betrayal and lies. Wartime horrors and time in the Gulag, professional lies and private infidelities are not laboured, making them all the more powerful ... the story he tells convinces, vividly evoking that brave new world for which life, as Gorbachev foresaw, had other plans. Financial Times Splendid, beautifully translated ... [We must be] grateful for Ruge's vision and talent that out of that gloomy bleak place and time, he has given us such a unique and evocative novel. Boston Globe Ruge wants to remind us how much of what seems monumental - at both the personal and public level - simply fades away ... What we have, palpable, heavy in our hand, is the thick plait of history. -- Claire Lowdon Sunday Times 'The particular circumstances of Eugen Ruge's In Times of Fading Light are those of the German Democratic Republic, which is now beginning to assume the shape of a distinct period in German history, one ripe for the evaluation afforded by the distance of the years that have passed since the country, to all intents and purposes, disappeared ... This is a tale of the dimming of the light. The decline of the Umnitzer family keeps step with, on a larger scale, the demise of Communism in Germany, as well as with Alexander's personal story which is heading the same way. But Alexander's instinct, and, by implication, Eugen Ruge's, to seek out the truth of what happened, is amply rewarded. -- Maren Meinhardt Times Literary Supplement Though Ruge portrays all of his characters-from senile party stalwart Wilhelm to Russian transplant Irina to straying professor Kurt-with great tenderness, his story is at its core a depiction of a family's dissolution, the consequence of intergenerational conflict and bleak historical circumstances. There isn't any nostalgia here, just a deeply plaintive examination of personal and political tragedy. Booklist, starred review An evocative family chronicle ... full-bodied storytelling with an enlightening sense of modern history. Publishers Weekly Ruge takes full advantage of the varying viewpoints to display, impressively, the density of family life. Kirkus Reviews
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