Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Book Review: Moskauer Orgasmus

Bookstores and libraries are a wonderful place to be. For me. In the world of books, everything is open and free and I forget about deadlines, time pressure and anything that have to do with "do it now" feelings. I always discover and instantly buy, new books, authors, literary temptations.
Before Moskauer Orgasmus, I never heard about Edgar Hilsenrath, but in two days I had the pleasure to read one of the best Cold War story and to discover a wonderful writer with an inspiring life.
The daughter of the Italian's mafia boss in the US fell in love, in Moscow, with the son of a rabbi. She is back in the States, pregnant and longing after his special lover. As it is a matter of honor, life and death, the Mafiosi mobilize all his resources to kidnap the wise man, blocked by security reasons on the other side of the Iron Curtain. The book was writtten in the 70s and still having fresh in mind Gal Beckerman's account on the Soviet Jewry I identified many references to the situation of the Russian Jews at the time. 
But beyond the tensed and dramatic context, the story is full of comic suspense, the writing style is very clean and the story is fresh. A "cherchez la femme" casus belli, very entertaining and with a coherent and good plot. You can write about terrible things smiling, as, at the end of the day, "life could be beautiful".
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