Anno Domini

The three stories bundled in this book are tales about war and love, about 'memories keeping their cancerous hold'. The most impressive story is 'Sweet Mars'. A British soldier carries 'a bloody big suitcase ... It's got the things inside it that made me the way I am. The things I remember happening in the war.' Life after the war is extremely difficult. A psychoanalysis turns into a (S.) Fraud ( a brilliant exposure). When, at last, he gets in contact with his Polish friend, he sees that the latter has completely changed. 'Wars kill a long time after'. 'Cake' treats the fate of a jewish girl and the 'monstrous oblivion unleashed on her kind.' She is hidden in a psychiatric asylum, but betrayed by another inmate. The story is told by an American student, who got involved in the French Resistance and was also hiding in the same place. In the violent 'Return no more', a German soldier tries to renew contact with a French girl after the war. His visit to the French village is met with fierce hostility and ends in a bloody confrontation: 'You came back too soon'. Here, I found the return of the soldier after all that happened durung the war, rather improbable. These stories are magisterially written and give an incisive portrait of the all important human theme of evil (war). Not to be missed. I also recommend G. Steiner's provocative essay 'In Bluebeard's Castle' as well as its rewriting as a novel 'The Portage to San Cristobal of AH'.