Those Anytime Adjustments

Such is life this holiday morning. The heat already is fearsome. During the hustle of yesterday I managed to slip by Half Price, ostensibly for travel information about Marrakech, but with eyes ever alert for structure.

Dr J is teaching a genocide course this fall and I was asked to trawl the stacks for anything which could be incorporated. I had thought to tackle one of the larger surveys, whether by Shirer, Arendt or even the contentious Hitler's Willing Executioners. It was thus a significant surprise when I discovered Siegfried by Harry Mulisch. I recall the review. I had read Mulisch before, his novel The Assault - I recall discussing it with Roger a few years back. Needless to say, it was grabbed for a dollar and I plunged into it once back at home. I finished it in four hours and it is a remarkable exploration of character, history and philosophy. Its conclusions are abstract, as needed, but humane and the sketches of diary entries in the penultimate section are truly an aesthetic windfall.