Anne Applebaum
American-Polish journalist and historian, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of Gulag, Iron Curtain and Autocracy, Inc.
A World Apart by Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski
He wasn't in the Gulag for long – only a couple of years, until 1941 – but what I like about his book is that, unlike many memoirs, it's not just about his story or what happened to him. It's more like a series of short stories, of the kind written by [Varlam] Shalamov or one of the Gulag novelists. Each chapter is a story about a different person or situation, together with an accompanying set of thoughts or meditations.
on fivebooks.com · 5 Mar 2012
Memoir of Hungary by Sandor Marai
Sándor Márai is one of the great Hungarian novelists. He was in Hungary during the war, and left in 1948. This book is about a neutral intellectual's encounter with communism, and it records what he saw as it happened.
on fivebooks.com · 5 Mar 2012
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
I reread this last night, and I still think it's one of the most beautiful memoirs ever written.
on fivebooks.com · 5 Mar 2012
The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz
He is important to read because he's simultaneously critical of his characters and sympathetic to them. It's very difficult, now, to think back into that time, when people had very limited choices. If you chose to oppose the regime, that might mean you couldn't get medicine for your sick mother, your children couldn't go to school and you might get kicked out of your apartment. We don't have to face those choices. Miłosz is very good at explaining them.
on fivebooks.com · 5 Mar 2012
The Snows of Yesteryear by Gregor von Rezzori
Like The Snows of Yesteryear, which is a straight autobiography, it evokes a time and a place that no longer exists.
on fivebooks.com · 5 Mar 2012
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