This sat on my shelf for such a long time. While it lacks in literary sophistication, Stones from the River still raises deep questions on the personal responsibility of individuals in the political events happening around us all.
Now, having said all this, I am considering nominating this book to my offline bookclub. This is evident at the end, when it is all tied together in a most unsatisfactory and unconvincing way. This is too bad, because for quite a while the main character carried the story well, but at some time Ursula Hegi seems to lose the control of this world she created and too many characters with too many personal stories become too loosely connected, with side stories sprouting and disappearing, while what should had been the driving event directing the book – the revenge planed by the main character against the boys that so deeply hurt her – becomes secondary. While the communal experience of war left me breathless and teary at times, once the plot moved from it, the personal struggles seemed underdeveloped, becoming rushed or simply abandoned while new conflicts stirred up. But, I felt at the end that the background had taken priority over the individual characters. The small village inhabitants – their rivalry, small and big conflicts, acts of bravery or cowardice, etc. Ursula Hegi strength is her power to transport us into this German community during the years from the end of WWI until the years just after WWII. It has been a while since a book has enthralled me the way this book has, and yet I am struggling to give it anything more than 3 stars.
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