I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, by Victor Klemperer
5.0 Stars
12-10-2023

Apparently somewhere between 1915 and 1933 people became fully modern. There were several times that I was reading the diary and was like yeah, these lines are both relevant and helpful in thinking more clearly about an online discussion I was having just a few hours ago. You could revivify Klemperer, give him a 90 minute primer on the last 90 years, and he would be completely at home on Qt3 or Reddit or Metafilter or where ever. He has perceptive observations about language, thought, identity, and politics, mixed in with longer passages about his wife, his relations & friends, his cats, his ongoing scholarly work, his money problems, his hypochondria (despite constant health fears, he survives both the Nazis and the Dresden fire bombing and lives for another 20 years), and his many bungled attempts to nearsightedly drive a car around the area. The author is a fine writer, a lovable idealist, a lovable idiot, and extremely intelligent and educated. There were many passages that I highlighted in this book, but these were my favorite sections.

The diary is also the most affecting thing that I've read this year. His direct thoughts and life work much better as art (in the Murdochian sense) than a novelization of the same times would.