Book Description
"In spite of its carefully labelled sections, this idiosyncratic novel is a fairly chaotic collection of dreams, myths, letters, stories and diary entries which deal largely with Germany today. Its protagonist is an orphan gypsy whose story is told in as transitional a fashion as the life it records. As a boy, he had been in concentration camps, and as a man shunted around among postwar German writers, intellectuals and other uprooted people. He apparently returns to the gypsies in the end. Many of these notations and incidents are brilliantly written, as in a long section dealing with the life, marriage and suicide of a young poet; but many are extremely private and disjointed. The overall impression is diffuse and so privately connected as to give little specific impact or cumulative meaning. Yet, in an unorthodox fashion (and he acknowledges the book's ""irregularity"") Mr. Haldeman is a fascinating writer about people, ideas, episodes. His is a book that will reward a patiently-editing reader."--Kirkus
