The Appointment

Author: Herta Müller
Publisher: Picador (10th edition 2014)

I am usually a little bit leery of authors who write about their former societies after migrating to a western country, especially if one receives the Nobel price for writing such tales.  That apprehension kept me from reading this book, and has taken a long time to read it, even after deciding to read it.  

The main character is a woman who is a worker at a garment factory in Ceauşescu’s Romania.  We do not know her name.  She has married twice.  Her first husband was a soldier.  Her father-in-law made a pass at her while his son was away at a distant military post.  She decided to run away from home on that particular day.  Her first husband came to visit her but she was not going to accept him again.  He threatened to jump from a bridge if she refused to come back.  She told him to jump and walked away from him without looking back.  A coworker with whom she  had an affair with, a sort of a one-night-stand, expects her to be his sex object.  Even getting married again (to a drunkard) could not stop the sexual abuse at the workplace.  She lost her job and being summoned by a military attache named Major Albu as a result.  

The whole book, one long chapter 214 pages in all, is a self-reflection of her life while taking a tram to go see Major Albu.  The following is the promotional passage in the back-page of the book.

“I’VE BEEN SUMMONED.  THURSDAY, TEN SHARP.”  Thus began a day in life of a young factory worker during Ceauşescu’s totalitarian regime.  Her crime? Sewing notes into the linings of men’s suits bound for Italy.  “Marry me,” the notes say, with her name and address.  As she rides the tram to her interrogation, she thinks over the events and people of her life under terror.  In her distraction she misses her stop and finds herself alone on an unfamiliar street.  And what she discovers there makes her fear of the interrogation pale in comparison.”

It was slow going at the beginning primarily because of the unfamiliarity of author’s writing style.  Not having chapter-breaks were not helpful either.  But I picked up steam midway through the story after getting used to the writing style, and getting to know the characters better.  I do recommend this book.