Monthly Archives: February 2008

the scheme for full employment — magnus mills

3 stars

A name­less pro­tag­o­nist works at The Scheme. All day he dri­ves an Uni­Van from one depot to another. What is in the Uni­Vans? Spare parts for the Uni­Vans. So in the com­plete eco­nom­i­cal scale of things, this scheme doesn’t really con­tribute, but it aims to be the solu­tion for full employ­ment. With very strict rules every­body that works there is happy. But what hap­pens when the work­ers start to doubt each oth­ers workmanship?

seven lies — james lasdun

3 stars

Ste­fan Vogel lives in East Berlin, behind the Iron Cur­tain. His father has con­nec­tions with the West, the big Amer­ica and his mother always wanted to give the impres­sion that they were priv­i­leged. The father would bring back gifts and Ste­fan would trea­sure them. Ste­fan saw the pos­si­bil­i­ties the West offered and wanted to go. Even when that entailed sell­ing his soul to some peo­ple with power.

James Las­dun has writ­ten a intru­ig­ing story about the youth in for­mer East Berlin. What their dreams and what their pos­si­bil­i­ties were. How they sur­vived the com­mu­nis­tic soci­ety they lived in.