MLR, 96. 1, 200 MLR, 96. 1, 200 politico-cultural foregrounding of the whole issue of compiling and promulgating (hi)story within the GDR. In Mein Namesei Gantenbein she demonstrates a link between the unstable narrativemode and the theme of sexualjealousy. Nachdenken iber ChristaT., she suggests, transforms an essentially retrospective narrative situation into one sustainedby a continuous quest for the quickeningpower of the 'morally informed imagination' (p. I 5). JakobderLugner is, of course, centrally concerned with the redemptive power of telling tales, and Paver links this theme with the narrator's own need to cope 'with painful experiences from the past' (p. 162). Finally, she suggests that ortlich betdubt explores the link between protest culture and popular culture, and warns against the ease with which (utopian, escapist)fantasiescan supplantthe hard slog of tryingto make the quotidianworld a more decent place. Paver'sstudyis full of good things.A particularvirtue is her abilityand readiness to engage verypreciselywith the detail of her chosen texts. Moreover, she is rightto link the issues of narrativeand stylistictechnique and of generic mode to broader mattersof theme and import. I have only two criticisms.One is that the conclusion strikesme as disappointing;it is essentially a summary of what has already been said.The otheris thatthe topic does raisehighly interestingtheoreticalissues,and I would have welcomed more discussion of certain key implications. One aspect is the whole issueof (asone mightput it)the substanceof the literarytext. Postmodern orthodoxy tends to abolish character,place, and action as substantialcomponents of fiction,yet substantialitywill not be so easilygainsaid.All but the most resolutely ludic narrativestend to generate a sense of some form of weighty experientiality. The fivenovels thatPaveranalysesworrymost impressivelyat thisissue.Moreover, I would have welcomed some consideration of magical realism, with its constant concern to treatthe imaginationasboth an immenselypotent force on the one hand and as a realmof impotent escapismon the other. But the virtues of Chloe Paver'sstudy are many. The detailed textual argument is very impressive,and time and time again she remindsus of the range and variety of what can be achieved by narrativemeans. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON MARTIN SWALES Herta Muller. Ed. by BRIGID HAINES. (Contemporary German Writers) Cardiff: Universityof WalesPress. 1998. xi + I57 pp. ?7.99. Since leavingRomania in 1987HertaMullerhas establishedherselfasan important figurein German literaryand intellectuallife throughher novels and essays.This is therefore a welcome addition to the Contemporary German Writers series, the volumes of which appear after the writer in question has spent a period at the Universityof Swanseaand alwayscontain hithertounpublishedtextsby the author, an interview, a series of critical essays, and biographical and bibliographical information.In thisparticularcasethewritersofthe essayshave had theopportunity to refer to other contributors'work, which gives this volume a more rounded feel than is the case with some of itspredecessors. A major factor in Miiller's work that has its origins in her experiences in Ceau?escu'sRomania is the aversion she shows to all forms of authoritarianand totalitarian rule, something seen most recently in her comments on Milosevic's Serbia. In his essay 'Herta Muller and Totalitarianism'John White examines this aspect of her work, which also includes condemnation of her fellow GermanspeakingRomanians for theirwillingnessto supportHitler. Because of Miller's allpervading concern with totalitarianism,White concludes that she has remained in politico-cultural foregrounding of the whole issue of compiling and promulgating (hi)story within the GDR. In Mein Namesei Gantenbein she demonstrates a link between the unstable narrativemode and the theme of sexualjealousy. Nachdenken iber ChristaT., she suggests, transforms an essentially retrospective narrative situation into one sustainedby a continuous quest for the quickeningpower of the 'morally informed imagination' (p. I 5). JakobderLugner is, of course, centrally concerned with the redemptive power of telling tales, and Paver links this theme with the narrator's own need to cope 'with painful experiences from the past' (p. 162). Finally, she suggests that ortlich betdubt explores the link between protest culture and popular culture, and warns against the ease with which (utopian, escapist)fantasiescan supplantthe hard slog of tryingto make the quotidianworld a more decent place. Paver'sstudyis full of good things.A particularvirtue is her abilityand readiness to engage verypreciselywith the detail of her chosen texts. Moreover, she is rightto link the issues of narrativeand stylistictechnique and...