The File: A Personal History by Timothy Garton Ash

In the absence of Chris B whose choice the book had been, Richard agreed to open the discussion.  He was very positive about it saying how much he had enjoyed it and what an excellent book he thought it was.  He liked the idea of comparing one’s memory of things to a set of notes and he became intrigued when he realised from reading this that MI5 would undoubtedly have a file on him due to an interview he had many years ago. He found the nuances about how people make decisions in difficult circumstances interesting and felt that GA asked a lot of clever questions about how people lived and thought.  What happened to his relatives in Germany before and during the war also coloured his perception of what he felt to be one of the best books he had read in the club.

By contrast Rob had not enjoyed it and had only completed it by skim-reading the final third. He felt it was poorly written, too dry and factual and didn’t really tell Rob anything new about the Stasi and the GDR. For him the book felt superficial and was too centered on a fundamentally boring man doing boring things so that what informers recorded about him was also boring.  Added to which GA seemed to be showing off about his sexual exploits whilst in East berlin.

Steve had another perspective.  Although he hadn’t finished the book, he was impressed by the colour which GA had injected into the details of his life that Rob had found boring.  However, as the book progressed he had realised that GA was fundamentally a very privileged individual with is Alfa Romeo and his regular flights home and he felt less able to empathise with his outlook.  He had also been looking forward to insights into life in the GDR which didn’t materialise.  Overall he thought that despite having good material to work with, the approach was probably too journalistic.

Chris W on the other had also really enjoyed this book because of his own experiences.  He had lived in Germany when he was 18 and visited East Berlin at the time.  He was aware that there was a bunker containing nuclear missiles about 4 miles away from where he was living and was spooked by going to see the border fence and watchtowers nearby.  He went on a bus tour of East Berlin at the time and all this gave him a real interest in the book.  It did lack excitement and was drier history, but he was intrigued by much, such as the way that people didn’t seem to have a moral filter about what they did. He found it amazing to read about the GDR here and then think about how relatively easily it has been re-assimilated back into modern Germany.  For Chris it also highlighted the importance of people keeping diaries as a record.

Mark T was only about half way through the book and felt unable to comment too much, but was also quite curious following his own visit to Berlin.  He found it easy to read, liked the chapter structure and was enjoying it so far.

Neil was less enamoured with the book despite having been quite keen to read it.  He admitted that his prior knowledge of the Stasi and their work was based largely on having seen The Lives Of Others, the famous award-winning German film about a Stasi investigator who spies on and discredits an artist.  Obviously this book was much less dramatic and for Neil lacked emotional interest.  He thought GA’s regurgitation of too many facts about people and politics of the time was unnecessarily complex and the use of his own file was a little self-indulgent and far less interesting than if he had researched more examples of other people for whom the files had real impact and created real threats to their lives and existence. He found some of the most interesting bits were when GA met former senior Stasi officers and found them pottering in the garden for instance, so completely in contrast to the kind of people they would have been in their day.

Chris B added his own comments via email saying hat he had hoped for more. He too had seen Lives of Others and felt he learnt more from it, but maybe the point of this book is that a lot of surveillance is humdrum and dull. What Chris did find interesting was how people reacted to being approached to inform or to work for the Stasi and whether or not they should have been outed when they were…or were they victims themselves of the regime. So he found it enjoyable, but at the same time felt an opportunity had been missed to make it a more exciting or insightful read.

Mark W also emailed in to say that he did finish it, more out of duty than as a result of any particular sense of enjoyment. The subject was potentially very interesting, but for him the personal history of this relatively unimportant player in the game didn't really add many new insights or particularly interesting new observations. 
In fact he found him quite irritating overall, possible because Mark is not generally sympathetic to rich kids who seem to be able to swan around doing what they enjoy doing presumably being subsidised by parents or something meaning while the rest of us have to think about working and earning money! Mark has also enjoyed The Lives of Others'  on a number of counts and found it told him much more about what it was like living in East Germany at this time. 

So, as you may have gathered, there were quite divergent views and very divergent scores which led to a lively debate in the Coeur de Lion.