Alexis Landau's The Empire Of The Senses

Great Essays
Taking place in Berlin and Mitau, The Empire of the Senses is the story of the budding and withering of love as well as the ethnic hatred that plagued the early twentieth century. The author, Alexis Landau, writes the story of a German family, that experiences loss and self discovery as the unimaginable becomes reality. The Empire of the Senses is set from 1914 to 1918 and 1927 to 1933, between the start of World War I and the beginning of World War II. The first half of the book, 1914 to 1918, takes place in Mitau, Russia, or present day Jelgava, Latvia. It is a broken down town located by the plains near a dense, voluminous forest on the banks of Lielupe River. When Lev, one of the main characters first arrives here, Mitau is in a desolate state. The town was abandoned by its citizens and then occupied by the Russians. Everything left behind was destroyed and burned. Lev describes it this way, “The very condition of the streets …show more content…
It slips seamlessly from one character’s perspective to the next especially since they have such radically different ideas. Full of vivid descriptions that lend it a cinematic quality, this is a well written novel, especially since this is Landau 's first novel. In a backdrop plagued by war and political strife, the setting of The Empire of the Senses is one that many people would want to experience. However, when told through the Perlmutters’ eyes, these events come to life, fueling a compelling read about the events preceding World War II. Despite this, The Empire of the Senses would probably not be for middle schools. All the characters are either older or younger. So people in their early teens may not be able to relate well to the characters. Besides, a few scenes could be deemed too mature for readers of this age. Overall, The Empire of the Senses is a compelling book that is recommended to anyone interested in the two world

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Memory represents a person’s perception of self and identity. Reflecting on past memories and experiences allows a person to recognize who he or she is and where he or she came from. In the novel, Brain on Fire, by Susannah Cahalan, a disease known as anti-NMDA receptor autoimmune encephalitis inflames Cahalan’s brain, inducing cognitive deficiencies such as hallucinations, paranoia, and slurred speech. Cahalan refers to her hospital stay as her “month of madness” because these symptoms destroy her memory and alter her identity.…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In her novel, A Medieval Life, Judith Bennett attempts to showcase the daily life of a peasant woman, Cecilia Penifader, as she lives on the English manor Brigstock in the mid-fourteenth century. During this time period Europe was full of thousands of rural communities including Brigstock. Brigstock was located in a very manorialized part of England which was the English midlands near London. Bennett works to redirect focus from the readers’ fairytale view of the middle ages to a more accurate view of how life really was. “Most medieval people were not knights, kings, churchmen, or merchants.…

    • 1069 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Boy At War Thesis

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Harry Mazer's A Boy at War, published in 2001, recounts the experiences of fourteen-year-old Adam Pelko. Adam is a young man from a military family who lives in Hawaii in the days leading up to and during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It is just a matter of chance that Adam and two friends are fishing in a rowboat on the harbor on that fateful morning when the attack occurs. At first, the boys assume that they have been caught in a drill, but quickly realize that the planes and bombs are real. In the confusion following the initial onslaught, Adam helplessly witnesses the sinking of the Arizona, the ship on which his father is stationed.…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “‘What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains immortal,’ -Albert Pines” -An excerpt from Mark Cheverton’s Invasion of the Overworld. In Invasion of the Overworld, a bully and avid minecrafter, Gameknight999, gets warped into the video game and learns that all the creatures in Minecraft are all alive. As he attempts to save the game and leave the game, he learns the value of teamwork, friendship, and the consequences of griefing. Mark Cheverton writes the Gameknight999 serie to teach young kids the dangers of cyberbullying and how to treat others fairly, using simpler diction and the popular game of Minecraft to attract young readers.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Title? What is the name of the most fascinating book in the world? Should I leave you wondering? Well I think it might come in handy so I am going to tell you the title?…

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Two stories that are alike Anthem Ayn Rand and Giver Lois Lowry are alike and different in many ways. Anthem is about a boy named Equality 7-2521 and how his life is controlled, but that does not stop him from doing the things he wants to achieve. Giver is about a boy named Jonas becoming the next receiver he is controlled by his parents, and the Giver. Jonas realizes that through his dreams the giver is giving him, that life should be like those loving, and caring. Both of these stories are controlled by one, these two boys have no say in anything someone else makes the decisions for them.…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Language has the power to connect people to their culture, history, and to other people, but language can also isolate a person and make them feel like an outsider to their own culture and family, or can make them feel foreign in their own tongue. Language can also empower a person in ways that will make him or her feel like they can control his or her own destiny. All of theses ideas are explored in The Language of Discretion by Amy Tan and in From Outside In by Barbara Mellix. Both Tan and Mellix feel like outsiders in the language each one uses, find a danger and excitement in knowledge and learning, and find a way to fit in with their respective languages. Barbara Mellix grew up surrounded by black english while her parents and teachers…

    • 1410 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Hunger Games begins on the day of the reaping in District 12. Katniss Everdeen, the 16 year old main character, meets up with her best friend Gale so they can do some hunting before the reaping that afternoon. Little does she know, her life is about to change forever… The Hunger Games has multiple setting throughout the book.…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With any book you will run into that problem. When reading the book at some parts you honestly are so into it you don’t really know what going on around you. This book isn’t for children at all. They would have a very hard time getting to it and really understanding what exactly is going on. This book would be best for a middle schooler or high schooler that has learned this history.…

    • 1839 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Innocence and Experience: A&P The title of the book is Literature: The Human Experience written by Abcarian and Klotz. It is a book that has several chapters that address diverse issues. In this context, the chosen story is one that is in the chapter named as Innocence and Experience while the story is named as A&P where the narrator is a nineteen-year-old boy known as Sammy. The writer of this story is John Uplike whom published A&P in 1961.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Literature has been around for many centuries, and each piece is either influenced by something, or has the ability to influence a single person, or an entire society. It is quite obvious to the eyes of a reader that pieces written during the Modern Era of literature reflect the time period of that in the Roaring Twenties, which was a time period in America where the rich were too wealthy, but their hearts were poor and filled with greed. These pieces also reflect the time period of the thirties, which was not even near as prosperous as the twenties, times were hard, and the lifestyle lived then was difficult. Modernism writers used these times in America to influence their writings by drawing attention of the readers to problems that our nation…

    • 1410 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Bone Gap

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Bone Gap by Laura Ruby is a fantasy book about perspective. A main topic in the book is the difference between looking and seeing. It includes imagery of fantasy, different views of self-image, and the heavy burden that beauty can be and the detrimental ways we look at and treat women. It can be dreadfully tense and there is this feeling of anxiety that runs throughout the novel. The book is romantic when it needed, empowering where it counts, and is simply beautiful in its telling.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Anne Sexton loved her children but she was ashamed of who she was, a person who might one day possibly kill her kids. Those thoughts explain her shamefulness and regret. She doesn't want to commit suicide but she’s forced to because her brain won't function properly despite her best efforts. The reader would also come to realize that Sexton felt different toward Linda her older daughter than toward Joyce her younger one. While both Linda and Joyce struggled from their mother’s mental state, the reader would come to find that Linda has suffered more and that pushed her further away from her mother the older she got.…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Margot “…said nothing”, “…stood alone”, “…did not move”, “…did not follow”, and kept “…quietly apart”. This shows us that there is an absence of movement and sound around Margot and where the rest of the children are loud, restless and moving constantly Margot does the opposite to all of them by saying nothing and standing still and away from everyone from everyone else. Margot is different from the children in her stillness and isolation and Ray Bradbury has shown this to us by creating a contrast in her description by using the absence of sensory imagery to show us stillness and isolation whereas he explained fully all the sensory imagery when describing the rest of the children as moving constantly and keeping…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics