Without Lifting A Finger

It was left unfinished at Zweig's death. In Part 2 Bonnie and Clyde (Christine and Ferdinand) are planning the perfect crime: stealing money from her post office (she's the only clerk) right before a holiday (thus more time to make their getaway). The "earlier version"of their exit--i.e., before Ferdinand saw all the money in the drawer and hatched the "harder" plan of stealing the money and living on the lam--was eerily close to the real life exit of Zweig and his young wife (except Christine and Ferdinand would've used a gun instead of poison). Why do they want to commit this crime? Why did they want to commit suicide? Zweig paints it more deftly than I can deliver it here (and even then some "suspending disbelief" is required), but it's basically the unbeatable between-the-wars "system" that is backing them into a corner of desperation. Ferdinand is the genius behind the theft and stays up all night writing the plan: I...

Yes, I'm still reading. I hope to get back to Hoffmansthal's Ein Brief (kicked up by Coetzee), but in the meanwhile I've already tackled half (Zweig doesn't cut the text into chapters but parts: Part 1 & 2) of The Post-Office Girl . It started a bit slow for me (but I suppose it was also just hectic life). Then yesterday, while waiting at the Honda dealer, I really got sucked into it: I could almost slip into Christine's skin. A lower middle class girl gets a taste of the "high life" (she visits her rich American aunt in Switzerland), and then, really through no fault of her own, she must leave abruptly and return to her drab job and existence. * Re a taxi dancer:    She handed in her coat at the cloakroom, feeling better when the hated carapace was gone and she could hear the fast, aggressive music coming from below. She went down to the cellar. Disappointingly, it was mostly empty. Some white-jacketed lads in the orchestra were giving it al...