26 Books

The File is Timothy Garton Ash’s attempt to understand how the Stasi worked, through examining the file that they kept on him. He goes back to the now unified Berlin to talk with the people who informed on him, as well as those who were exposed to Stasi interference in their lives thanks to their contact with him.

The File

Timothy Garton Ash
Atlantic Books 2009, Paperback, 256 pages, £9.99

While The File is a good read, it never reaches the level of insight of Anna Funder’s superb Stasiland. It’s a bit too self-regarding, and far too easy on our own security services, who Garton Ash always gives the benefit of the doubt.

I think it misses the mark because the Stasi’s offense against Garton Ash was comparatively piffling. They followed him – and he was a foreign journalist, after all – and got people to tell them what he was doing, which was not much. In the end he was banned from East Germany, and so the narrative is curiously incomplete: it ceases to be a personal account of East Germany well before the Wall fell. And, while there is personal betrayal here, it’s not on the scale that Funder uncovers.

Given that it’s now 20 years since the Wall came down, there’s an increased interest in matters East German, hence the retread for The File. But if you’re going to read up about what life under the Stasi was really like, choose Stasiland rather than this.

Possibly related posts:

1. Berlin Game by Len Deighton (Ian’s book 13, 2009)
2. The Innocent by David Szalay (James’s book 31, 2009)