SOURCE: A review of Auf dem Weg nach Tabou, in World Literature Today, Vol. 69, No. 3, Summer, 1995, pp. 579–80.

In the following review, Knapp offers a mixed assessment of Auf dem Weg nach Tabou.

Christa Wolf describes her ideal form of writing as a mixture of subjectivity and objectivity, in which her personal encounters and literary efforts are recorded simultaneously. Accordingly, the collection Auf dem Weg nach Tabou mixes diverse levels of experience, often leaving the reader to sort out the relevance of one to the other, and to establish the boundaries between the writer's private and public spheres.

These twenty-eight minor works (nine of which were previously unpublished) can be sorted into four basic categories. The first is made up of journal entries, letters, speeches, and autobiographical reflections, which give an ample glimpse into Wolf's private world. Most notably, she observes and critiques the reunification process as it affected...