SOURCE: Wickersham, Erlis. Review of Quer uber die Gleise, by Monika Maron. World Literature Today 75, no. 2 (spring 2001): 370.

In the following review, Wickersham compliments Maron's essays in Quer uber die Gleise, calling the collection “clever and readable.”

Monika Maron has been a controversial figure since the reunification of Germany because of her alleged collusion with the East German regime. She is a prolific writer and essayist, whose latest novel Pawels Briefe: Eine Familiengeschichte, appeared in 1999. Her previous collection of essays, Nach Maβgabe meiner Begreifungskraft, was published in 1993. Most of the items in Quer uber die Gleise have appeared in newspapers; some are the texts of speeches. They are less defensive than the entries of the earlier collection, yet they attempt to situate Maron among those who merit understanding rather than censure for the years spent in the East.

These essays are clever and readable. They show a lively...