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#Germany
review
Bookwomble
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Pickpick

The unnamed narrator shares so much of his biography with the author that it's impossible not to read this as memoir, although it's published as fiction. Either way, it's a frank confessional about the internal life of the son of British immigrants, who leaves his UK family & relocates to Berlin, where he does find the change of life he was looking for, but not the connection with others or himself.
⬇️

Bookwomble Exploring friendship, dating, loneliness, racism, sexuality, and how these intersect with the MC's low self-esteem and depression, and the beginning of positive change through therapy and reconnection with his dead father's family in Uganda.
The language is wonderful, and if sad and revealing, because of these qualities it's also human and humane, and that's where connection happens.My only complaint is that at 122 pages, this was too short.
14h
batsy This sounds great. I like his thoughts on football on twitter and he seems thoughtful; very different from the usual aggressively masculine, sexist stuff that passes off as analysis. 6h
Bookwomble @batsy It is great ,I really enjoyed reading it 😊 If interest in a subject can be measured in negative percentages, then I'd rate my interest in football as -99%, so sadly his earlier books are not for me, but it's no surprise to hear you say that Musa's commentary is a cut above the typical punditry. He talks about the team he plays with in the book, and the support they give each other is what he emphasises. He has a football podcast, too. 5h
30 likes1 stack add3 comments
quote
Bookwomble
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So this is the loneliness & Berlin is the best place to face it, as well as evade it. Because Berlin is essentially the end of the world at least as far as loneliness goes. This is the final stop on the train of solitude, the one where the conductor asks you all to change please, bitte aussteigen. There's nowhere you can go after this, nowhere more gentle, more brutal, no greater chaos, nowhere to be more gratefully anonymous. Thank God for Berlin

BarbaraBB Great quote. I guess the wall still stood there when this book was written 1d
Bookwomble @BarbaraBB Berlin is a character in this book, for sure, though it was written in 2021 and is about the modern post-unification city. I think it reasonable to say that the author/MC brought their loneliness with them. 1d
BarbaraBB Oow wow that makes it even more intriguing. And sad 1d
The_Book_Ninja I worked in Berlin in 1998. Can‘t remember exactly where. but it was an old bus terminal, (classic, brutal concrete construction if that‘s not too clichéd) and it was used as a market in the day and a rave venue at night. I wish I kept a diary (edited) 1d
40 likes4 comments
review
BarbaraBB
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Mehso-so

I chose this book for #TitlesAndTunes #DramaQueen because of its title but it doesn‘t fit the prompt at all 🤷🏻‍♀️ The drama is real in Segher‘s short story collection, which mostly is about nazism and the war.
In the title story, for example, a woman imagines herself with her old schoolmates on a class trip. She intersperses her descriptions of the children in the years before the war with the lives they grew up to endure. A tough read.

Librarybelle That does sound like a tough read. 2d
Cinfhen Sounds really uncomfortable 🙁oh well, next month‘s choice sounds really promising ( and it‘s short🙃) 2d
Suet624 Oh my. 10h
55 likes4 comments
review
andrew61
Kairos: Roman | Jenny Erpenbeck
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Pickpick

A complex + deep analysis of a relationship btwn a 19 yr old girl + a married man in his 50s which v quickly turns disturbing in the manipulative nature of the control Hans exerts over Katharina. The setting is late 1980s Berlin so the paranoia + brutality echoes the last days of the GDR regime. I felt uncomfortable watching the way K is damaged by an older male but relieved towards the end. A dark troubling read but interesting nevertheless. ⬇️

andrew61 I also felt incredibly unsophisticated as I listened to Hans constant education of K through music + literature but that formed an element of his control. The 2nd half did tend to drift into somewhat philosophical ideas but overall this was a compelling read that underlines the interesting period when the monolith of communism was falling. Also I was curious about Hans and the ending which K is addressing yrs on after going through files. 3d
33 likes1 comment
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Bookwomble
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"What happened to the winds that sent the slave ships?
Some of those gusts are proud that they filled those ancient sails.
You could hear them above Berlin on election night,
Hailing the arrival of the moonlight and far-right;
You could hear them whistling through the corridors
Of the Holocaust memorial, slapping its stone walls and floors,
Gasping applause."

The book opens with this powerful poem, "Righteous Migrants".

review
Pip2
The Magic Mountain | Thomas Mann
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Bailedbailed

Bail, I could no longer read about Hans Castorp‘s perpetual thoughts of sanitarium life. I am on page 440, 61% through and I feel like this book is just a constant continuation of the same theme and idea, prolonged for the author's amusement but nobody else's....I did appreciate some of the authors descriptions on the scenery in the Swiss Alps and believe this could have been a positive read for me had it been condensed 500 pages or so.

Lcsmcat I finished it, but found myself screaming “Get over yourself!” frequently. 😂 4d
Pip2 😆 Yeah, so I was the same way reading Joyce but I am now implementing the fifty rule. If it doesn‘t hook me by page 50 or 12.5% whatever is longer, I am bailing. Life is too short and there are too many wonderful reads to be had! (edited) 4d
9 likes2 comments
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keithmalek
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😡😡😡

review
starlight97
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Pickpick

This book is rough.
#wwi #germanauthor 🇩🇪 #catsoflitsy
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

dabbe Hello there, sweetest kitty! 🖤🐾🖤 1w
starlight97 @dabbe 🥰🐾 6d
28 likes2 comments
blurb
BekaReid
The Wicked Enchantment | Margot Benary-Isbert
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And then I opened it...how could I NOT pick it up?! (Post 2 of 2)