Berlin Alexanderplatz
Alfred Doblin
1929
Around 460 pages
A third of the way through the List, and halfway to Satan. Obviously a momentous occasion, that should be observed with a blood sacrifice and the candy of your choice. I wish we were celebrating with a book I actually enjoyed, but one must make do.
This is one of those novels where the author summarizes the chapters at the beginning with lines like "this section can be skipped." Why, I haven't seen that technique since the olden days of Henry Fielding and William Makepeace Thackeray. But then they's also a weird mix of Joycian modernism that I abhor, so this is hard novel to place in time.
Which I guess makes sense, since this came out during a strange period of history: the Weimar Republic. We follow the story of Franz Biberkopf, who is having trouble adjusting to life after prison. Oh, and the Nazis are taking over.
I didn't click with Doblin's style, and I can see why he didn't he gain the cult status of someone like Franz Kafka or Thomas Mann. But it's interesting to read any book that came out of Germany during this time.
RATING: **---
Interesting Facts:
Most recent adaptation was 2020.
UP NEXT: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
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