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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
I don’t particularly want to give this book a number rating but alas I do love my numbers so we’re just going to give it five stars, like ‘The Prophet’ it gets five stars for being essential reading for all humanity. An unexpectedly perfect book, it’s all about how this woman has a middlife crisis and so decides to become a chiropodist. Each chapter then details her clients that she receives, and each chapter exudes love. The empathy and care she feels towards each of her clients and the lives they’ve lived (most of them being pensioners) is just astounding and joyful to read. There’s a really compelling worldview/ethos underlying the stories, the goodness inherent to life if you just fucking get out there and do something you love and truly live your life, I genuinely felt a bit of a kinship to the narrator in like outlook of life, I want to (and hope that I do) go through life as she does. There’s an interesting layer of intimacy she has with her recurring clients, because what do you do at an hour long foot appointment but talk about your life ykno? Nearly every character was endearing, there was a lot of perseverance in the face of unfairness from many of the older characters, which was genuinely inspiring. And I’ll be honest, the “work outing” chapter made me shed a tear or two. It all really is about just how amazing life is and like beauty in the ordinary but it doesn’t even need to be beauty life is just good.
Another interesting aspect of this book is that it’s a translated piece, I picked it up in the first place because it won this year’s Dublin Literary Award (which is for international works), and it’s not what you’d expect from an ‘award winning’ book, it’s extremely unassuming, but in my opinion pretty powerful, and I do think the translation was done extremely well in the book. It completely feels like it was written by a German person describing their life to me in English. There’s little quirks like referring to all the men and women in the story as herr or frau (equivalent to mr/mrs) and referring to the ‘informal you’ that I genuinely really appreciated. Unlike most other translated works I genuinely didn’t feel like I was missing out by reading it translated rather than in its original form.
Yet another interesting aspect of the story that I wasn’t expecting at all was the many references to the reunification of east and west germany. As most of the characters were old, this event played a large part in their lives and was described as such, and it was just interesting to see the impacts it had on them, largely it meant that they lost jobs and pensions. Although from the history I’ve read it’s portrayed as West germany being superior to the east (probably our like general western/capitalist teaching) in this story it seemed that many citizens preferred the east, the sense of community it brought etc. it was described how capitalism had ruined some of their jobs and stuff. Just another interesting aspect of the book I think.
I really don’t want to send you into this book with super high expectations, because it’s not an expectations book, it might not necessarily blow your socks off, but by god will it make you feel something and care for this chiropodist who does her best in her job and loves her clients. I just genuinely cannot fault this book, I loved reading it and it was so successful in telling its story and making it feel like this story truly matters. What else could you ask for?
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
The winner of this year's Dublin Literary Award and wow! I loved it. A short novella with no plot but so much heart. Set in a beauty salon in an area where there are multi-storied plattenbau apartments in the working class area of Marzahn, East Berlin, our narrator is a 45 year-old writer who changed career after the rejection of her latest novella. She retrained as a chiropodist and has now been working in this salon for four years. What follows are vignettes about her clients, her perspective as she kneels before them and holds their feet in her hands. During these sessions when our narrator carefully goes about her business, her clients reveal themselves to her - their lives and loves, their successes and failures - and our narrator treats each person with tenderness. Some vignettes make you laugh, some bring a lump to your throat but as you watch each elderly person sit down upon the 'throne', you find that you too are drawn to them, to their resilience, their loneliness, their fragility, and you want to know more about them. I wanted the book to be double, treble in size so that I could follow these individuals who, as you watch our narrator tend them, get under your skin . A super read and one that, as you turn the final page, makes you realise that you are seeing the humanity and the community behind these huge concrete structures, you are seeing warmth, love and heart.
medium-paced
This lovely little book has been shortlisted for The Dublin Literary Award, nominated by Stadtbücherien Düsseldorf, Germany.
The Dublin Literary Award, a Dublin City Council initiative, highlights authors and readers worldwide while celebrating excellence in contemporary world literature.
For the first time ever in the award's history, there are more books in translation than in original English, illustrating the rise in popularity of books in translation. I adore translated fiction & as a German Studies graduate, I am partial to anything set in Germany/ written in German. This is why when reading the shortlist, I read Oskamp’s work first.
The winner will be announced on Thursday 25 May at the International Literature Festival Dublin and will receive
€100,000, making it the most valuable prize for a single novel in English or translated into English.
Review:
At its core, this is a character study. The story is through a series of vignettes that give us a momentary glimpse into these people’s lives and personalities. The tender, solemn and melancholic moments are matched by moments of humour, hope and friendship. It is a quietly powerful novel. Concentration is not on a plot, but on the people, their flaws and their triumphs. The lingering impact of the GDR is also palpable through Oskamp’s portrayal of these characters also. Quietly powerful, as I said.
Quirky, funny, poignant.
Thank you to the Dublin Literary Award for sending me the shortlist to read and review.
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
A beautifully written gem of a book about Marzahn, its (mostly elderly) inhabitants and one middle-age woman's search for her inner compass.
emotional
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced