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dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think the relationship between Hams and Katharina is supposed to parallel the breakdown of the GDR and then somehow reunification with FDR, but god knows how. So confusing. In the main, an abusive relationship between a 19 year old and a 50-something year old. Massive power imbalance. A lot of words that didn't seem to mean anything, fairly sure I skimmed for the most part. Still cannot figure out their initial meeting and I re-read that 3 times.
Like other prize winners it tries too hard to be clever.
In saying this, I wonder what it would've been like reading it in German...
Oh, and I am sure I read that she commited murder of 3 people but can't for the life of me figure it out - may have been a weird hallucination or fantasy sequence
Like other prize winners it tries too hard to be clever.
In saying this, I wonder what it would've been like reading it in German...
Oh, and I am sure I read that she commited murder of 3 people but can't for the life of me figure it out - may have been a weird hallucination or fantasy sequence
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Gaslighting
Minor: Abortion
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If I hadn't been reading this for my book club, I would have DNF'd around the 20% mark. I can't remember the last time I disliked the experience of reading a book so much.
At first, I had hope. While the introduction of the main characters' relationship was both puerile and sinister, I thought that it was a decent reflection of what the initial infatuation between a teenager and a man in his mid-fifties would look like. Surely, in the hands of a female author, this Booker prize winning novel would subvert the misogyny of its tired premise. The characters would dazzle me with their complexity, the prose would sparkle, and the much promised motif of the fall of the GDR would be handled sensitively and woven through the narrative with great subtlety.
Instead, the relationship got darker, nastier, and recursive. The featureless run-on sentences about obscure East German politics got longer, and the characters remained excruciatingly bland, so caught up in their tawdry psychodrama that it left little room for the reader to absorb anything else about them. Perhaps this was the ultimate conceit of the book, but it was a fucking painful experience to read. The entire time, I oscillated between disgust, disdain, and boredom, begging for the experience to be over for the characters and for me.
The final section of the book contained some genuinely interesting concepts about the experience of former East Germans after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately they came far too late to redeem this book for me.
I am struggling to understand who this book was for or why anyone would enjoy it; the positive reviews make me feel like I read a completely different novel to those singing its praises. At least I am looking forward to an interesting discussion with my book club - I hope that one of the other members can enlighten me.
At first, I had hope. While the introduction of the main characters' relationship was both puerile and sinister, I thought that it was a decent reflection of what the initial infatuation between a teenager and a man in his mid-fifties would look like. Surely, in the hands of a female author, this Booker prize winning novel would subvert the misogyny of its tired premise. The characters would dazzle me with their complexity, the prose would sparkle, and the much promised motif of the fall of the GDR would be handled sensitively and woven through the narrative with great subtlety.
Instead, the relationship got darker, nastier, and recursive. The featureless run-on sentences about obscure East German politics got longer, and the characters remained excruciatingly bland, so caught up in their tawdry psychodrama that it left little room for the reader to absorb anything else about them. Perhaps this was the ultimate conceit of the book, but it was a fucking painful experience to read. The entire time, I oscillated between disgust, disdain, and boredom, begging for the experience to be over for the characters and for me.
The final section of the book contained some genuinely interesting concepts about the experience of former East Germans after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately they came far too late to redeem this book for me.
I am struggling to understand who this book was for or why anyone would enjoy it; the positive reviews make me feel like I read a completely different novel to those singing its praises. At least I am looking forward to an interesting discussion with my book club - I hope that one of the other members can enlighten me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Abortion, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book has been highly lauded but it was not for me. Whatever the supposed literary or intellectual justification for having pages and pages of a man abusing a woman physically, emotionally and sexually, it was just too much for me. In the end, whatever the set up, the reader’s time is spent consuming long descriptions of sexual humiliation, domination, and every kind of cruelty. I wish I had understood how very dark this book was before I picked it up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was excited to read this to get a view on what day to day life was like in East Germany in the 1980s. This aspect of the book was certainly interesting, but I disliked the characters from very near the start. Then halfway through, an event caused one character to double down on his toxic traits, and it became unintentionally a horror story. He was the narcissistic, substantially older member of a relationship with his much younger mistress, and exploited the power dynamic in multiple ways. The book didn’t really highlight this as problematic, or redeem the situation in any way. Just an unpleasant read overall.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Alcohol
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I desperately wanted to like this book, but the more I tried to get into it the more difficult it became to pick up, because I fundamentally didn't enjoy it.
Kairos has been lauded with accolades, including the International Booker prize, and was even gushed upon by the shopkeeper who was checking the book out when I bought it. Naturally, I was very excited to get into it and expecting to be blown away. Unfortunately, I was almost immediately disappointed by how dense, meandering and downright baffling the prose were.
I think the book suffers from a few flaws, but above all, the protagonist feels uninteresting and anonymous throughout the book, making it difficult to engage in her plight or feel anything for her at all beyond a dull pity. I think a lot of this is down to it being written in the third person, whereas a first person account of the events would have given us a bit more insight. The detachment I felt from the main characters made Katherina's determination to stay with Hans despite him seeming awful with no redeeming characteristics and her living in another city and having a present support system (who knew about how fucked up Hans was???) even more baffling.
Another issue is the sheer span of time the book covers (seemingly 5 or so years), and how poorly that was handled. The pacing was atrocious, with months passing within the span of a few lines despite other parts lingering on micro moments within a day.
It wasn't all bad, though, I thought the world building of East Germany was really successful and made me wish the storytelling was done better.
Kairos has been lauded with accolades, including the International Booker prize, and was even gushed upon by the shopkeeper who was checking the book out when I bought it. Naturally, I was very excited to get into it and expecting to be blown away. Unfortunately, I was almost immediately disappointed by how dense, meandering and downright baffling the prose were.
I think the book suffers from a few flaws, but above all, the protagonist feels uninteresting and anonymous throughout the book, making it difficult to engage in her plight or feel anything for her at all beyond a dull pity. I think a lot of this is down to it being written in the third person, whereas a first person account of the events would have given us a bit more insight. The detachment I felt from the main characters made Katherina's determination to stay with Hans despite him seeming awful with no redeeming characteristics and her living in another city and having a present support system (who knew about how fucked up Hans was???) even more baffling.
Another issue is the sheer span of time the book covers (seemingly 5 or so years), and how poorly that was handled. The pacing was atrocious, with months passing within the span of a few lines despite other parts lingering on micro moments within a day.
It wasn't all bad, though, I thought the world building of East Germany was really successful and made me wish the storytelling was done better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Gaslighting
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Beautiful writing style but a very hard read - deserving of the international booker prize nonetheless. However, for reading this you definitely need to understand the context of setting and time - the impending fall of the GDR. Even as a GDR/German language nerd, a lot of the references to the 80s, classics, music, academia etc went over my head. I wish I could have connected more to the book but this isn’t the fault of the book, apart from some of the niche and perhaps inaccessible cultural references.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Excellent! Social criticism at its best. Took off 0.5 stars because the language and scenes are quite crude and violent at times, and I'm getting increasingly sensitive to that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship
Moderate: Sexual content, Police brutality, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail