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Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, War
Minor: Abortion, Pregnancy
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.
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
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship
Moderate: Sexual content, Police brutality, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Infidelity
Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual content, Toxic relationship
Minor: Death, Alcohol