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A review by selfmythologies
Goldstein by Volker Kutscher
4.0
this is definitely the best book in the series so far. miles better than the second; and while the first has a special place in my heart, it is mostly because of what the TV series made out of it. Comparing just the two novels....yeah, Goldstein takes the cake.
Right from the beginning, this book takes up what has always been the strength of this series: Depicting different milieus at a highly conflicted time in German history, and showing the connections between them in a suspenseful but also politically and culturally relevant crime case.
This book does that with the help of two excellent central characters: Abraham Goldstein, titular character and Jewish gangster from New York, and Alexandra Reinhold, young girl and small-time criminal living on the street. Both of them could have very easily been stereotypes, but the more the story goes on, the more detailed and human the characters become.
Alex's chapters depict the harsh reality of living in poverty as a young woman, including the constant threat of sexual violence. When people like Charly and Rath interact with her, in their roles as representatives of the law and the police respectively, there is a huge mistrust and fear on her side - scepticism that these people could possibly understand her situation or protect her. Such an interesting, and realistic dynamic.
And Goldstein has a very complex relationship with Jewish faith and culture, which becomes even more complex when encountering the ever-present antisemitism in Berlin of 1931. He doesn't identify with the strict religiousness of his father and other members of his family, and even kind of disdains it; but he obviously stills feels a loyalty to the Jewish community, and a sort of moral obligation to protect individual Jewish people when they're in danger. It's all very well written and nuanced.
At the beginning, it's very unclear how these two characters and their worlds could have anything to do with each other; but they all play their part in a larger story of organized crime, and police corruption. I loved that the Big Baddies at the end were police officers. I mean, you could kind of figure out the general idea from the beginning, but it was still very well done and engaging.
The plot is also quite fast-paced - a lot of stuff happens! There are a lot of murders in this book, pretty much every 50 pages one happens, and the story becomes more tangled and complex with every new victim, because there seem to be no similarities at first sight!
Charly also plays a larger and more active role in this book, rather than just being Rath's lover, which I tremendously enjoyed. But it's not just her being involved in the plot that I like; mostly it's that she gets to have her own moral conflict (regarding Alex). SO often that's where 'strong female characters' get stuck; even if they do get a lot of 'screentime', they often just do things perfectly and there is no real internal conflict. That's not the kind of female character I enjoy reading about. So the fact that this time it's Charly and not Rath who walks on the edge of legality in this book - extremely nice.
One thing though, that really dragged this otherwise great book down for me - Gereon and Charly's relationship? Yeah. Ugh. Still ugh. Rath is just an asshole to her. There is literally no other way to interpret his actions. He's a jealous, hypocritical, belittling jerk. There is nothing wrong with showing complicated relationships, but I feel like this book depicts Gereon and Charly's fights as being the fault of both sides, and that is just so absolutely not the case. Charly just wants to be taken seriously by him, and he refuses to stand up for her or believe her, time and time again. Honestly I complectely understood why she was done with him all the time.
He does apologize in the end and seems to be serious, but ....tbh that doesn't make up for all the tomfoolery he pulls here. Get yourself together, Gereon.
Otherwise though.....yeah, this book is quite excellent. The plot is very well constructed, the political situations plays into all aspects of the story. I feel like the main theme of this story is the crisis of state insitutions - the police and the law - to hold society together and to create justice. That's what connects Goldstein and Alex thematically: They're both criminals who don't believe in the state's ability to secure that justice. And that's what's at the core of the 'bad guys' ideology as well. And of course, this theme perfectly fits into the historical setting - democratic institutions failing is literally the summary of early 1930s Germany on a macro level.
Also, this book has a fantastic ending chapter; even though the case has been solved, there is so much emotional unease on these few pages - first Rath and Charly's goodbyes, which are kind of disillusioning for him, and then the whole book ends with SA troops marching through the streets and Rath feeling like reality is becoming unhinged a little bit more every day. It's an extremely somber, uncomfortable mood to end on, but extremely well done the way it connects the personal with the political.
very strong 4 stars! might upgrade to a 5 depending on how I feel about this in the context of the next books
Right from the beginning, this book takes up what has always been the strength of this series: Depicting different milieus at a highly conflicted time in German history, and showing the connections between them in a suspenseful but also politically and culturally relevant crime case.
This book does that with the help of two excellent central characters: Abraham Goldstein, titular character and Jewish gangster from New York, and Alexandra Reinhold, young girl and small-time criminal living on the street. Both of them could have very easily been stereotypes, but the more the story goes on, the more detailed and human the characters become.
Alex's chapters depict the harsh reality of living in poverty as a young woman, including the constant threat of sexual violence. When people like Charly and Rath interact with her, in their roles as representatives of the law and the police respectively, there is a huge mistrust and fear on her side - scepticism that these people could possibly understand her situation or protect her. Such an interesting, and realistic dynamic.
And Goldstein has a very complex relationship with Jewish faith and culture, which becomes even more complex when encountering the ever-present antisemitism in Berlin of 1931. He doesn't identify with the strict religiousness of his father and other members of his family, and even kind of disdains it; but he obviously stills feels a loyalty to the Jewish community, and a sort of moral obligation to protect individual Jewish people when they're in danger. It's all very well written and nuanced.
At the beginning, it's very unclear how these two characters and their worlds could have anything to do with each other; but they all play their part in a larger story of organized crime, and police corruption. I loved
The plot is also quite fast-paced - a lot of stuff happens! There are a lot of murders in this book, pretty much every 50 pages one happens, and the story becomes more tangled and complex with every new victim, because there seem to be no similarities at first sight!
Charly also plays a larger and more active role in this book, rather than just being Rath's lover, which I tremendously enjoyed. But it's not just her being involved in the plot that I like; mostly it's that she gets to have her own moral conflict (regarding Alex). SO often that's where 'strong female characters' get stuck; even if they do get a lot of 'screentime', they often just do things perfectly and there is no real internal conflict. That's not the kind of female character I enjoy reading about. So the fact that this time it's Charly and not Rath who walks on the edge of legality in this book - extremely nice.
One thing though, that really dragged this otherwise great book down for me - Gereon and Charly's relationship? Yeah. Ugh. Still ugh. Rath is just an asshole to her. There is literally no other way to interpret his actions. He's a jealous, hypocritical, belittling jerk. There is nothing wrong with showing complicated relationships, but I feel like this book depicts Gereon and Charly's fights as being the fault of both sides, and that is just so absolutely not the case. Charly just wants to be taken seriously by him, and he refuses to stand up for her or believe her, time and time again. Honestly I complectely understood why she was done with him all the time.
He does apologize in the end and seems to be serious, but ....tbh that doesn't make up for all the tomfoolery he pulls here. Get yourself together, Gereon.
Otherwise though.....yeah, this book is quite excellent. The plot is very well constructed, the political situations plays into all aspects of the story. I feel like the main theme of this story is the crisis of state insitutions - the police and the law - to hold society together and to create justice. That's what connects Goldstein and Alex thematically: They're both criminals who don't believe in the state's ability to secure that justice. And that's what's at the core of the 'bad guys' ideology as well. And of course, this theme perfectly fits into the historical setting - democratic institutions failing is literally the summary of early 1930s Germany on a macro level.
Also, this book has a fantastic ending chapter; even though the case has been solved, there is so much emotional unease on these few pages - first Rath and Charly's goodbyes, which are kind of disillusioning for him, and then the whole book ends with SA troops marching through the streets and Rath feeling like reality is becoming unhinged a little bit more every day. It's an extremely somber, uncomfortable mood to end on, but extremely well done the way it connects the personal with the political.
very strong 4 stars! might upgrade to a 5 depending on how I feel about this in the context of the next books