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_heloiseb's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
jdappa's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
dukegregory's review against another edition
4.0
4.5
I loved reading this with my mom. She was just as bemused as I was at times and found so much of the stream of consciousness so strange and found the novel to be boring, funny, graphic, strange, strangely plotted, etc., an entire smorgasbord of reactions, which I can say I share in. I think to call this the "German Ulysses" is to inherently make this novel derivative of Joyce's work. The fact that this was a runaway bestseller, is still frequently taught in German schools, and is now being made into its third film adaptation shows its ability to employ wildly playful references and techniques without making it an overtly pretentious exercise for the academics with nothing better to do than decide every line that Joyce spits onto the page. This is genuinely fun throughout in its chaos. It feels like a fever dream of crime, sex, and gross humanity. It's utterly humanistic at times and at others has the ravaging nature of a Flannery O'Connor story. This is a socialist novel that has a slaughterhouse scene that challenges Upton Sinclair to prove that Döblin can effectively write even more graphic depictions of violence, that discusses the reality of life after prison, that challenges the nonsense of masculinity and the subjugation of women, that forces its protagonist to metamorphose under the most extreme violence, both physical and emotional, and it thrushes forward at an insane tempo. I need to watch the Rainer Werner Fassbinder miniseries soon, because this is just remarkably its own thing. The novel is truly idiosyncratic. I'll need to pick up some more Döblin in the future. Probably in German since I don't know about the availability of the rest of his bibliography in English. Sad. He's clearly a talent.
I loved reading this with my mom. She was just as bemused as I was at times and found so much of the stream of consciousness so strange and found the novel to be boring, funny, graphic, strange, strangely plotted, etc., an entire smorgasbord of reactions, which I can say I share in. I think to call this the "German Ulysses" is to inherently make this novel derivative of Joyce's work. The fact that this was a runaway bestseller, is still frequently taught in German schools, and is now being made into its third film adaptation shows its ability to employ wildly playful references and techniques without making it an overtly pretentious exercise for the academics with nothing better to do than decide every line that Joyce spits onto the page. This is genuinely fun throughout in its chaos. It feels like a fever dream of crime, sex, and gross humanity. It's utterly humanistic at times and at others has the ravaging nature of a Flannery O'Connor story. This is a socialist novel that has a slaughterhouse scene that challenges Upton Sinclair to prove that Döblin can effectively write even more graphic depictions of violence, that discusses the reality of life after prison, that challenges the nonsense of masculinity and the subjugation of women, that forces its protagonist to metamorphose under the most extreme violence, both physical and emotional, and it thrushes forward at an insane tempo. I need to watch the Rainer Werner Fassbinder miniseries soon, because this is just remarkably its own thing. The novel is truly idiosyncratic. I'll need to pick up some more Döblin in the future. Probably in German since I don't know about the availability of the rest of his bibliography in English. Sad. He's clearly a talent.
blueyorkie's review against another edition
5.0
Berlin Alexanderplatz is an echo of Hugo's novel Les Miserables. It is about redemption; the big city is always in the background here, Berlin replaces Paris, and the central character, Franz Biberkopf, is a kind of new Jean Valjean, a force of nature, a former prisoner trying to return in a row. But if Hugo sought, above all, to enlighten his reader through an apology for the divine, Alfred Döblin has fun making his hero ridiculous and pathetic. Franz is a big simpleton ready to swallow all the snakes, especially those of Reinhold, his "greatest friend." To see this poor idiot tricking at page length is a real pain for the reader.
Finally, one cannot mention Berlin Alexanderplatz without mentioning the style of Döblin. This fiery, virulent, widespread, and cheeky style highlights the noises and sounds of Berlin and the bustle of its crowd.
Finally, one cannot mention Berlin Alexanderplatz without mentioning the style of Döblin. This fiery, virulent, widespread, and cheeky style highlights the noises and sounds of Berlin and the bustle of its crowd.
infinimata's review against another edition
5.0
Knock off a star or two if you hate Joycean streams, but Döblin's book is the slyer, angrier, bitterer, more realistic cousin to "Ulysses". Dublin's fair city -- pfft, nothing doing. Berlin eats its young. It ate Franz Biberkopf and spat out a one-armed man who looks down and sees no bottom to hit when he falls. The city has teeth and so does the book. Let them rake over you. You'll bleed a little, but it'll be worth it.
mattbowes's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
lighthearted
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
blindferret's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.5
adrionmacaron's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
agnestyley's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
All the desire I had from reading Isherwood to have lived in Weimar Germany has swiftly evaporated. A chaotic and brutal novel (see exhibit a: 20 pages intensely describing the experience in slaughterhouses, with seemingly no relevance to the plot), but nevertheless a masterpiece (although now I remember the paragraph about describing how vegetables protect themselves from the cold sandwiched between a man searching for his girlfriend's murderer).
Felt a bit like Dostoyevsky in its inpatient but gorgeously compelling narration:
"Arise weak spirit, and get on your legs.
There are states of unconsciousness which amount to death in the living body. Franz Biberkopf, still unconscious, is put back into bed, he goes on lying there in the warm days and reaches this conclusion: I'm at death's door, I feel it, I'm going to croak. If you don't do something now Franz, something real, final, comprehensive, if you don't take a club in your hand, a sabre, and strike about you, if you don't run loose, no matter how, Franz, my little Franz, my little Biberkopf, then it's all up with you for certain, then you can have yourself measured for a coffin.
Groaning: I won't, and I won't, I won't croak, he looks at the room, the wall clock ticks, I'm still here, yes I'm still here, they want to get in on me, Schreiber almost shot me down, but that won't happen. Franz lifts his remaining arm: it shall not happen."
Beautiful, exquisitely constructed, poetic writing:
"There is objectivity in the air, there is objectivity in the air, there it is in the air, in the air, in the air. There is something idiotic in the air, there is something hypnotic in the air, it's in the air, it's in the air, and it won't get out of the air."
And nothing more fun than reading a book called Alexanderplatz IN Alexanderplatz itself earlier this week. But hoping there's less murder and prostitution and extortion when I live in Berlin.
Felt a bit like Dostoyevsky in its inpatient but gorgeously compelling narration:
"Arise weak spirit, and get on your legs.
There are states of unconsciousness which amount to death in the living body. Franz Biberkopf, still unconscious, is put back into bed, he goes on lying there in the warm days and reaches this conclusion: I'm at death's door, I feel it, I'm going to croak. If you don't do something now Franz, something real, final, comprehensive, if you don't take a club in your hand, a sabre, and strike about you, if you don't run loose, no matter how, Franz, my little Franz, my little Biberkopf, then it's all up with you for certain, then you can have yourself measured for a coffin.
Groaning: I won't, and I won't, I won't croak, he looks at the room, the wall clock ticks, I'm still here, yes I'm still here, they want to get in on me, Schreiber almost shot me down, but that won't happen. Franz lifts his remaining arm: it shall not happen."
Beautiful, exquisitely constructed, poetic writing:
"There is objectivity in the air, there is objectivity in the air, there it is in the air, in the air, in the air. There is something idiotic in the air, there is something hypnotic in the air, it's in the air, it's in the air, and it won't get out of the air."
And nothing more fun than reading a book called Alexanderplatz IN Alexanderplatz itself earlier this week. But hoping there's less murder and prostitution and extortion when I live in Berlin.