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geoffry's review against another edition
3.0
Pickney neemt je aan de hand van de zwarte, gay Amerikaan Jed mee op sleeptouw door West-Berlijn in de late jaren '80. Deze smeltkroes van culturen op slechts enkele vierkante kilometers is een enorm boeiende setting, maar wordt helaas te weinig benut. Wat we wel in overvloed krijgen is een aanmodderend verhaal van een Amerikaanse expat die zich laat definiëren door (het gebrek aan) de relaties die hij onderhoudt. Een gemiste kans.
misterintensity's review against another edition
4.0
Newly sober Jed, a gay African American man from Chicago, decides to make a go at living in West Berlin in the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He always saw West Berlin as the place where he could fully be himself, however he quickly realizes that he has to learn to live without the fog of alcohol and drugs. Black Deutschland is not so much about recovery as it is a book that explores the nature of identity, belonging, and family. Although relatively short, author Darryl Pinckney packs a lot into the novel. As we look at the lives of Jed, his cousin Cello, and their family and coworkers, readers are confronted with the lies these characters tell themselves in order to function. The time and location shifts could be jarring at times as we switch from different periods of the characters' lives but it adds to the tapestry of Pickney's tale.
davidup_15's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
sandraandthecity's review against another edition
2.0
I was so excited to read this but it just tanked for me. It tried too hard to be some epic and lyrical avant garde book. It had me for some time and then lost me. It meandered and I couldn't like or dislike Jed, the protagonist. I felt blah about him, disinterested and thus, disinterested with his verbose story. I was hoping do so much more and this was just a boring let down. I can't recommend it.
mattnixon's review against another edition
2.0
As Rome is the Eternal City, Black Deutschland, an exploration of race, identity and expectations in mid-80’s West Berlin, is the Eternal Novel. Weighing in at fewer than 300 pages, Darryl Pinkney’s story of a gay, African American ex-pat in West Berlin looking to live the “Isherwood promises” of the city, was one of the more laborious and disjointed reads I’ve ever experienced. I’d get lost—not in a good way—in every third sentence. Pronouns were used without antecedents. Sentences were sometimes jammed together in positively Moroccan bazaar fashion: crowded, clamorous, and sequenced in an ancient or alien logic. I did more re-reading—not in a good way—than any book I can recall.
And yet…yet. Pinkney chocks Black Deutschland with so many hilarious, heartbreaking, trenchant and sharp-eyed observations about race in America and abroad, that it’s impossible to not admire and enjoy aspects of the novel. The scenes of Jed, Deutschland’s protagonist, with his upper middle class family in Chicago flow far more coherently than the portions abroad and better hit (what I believe to be) the mark for his wryly-observed, searching, self-critical and somewhat bitchy voice. I get what Pinkney is going for (it seems) with the more disjointed, illogical and distanced narrative in the West Berlin scenes (where Jed is uncomfortable and somewhat at sea). This understanding of the device doesn’t make the reading experience any less exhausting.
I wouldn’t not recommend Black Deutschland; there’s so much here that’s well done. There’s also so much that’s, to me, overdone. In this case, I’ll cop to the possibility of user error without reservation.
For me, I’ll most fondly look back on the ending of Black Deutschland for it being the end of my reading Black Deutschland.
And yet…yet. Pinkney chocks Black Deutschland with so many hilarious, heartbreaking, trenchant and sharp-eyed observations about race in America and abroad, that it’s impossible to not admire and enjoy aspects of the novel. The scenes of Jed, Deutschland’s protagonist, with his upper middle class family in Chicago flow far more coherently than the portions abroad and better hit (what I believe to be) the mark for his wryly-observed, searching, self-critical and somewhat bitchy voice. I get what Pinkney is going for (it seems) with the more disjointed, illogical and distanced narrative in the West Berlin scenes (where Jed is uncomfortable and somewhat at sea). This understanding of the device doesn’t make the reading experience any less exhausting.
I wouldn’t not recommend Black Deutschland; there’s so much here that’s well done. There’s also so much that’s, to me, overdone. In this case, I’ll cop to the possibility of user error without reservation.
For me, I’ll most fondly look back on the ending of Black Deutschland for it being the end of my reading Black Deutschland.
kiramke's review against another edition
3.0
I felt a bit like I got tricked into reading a memoir. But Berlin is entrancing, and the riskier / less linear parts of the narration are satisfying enough to make up for the rest of the style. To be clear: it's very well written and an engaging character and story, I just balk at memoir styling.
pollincowbell's review against another edition
4.0
Pinckney's "Black Deutschland" is an intriguing cross-section of race, place, and space set in West Berlin of the 1980s. It explores themes from architecture, racism, sexuality, and isolation. The book is loosely modeled off of Isherwood's "The Berlin Stories". At times, the reader must have background with German History, Black American History, and various other subjects. Although the backtracking and research may dissuade some, I found it almost to function as a "suggested reading list". To me, the book captures what it feels like to be caught between spaces, where you've removed yourself from one but aren't fully accepted or integrated into the other.
journeyb's review against another edition
1.0
i was supposed to read this for a class but i couldn't even finish it
kpeinovich's review against another edition
5.0
The writing is beautiful but I don't think I'm smart enough to understand this book.