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nickrobocop's review
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
catrad's review
2.0
Maybe I’m not cut out for literary fiction. I found this entire book confusing and hard to follow, and even now I’ve finished it I still don’t know what was going on, or understand any of the plot.
Probably doesn’t help that I read the first half of the book four months ago, but I guess it speaks volumes that the only thing that made me pick it back up to finish it was the fact it’s still on my goodreads ‘currently reading’ list, and I wanted to get shot of it. Not one for me I’m afraid.
Probably doesn’t help that I read the first half of the book four months ago, but I guess it speaks volumes that the only thing that made me pick it back up to finish it was the fact it’s still on my goodreads ‘currently reading’ list, and I wanted to get shot of it. Not one for me I’m afraid.
1librarianspath's review
3.0
Despite being a novella, Dance by the Canal feels much longer. The storyline is deliberately disjointed and dark, stretching between Gabrielle’s childhood in 1960’s Germany and her adult life as a homeless woman. It feels like it is difficult to separate what she consider to be true events from potential delusions and confusion.
vgk's review
1.0
I was pretty tired when I read this book, so maybe that was the problem, but I sincerely have no idea what it was about. I couldn't tell what was real and what was imagined, I completely lost sight of the plot and ended up with no idea at all as to who the narrator really was. I would have stopped reading it had it not been so short.
noide127's review
2.0
The prose is very interesting, however, I couldn't connect with Gabriela, which is a shame, since she is the main character and narrator of the story. Hensel manages to include in very subtle manners references and critiques to both East and West Germany, the treatment of homeless people, classism, and gender roles. However, Gabriela doesn't feel like a person (or a well-rounded character), she feels more like a tool that Hensel uses to convey all of these messages, which made it hard for me to actually care for her and feel for her throughout the book (with some exceptions), and which resulted in the compelling part of the book all the social denounce.
sowerberry's review
2.0
I found this book pretty difficult to follow - but enjoyed the concept of it, it's just not really *there* for me.
queenoftoads's review
dark
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
rogerb's review
3.0
This was my 3rd Peirene book.
I didn't like it anything like as much as the first 2. maybe it got lost in translation but I found the story unconvincing and I didn't really buy any of the characters. Perhaps if I had lived in the DDR it would chime much more, and maybe that's it - fiction to emerge from the German reunification is important to exist, but perhaps tough for British readers properly to get.
I liked the way she dismisses the Big Night in a couple of pages, and she is certainly an accomplished writer. I think the fault lies with me over this one.
I didn't like it anything like as much as the first 2. maybe it got lost in translation but I found the story unconvincing and I didn't really buy any of the characters. Perhaps if I had lived in the DDR it would chime much more, and maybe that's it - fiction to emerge from the German reunification is important to exist, but perhaps tough for British readers properly to get.
I liked the way she dismisses the Big Night in a couple of pages, and she is certainly an accomplished writer. I think the fault lies with me over this one.
jackielaw's review
4.0
Dance by the Canal, by Kerstin Hensel (translated by Jen Calleja), tells the story of Gabriela von Haßlau, the only child of the Chief Medical Officer at the surgical clinic in Leibnitz, and his wife, Christiane. Gabriela’s father, Ernst, is proud to descend from noble Anhaltinian stock. Christiane’s family he prefers to forget. In communist East Germany drawing attention to bourgeois standing could be regarded as dangerous.
When the tale opens Gabriela is living under a bridge by the canal, writing the story of her life on pilfered scraps of paper. She remembers back to when she was five years old and expected to learn to play the violin. Although unable to master the instrument her teacher had a lasting impact, one her father would prefer she forget. Ernst has high hopes for his daughter which she struggles to comply with let alone attain.
Gabriela’s schooling in particular proves a disappointment to Ernst. The girl’s chosen friend, Katka, is quickly banned as undesirable company for his daughter leading to undercover assignations lasting many years. The school encourages pupils to revere the state. When Ernst insists that his child should not join the sanctioned youth organisatons he ensures she is set further apart from her peers.
The timeline moves between Gabriela’s homeless experiences and those of her childhood, eventually explaining how the daughter of a once respected doctor ends up living under a bridge. The prose is dreamlike in places as Gabriela navigates her memories whilst trying to survive the increasing harshness of the streets.
The story is told in jigsaw pieces which the reader must fit together, the picture emerging being more impressionist than linearly complete. Gabriela’s pain and confusion as she tries to find a place in the life assigned her shine through the cracks, despite her emotional distance in the telling.
This is a laconic yet vivid account of societal failure in a communist state. Gabriela, like her story, resist further classification
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Peirene Press.
When the tale opens Gabriela is living under a bridge by the canal, writing the story of her life on pilfered scraps of paper. She remembers back to when she was five years old and expected to learn to play the violin. Although unable to master the instrument her teacher had a lasting impact, one her father would prefer she forget. Ernst has high hopes for his daughter which she struggles to comply with let alone attain.
Gabriela’s schooling in particular proves a disappointment to Ernst. The girl’s chosen friend, Katka, is quickly banned as undesirable company for his daughter leading to undercover assignations lasting many years. The school encourages pupils to revere the state. When Ernst insists that his child should not join the sanctioned youth organisatons he ensures she is set further apart from her peers.
The timeline moves between Gabriela’s homeless experiences and those of her childhood, eventually explaining how the daughter of a once respected doctor ends up living under a bridge. The prose is dreamlike in places as Gabriela navigates her memories whilst trying to survive the increasing harshness of the streets.
The story is told in jigsaw pieces which the reader must fit together, the picture emerging being more impressionist than linearly complete. Gabriela’s pain and confusion as she tries to find a place in the life assigned her shine through the cracks, despite her emotional distance in the telling.
This is a laconic yet vivid account of societal failure in a communist state. Gabriela, like her story, resist further classification
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Peirene Press.
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