Reviews

Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin

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

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.

cbk96's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

heliogabalous_vrz's review against another edition

4.0

One of the books that's taken me the longest to read and that I often got sick of even though I never thought it was bad or boring. The language is strange in particular the constant shifting of first and third person narration and often reduced my ability to read more than 10-15 pages at a time. Unlike the translator and the few other people I know who have read this book the strange cosmological elements were my favourite aspects, Franz was a really good character and so were those who surrounded him, but the story really came together for me in the final 2 chapters where the final "hammer blow" is dealt to Franz and at the climax meets with death in the asylum.

Really really worth fighting through to finish as it is really fantastic, also this book is one best devoured and not read slowly.

janichkokov's review

4.0

Surrealistic and heartbreaking.

dadoodoflow's review

dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A jazzy bop of post-war Modernist shuffle steps. If you laugh at Ioyce & Beckett, you’ll love this. 

jonasvogler's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

leserdtke's review against another edition

4.0

Schullektüre- und jeder weiß, wie das ist mit schulischer Pflichtlektüre: Schwierig! Hat mich schwer beeindruckt und steht bis heute in meinem Regal (und ist heute aktueller denn je)

hannahcmwright's review against another edition

Couldn't understand what was happening and wasn't enjoying it.

emilyberrios's review

Rough. Too rough. I keep procrastinating. Main male lead is an ex-con who likely shouldn't have been released.