Berlin Alexanderplatz Readalong Week Four

I can’t quite believe I made it to the end of the book after such an unpromising start but I did. Marking it as read on Goodreads (for the English translation, at least) felt pretty satisfying.

“Chapters” 8/9

1. Reinhold is possibly the biggest villain in the story. Would you agree? Do you find his punishment satisfying? At one point.I was afraid that Reinhold might escape any justice but that administered by Franz’s friends, rather than the authorities, so I did like how he was brought in by the police, after all.He was one of the biggest villain’s in Franz’s story, for certain, but he certainly wasn’t alone in his villainy.

   But FRanz himself was his own worst enemy. And certainly no angel. He’d already served his time for murdering a girlfriend and had badly beaten another in this book.

2. The quote that returns most frequently in the last chapters – at least as far I could see – is taken from Ecclesiastes (There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven . . . ) How did you feel about this use? Did you find it effective? I found it an effective way of grounding the narrative and allowing me pause for thought but I’m not sure how much more effect it had on me. I don’t think I particularly enjoyed it being rolled out at certain intervals or the tone it invoked jarred with me a little.

3. Were you surprised by the ending? Yes, I was, although it felt as if was overshadowed by Mitzi’s exit from the story. I was still reeling from that storyline, but it was a surprise that the ending when it came wasn’t as bleak as I’d been led to expect.

4. Looking back, what did you like the most about the book and what did you like the least?I really enjoyed the scenes where Franz was moving around the city or people were talking; there was a real sense of energy and movement in those scenes.I loved the rhythm of the dialect and how it felt as if people’s emotions were very near the surface; conversation always felt fraught with danger and full of passionate fury and tightly-coiled aggression.

   I grew to enjoy the use of montage once I was more accustomed to it interrupting the narrative and seemingly taking us off at a tangent. It gave me a different view of life in Berlin for a certain section of society at this time, and how they felt about the political changes happening.

   I didn’t like the portrayal of women in this book one bit, especially how they were handed around, pimped out, battered and beaten, and shown such disregard.

5. Would you reread it and/ or are you glad you read Berlin Alexanderplatz? I was trying to read it in the original German and the English translation when I started off but soon found that time constraints made this difficult for me to keep up. I dropped the German version at about the halfway point and continued with the English translation to try and ensure I finished the reading in time and posted this last set of answers on the actual day we were supposed to.So… I intend to go back and pick up the original German version again next week. (Probably still relying on both the text and the audiobook, because that was so helpful to my understanding.) Does that count as a re-read? I think so!

   And yes, I am glad I’ve read it. I’d be interested in reading some commentary on it, both contemporaneous with its publication and up to the present time. I think that would be useful to my understanding and appreciation of the novel and preferably done prior to any re-read.

Thanks so much to Lizzy and Caroline for organising this readalong as part of #GermanLitMonth – your questions definitely helped direct my thoughts on the book and gave me a more focused reading of Berlin Alexanderplatz than I might have had on my own.