Book #07 - Frische Goldjungs
Book #07 - Frische Goldjungs
Name of the Book (Name of the Series): Frische Goldjungs (German)
Name of the Author: (published by) Wladimir Kaminer
Genre: Short Stories, Humor, Slice of Life
Pages: 190
Date: 21.10.2012 - 23.10.2012
Short description: (The book is published and written in German, and has not been translated, The title would be something like “Fresh Golden Boys”) This book is a collection of various short stories by mostly unknown German authors. All of them have about 20 pages to fill with short stories and all of them share a humorous undertone. Most of the stories focus on living in Berlin before or after the fall of the Berlin Wall, describe their experience with it. Some of them deal with it with a bit of surrealism, some write very ironic about it, most of them tell amusing stories, and a few stories don’t relate to the Berlin Wall at all ;)
Own Statement: The first thing you note about the book is, that it has four prefaces. One of the authors mentioned, that he is dissatisfied with what the other authors of the book did. One accuses the other of being his opposite and never having had intercourse before, to whom another author answers with his preface and firmly states that the had indeed had intercourse. If you’re not grinning by the end of those four prefaces, you’ve done something wrong or you don’t like the humour and self irony of the authors. Be prepared, because this is a very plain hint of what awaits you in the book: Lot’s of humour. I’d say this book is worth reading. It’s short, and it’s fun. It doesn’t try to go with the consensual opinion how liberating the fall of the Wall has been, it doesn’t try to teach you something about it, it doesn’t try to portrait the east as the victim nor does it make the east a glorious place. The books seems to be very authentic, and with side stories about the authors childhood or experiences in writing, it gives you the feeling of sitting in a room with the authors, drinking a cup of coffee, while they tell you casually how their lives have been so far, with a wink here and there. That’s something I liked about it, though I’m not too fond of first person narrators. I’ll look up some of the authors (who have all been unknown to me before), who are Ahne, Jochen Schmidt, Jakob Hein, Bov Bjerg, Andreas Gläser, Robert Naumann, Falko Henning, Wladimir Kaminer, Andreas Krenzke (alias Spider), Tobias Herre (alias Tube). The book and probably be read in one sitting, the language is easy, the stories are all rather short.
Next to review: #08 God of Small things, #09 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow