A Guide to Berlin / Gail Jones

A Guide to Berlin
by Gail Jones

other: literary?!

copyright 2015
partly read in August 2016

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

There's an old joke: "Pretentious !? Moi ?!" This book is a surprisingly enjoyable bit of literary pretention.

Nothing happens. There are no great characters, none even sympathetic. It's a series of deeply meaningless observations on life, people and things. Set in a significantly cold and miserable Berlin winter. (Yes, everything is... deeply significant.)

Pretty early on I guess, this is a rip-off of the Nabokov style. You know, Nabokov, the Russian-turned-American who wrote Lolita. I once tried to read Lolita. Boring.

So I turn to Wikipedia to read up on Nabokov. Oh, okay, he wrote a short story called, A Guide to Berlin. So the title of this book is a clarion call to literary pretenders.

It turns out that Nabakov's life was interesting... and difficult. I rate this book at six, the Wikipedia entry on Nabokov as, perhaps, eight. There's a lot more interest in Wikipedia than in this book.

I suspect that this book is written in the style of Nabokov. From what I have now read, Nabokov was big with words, light on plot. Have you noticed that, with people who speak English as their second language? A tendency to source their words from a dictionary rather than from common usage. It can be misinterpreted as clever. It reads as unnatural.

I can't find the text of Nabokov's story, only a plot summary. It's a series of observations on life, people and things in Berlin. So is this book.

So we have a series of observations -- and interpretations, often ridiculous. With nothing much happening. Apparently -- from the back cover blurb and from the very short chapter one -- there will be a death. I don't read that far.

I'm quite enjoying this book. It's ridiculous, it's pointless, it's -- perhaps -- a postgraduate demonstration of the author's ability to copy the style of a best-forgotten author. Yet it's easy to read. And the observations and interpretations are quite interesting.

It just seems to be going nowhere.

This book is another in the top ten for the Premier's Book Award. If it wins, I won't complain. But for me -- it's back to a book with some plot. And some interest.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Talk low, talk slow and don't say too much." … John Wayne