This is honestly one of the most phenomenal books I've ever read. His use of montage is amazing. Why don't I see it being discussed more?
Probably because you have had shit taste your entire life and just discovered it?
>>25511632Man, I've got to read this. I keep on forgetting this book exists and then I see someone talk about it. To be entirely honest, I don't even know what it's about, but I know Vollmann really likes it
>>25511637I've done entire courses on modernism and have never heard him mentioned.
Man, Germans used to write proper novels before WW2. It’s so weird why they don’t do that any more. Sebald literally needed to leave to UK to have a career. And foreign novels and stories translated to German sell just fine. German publishers are just being weird is my guess. Perhaps there’s some kind of conspiracy?
The only time I've ever seen this book mentioned in the wild is in one of the Sniper Elite games where when you scan one of the NPCs it says that Alexanderplatz is his favorite book before you either cut open his throat or hollow out his skull with a subsonic bullet. Must be a nazi book.
>I’ve done entire coursesStopped reading right there. Explains so much.
>>25511647There's Nazis in it, but it's written and set in Berlin in 1929. The main character attends a few Nazi and Commie rallies. But it was suppressed by the Third Reich.
>>25511641Main character gets out of jail and then becomes a pimp in Berlin in the 20s.
>Weimar Germany >Becomes a pimpSooo... he pimps out kids? No wonder you like this book OP, you fucking SICKFUCK.
>>25511637What oddly specific projection
>>25511632The original translation took extreme liberty with the dialogue and tales of Weimar is a pretty niche interest. You might like Going to the Dogs though since it's another Weimar era panorama style novel. It's jokes can range from mild like how reporters would literally make stories up to fill pages to bleak like how one guy couldn't afford his wife anymore and how it doesn't matter what qualifications you have since the money is trash, to dark humor about suicide. There are also fights between political agitators like in BA but it's a chronicle right before the fall. The motifs would likely resonate well.
>>25511802It's mentioned often enough. Pops up on here from time to time. It's not oddly specific for someone to feel a classic is obscure because they only just started looking for it, it happens all the time.
>>25511902I have never seen it posted about here before.
I loved it so much I immediately watched the Fassbinder miniseries which was DOGSHIT. It actually made the book worse for me in retrospect.
>>25511912Fassbinder's version is kino. Filtered. Get better taste.
>>25511912What's so bad about the Fassbinder series? I was planning on watching it after finishing it.
>>25511632You don't see it discussed more because Joyce beat him to the punch with the book's concept. Plus, this book is even more Jewish, somehow, than Ulysses.
>>25512065Go back to your shitty "literary fiction" thread you fucking faggot.
Great book. Michael Hoffmann’s translation of this is frankly one of the greatest achievements in English writing in the 21st century. Surprisingly I found it rather easy to follow for all the convoluted modernist devices, the book is quite focused and plot driven. The Narrator really holds it all together. >“He who has kissed by the beautiful sea, while the billows listened and rippled with mirth, knows what life's greatest charm can be, he has whispered love upon this earth.”
>>25511912It was great until the last episode which was just arthouse slop.
>>25512518I found the plot in the first half of the book took a back seat. Don't get me wrong, I loved the multiple deviations in the first half though.
>>25511632He is literally me
Half the book reads like a schizo 4chan post with all the "THE BBK" shit
>>25512518Max Lawton said the translation is dogshit and he’s hoping to provide a translation in the future
>>25513308>Lawton: "Two of the biggest inspirations for my translation of GUIGNOL’S BAND: Michael Hofmann’s brilliant translation of BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (also an @nyrbclassics book) and TRAINSPOTTING (lol)" Lying piece of shit
>>25511632It's great and Hoffman is based
>>25511645>Perhaps there’s some kind of conspiracy?If you call the nazis killing or driving out all the writer a conspiracy sure.
>>25513740>it was da naziiiiis!
>>25511632>Why don't I see it being discussed more?>>25515025>Alfred Döblin – Berlin Alexanderplatz
>>25513993Holocausting ze jews was unironically a major braindrain for germany.
>>25515700they seem to have very well in the post-war, other than now, with the whole third world mass-immigration sabotage, anti-nuclear greenie retardation
One of my favorite books. For more like this I recommend:Wolfgang Koeppen - Pigeons on the GrassHans Henny Jahnn - The Ship but even moreso Perrudja if it ever gets translated.Arno Schmidt - Nobodaddy's ChildrenAlso Döblin's great first novel The Three Leaps of Wang-Lun has an english translation in print.
>>25516133>Hans Henny Jahnn - The Ship>Arno Schmidt - Nobodaddy's Childrenthese are both excellent, particularly schmidt
