Berlin Alexanderplatz: A Classic Novel from the New York Review Books Collection

ED: The book fell apart and is printed back to front

United Kingdom on Jun 24, 2023

Neasa MacErlean: This is a dark cousin of James Joyce's 'Ulysses', both published in the 1920s, both using some stream of consciousness, both referring to Telemachus (and others from Greek mythology) and both notoriously hard to follow unless the reader uses a guide as well. This is a nightmare, compared to Ulysses. It does not give away much to say that this traces the fall of a Berlin Everyman, newspaper-seller Franz Biberkopf. A poor, uneducated man like him without much education was not fully in control of his destiny in Weimar Germany as hyperinflation ruined people's lives. The narrator uses different voices, and one is the voice of fate which tells us beforehand how Franz will fall. Like Hans Fallada's "Wolf among Wolves", this is a shocking book of its time, tracing the rise of the violent Nazis and the damning of German society and the individuals within it. I had the advantage of knowing the area around Alexander Platz well, sometimes walking up Prenzlauer Allee while reading it. That made it more interesting. It would be very hard for someone to come to this book cold. I have not seen the films but imagine that it could be a far more engaging as a film.

United Kingdom on Dec 23, 2022

Munjoy Mitch: but includes a great deal of English slang that I think most American readers will not understand. Contains some limited, but brutal, violence.

United States on Dec 15, 2022

Regis: This is a very interesting book: for its time and beyond, innovative, cacophonous, controversial, violent and cruel, sometimes lyrical and erudite, sometimes rough and vulgar--really difficult to believe it was written in 1929. The fluid and convolluted stream of consciousness blended with a myriad of other sources (mass propaganda, weather forecasts, local news items and scandalous newspapers, popular songs, and a lot of street noise) seem to make it a pair to Joyce's Ulysses, but soon BA moves underground to the life of street gangs in Berlin, with their 'jobs' and crude violence, especially against women (something that to me was rather shocking) and an ocean sets the two novels apart.
So while many compare BA with Joyce's U and there are good stylistic reasons for that, thematically U seems extremely naive compared with BA, one novel written by a theoretical scholar (conscious about but insulated from the troubles of the real world) and another by a street artist (who has to fight everyday to buy her next meal). Almost ten years set apart the publication of U (1920) and BA (1929), one in Paris (having been written for the most part in peaceful Zurich, Trieste), the other in...

United States on May 09, 2022

M. Morrison: I read this on Kindle and was well pleased with how it appeared there. I chose to read it because of my interest in Berlin as a city and its history. It is set in the Mitte district, the area I general stay in when visiting; the street names mentioned still exist which gives the novel an air of authenticity for me. The novel is straightforward to read and moves along with pace. I probably read it too quickly as I wanted to engage with the story and for many readers that will suffice - but there are multiple layers and it requires to be re-read. At the end of the book the translator has placed an "afterword" - I came upon it when I finished the novel - I think it would be helpful to read it before embarking on the story - but others may think differently. And so, if like me you have an interest in Berlin, the Weimar Republic, Brecht, Weill, or even the television production "Babylon Berlin", this novel is probably a "must read" for you.

United Kingdom on Apr 02, 2021

Tomo of Qaf: As Joyce's Ulysses is the great novel of Dublin, this, assuredly, is the great novel of Berlin. Michael Hoffmann as translater is fully equal to the task .. I read it and then I read it again. It continues to startle.

Canada on Dec 25, 2020

jeff wade: If you recognize the quote from Hesse's 'Steppenwolf' that I borrowed for the title of my review, you are welcome here. But do not think it will be as easy as the Hesse. This is a bizarre weird book that goes off on tangents from Doblin's versions of Bible stories, classic mythology & even advertisements. It is an oddly Christ or Buddha-like journey of degradation and suffering that finally leads to enlightenment.
It is also more truly Modern than Joyce (who has certain similarities but I hate for his intentional obscurity & unlikable characters) or any others of the Modernism movement. It is written in deep slang to the point of being a little hard to figure out at first even in translation. It is all over the place and doesn't try to keep to a linear narrative nor to use 'Literary' language. Even my own writing ('Tales from the ER and Other Places, or Always Eat the Lamb Brains!' -sorry for the plug, but there is a point), which I wrote before I encountered 'B. Alexanderplatz', can be interpreted as indirectly owing a debt to this book. Of all the Modern novels, this one seems to have anticipated &/or moved Literature to where it is today more than anything...

United States on Dec 18, 2020

Millenial Reader: It is very hard to tell, as a native English speaker, who is talking and when throughout this book. The translator also uses very outdated words and turns of phrase that ultimately make reading this book less than pleasant. One could argue that you should just render the book as quickly and literally as possible, but if the point is to bring this work to an English speaking audience, well, then I would say, to hell with that logic, and insert some artistic license that allows the reader to follow the dialogue. It also seems to be printed as cheaply as possible, not with love and care like a penguin novel, etc. I regret purchasing it and I regret the "rave" reviews of this translation, it just seemed to be churned out as quickly as possible.

Canada on Apr 22, 2020

Tom Quinn: I suppose translations are a necessary evil. I can read novels in French Spanish and Italian but realised finally my very basic German would not allow me to read this classic novel in its own language. You are always left wondering... I found the languagse of the translation unlike anything I have read in English, and more readily associated it with exaggerated British sit-coms or carry-on films... Words like "geezer" "bint" "eejit" occur and reoccur as the style becomes increasingly odd, jangly (some would say jazzy), cartoonish, and oblique. You have to trust the Translator, but I found the "translation" the most difficult obstacle to overcome reading Berlin Alexanderplatz, certainly to begin with.

Translation aside this is truly an extraordinary novel which will leave no one indifferent. Döblin is compared to Joyce, but I think this is only fair in as much as Ulysses is Dublin, and Berlin Alexanderplatz is Berlin... Joyce is benevolent whereas Doblin's vision is of a gritty seedy lowlife criminal underbelly, where existence itself is captured in all its pitiless savage reality. Perhaps because of the biblical intrusions I was reminded more of Don Passos' Manhattan...

United States on Feb 19, 2019