Liebe, Schmerz und das ganze verdammte Zeug. Vier Geschichten.

by Doris Dörrie

Four witty, bitter-sweet stories by talented young German film-writer whose film "Men" reached out beyond its obvious feminist audience to achieve great success in New York and London. Men and films, and the dreams that films embody, form the background to the stories.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, German Literature, Germany

175 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whatever the publishers were smoking when they approved the synopsis for this book needs to be sent over to my house! This book has absolutely no relevance to the summary provided online and on the back of the book. It is not a dark comedy, I didn't laugh once. It surely wasn't incredibly new & refreshing. I read the bible...these topics are old school.This book wasn't subtle feminism; in fact, most of the women came off as submissive, two-dimensional cardboard cut-outs. Note: It doesn't make you a feminist if you're "living out loud on your own damn terms" while hubby goes to work all day to pay for your dalliances so he can still get his medicine at night. That's what we femmes like to call "contractual prostitution" or, in other words, a housewife. Sorry, but if Anais Nin can't get away with it, neither can you. And we're moving....

Then there's this quote from Publisher's Weekly: "Dorrie's casual, deadpan style belies the tight compression of these acid meditations on the trivialization of women, the trials of marriage and being single, and loss of meaning in work and social interactions." I got two words for you: "Everybody Hurts". I get that, in both the R.E.M. video and this book, we're supposed to be moved by how it's all really meaningless and everybody's life sucks, but do artist really think we forgot this? Really?! Unfortunately, much like the song, the only thought it provoked in me is a reminder to get alcohol next time I'm out, preferably before my mom calls again. And we're moving...

So, with all that being said I bet you're wondering why I gave it three stars? I gave it one for the bold move of straight up lying to the masses. I gave it another for the simple fact that it was so depressing and sad, it bordered on horror. Nice. And finally, I gave it one more star for being an incredibly fast read - I read it in under 6 hours.

[Daisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember being charmed by this but I wonder how it reads today, if it isn't dated.

[Magai · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short of it is, steal a life. And if you can't get away with robbing a guy, how about getting away with murder. If you do, you'll get away twice.

I read the book in the nineties and I can vaguely remember the rest of the stories but the title carrier is the funniest, outstandingly so. Big Guy shops around for interesting women artist lovers and picks this blue-haired eccentric--she's not, just charmingly helpless and a little maladjusted--who sits down in a park or streetside to play a harmonica or something she happens to be carrying in her bag. Not clear if for loose change or to pass the time; only that graduate school bores her so. She's the type who, each time she finds herself in a fix, gets out of it from epiphany to epiphany -- from spark to spark of inspiration, if you like. He takes her home, and one day he tells her about a just-met another artist, a very interesting one. She does something really very interesting that she ends up with more than just a package of separation benefits.

[Nina Meißner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sehr durchwachsene Erfahrung. Sehr kurzatmig, schnell gelesen, aber was nimmt man daraus mit? Für mich v.a. die Auseinandersetzung mit Charakteren, die ich allesamt als Personen schrecklich finde, was auf jeden Fall als Ausgangspunkt für Diskussionen dienen kann und in sich selbst auch ein Leistung der Autorin darstellen kann, sofern dies ihr Ziel war. Die Geschichten haben nicht den Anspruch realistisch zu sein, sondern wollen gezielt überzeichnen. Da das Buch in mir eine Reaktion hervorgerufen hat, würde ich ihm 3 Sterne geben, weil es gerade durch seine Unbestimmtheit die es in einem auslöst als Diskussionsgrundlage dienen kann.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories are tough, but Dörrie does a fabulous job keeping it fresh & exciting in this audacious & unpredictable quartet of tales. Her stories frequently cross the line into the realm of the preposterous, the outlandish, & the disturbingly macabre, but they do so with a straight face, keeping intact the emotional content & never lapsing into parody or self-awareness. Humor is also an essential element, & Dörrie's light touch allows her to avoid various pitfalls that would ensnare a lesser writer deftly, delivering solid & surprising entertainment at every turn. A thrilling collection.

[Matilda Tomatis · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writer of this book is a film director, even a quite famous one. This is really clear from her style of writing. I think this book would have made into a decent movie, when I imagined the scenes described I could just imagine the writer directing them. I think none of these stories was a good fit for a book. They were all driven by lust, a great movie in which these stories intertwined around the cheating of the characters would have come out. It would have been just fine, not a book though. Do not recommend.

[hummmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mitten ins Herz: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Männer: ⭐⭐
Geld: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Paradies:⭐

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

[Dana Jerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characters in these tales despise conformity and their own irresistance to it within their own lives, which is not only refreshing, it makes every single one of them adorable and redeemable.
💯♥️

[Angelin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, not my style, really. Though it was quite interesting to observe the metamorphoses of the main characters (both men and women).

"Männer" and "Geld" are more interesting. The former in its bizarre solution (which I can hardly agree with) to the falling apart marriage and the latter by its improbability. Seriously, robbing a bank with a toy-gun in order to pay off the debts and then robbing another 3 banks, sharing the money with the people you hardly know, buying a factory, becoming a businesswoman from the housewife...?. "Mitten ins Herz" made me mainly raise my eyebrows in a surprise (how can you fake your pregnancy for 9 months?! But that was an unexpected twist indeed) and there whole idea with "Paradies" just passed by me... =|

I wonder if any of the characters became happier through the changes they underwent. All in all, the stories come up to the title of the book: "Love, Pain & The Whole Damn Thing".

[Masha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two stories were excellent (Männer, Geld), both are great depictions of marriages that almost fell apart, but were ultimately saved. The other two were quite bizarre for my taste (Mitten ins Herz, Paradies).