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Hamburgers and Berliners and other courses in between
Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Travel Writing. "Matt Potter unflinchingly allows us inside his mind and heart, sharing fears and insecurities that most of us would never dare to reveal. His book is both poignant and funny, and through Potter's eyes we get a vivid picture of Germany—its landscapes, people, customs and quirks—while also witnessing one man's struggle to make sense of his own life as well as life at large."—Len Kuntz, author of The Dark Sunshine
"Matt Potter's HAMBURGERS AND BERLINERS took me to Germany—with brief forays to Austria, Portugal and other European countries—without me having to shift an inch from my sofa. Potter's prose is, as always, absorbing, amusing, enlightening and engaging. If you are thinking of a trip to Europe (or Australia, where Potter originates) make sure you read HAMBURGERS AND BERLINERS before you go. This intimate portrait of an Australian abroad should be nestled in your hand luggage beside your spare undies and bottled water—it's just as essential. Potter examines the differences between cultures big and small-between countries, continents or, at the other end of the scale, the microcultures that exist within a block or a street. He constantly questions the what and the why of things, observing idiosyncrasies and habits and ingrained patterns of thought in a way that makes you see your own surroundings and behaviours afresh. Never uncomfortably disrespectful (though often funny), Potter had me smirking with some of his descriptions and going 'Aha!' at others. HAMBURGERS AND BERLINERS is that rare thing, a guide to humanity, forgiving in its delivery but covering every niggly aspect of living as a foreigner abroad in delicious detail, warts and all. If you want to give your brain a holiday, get it, read it, and have a ball."—Gill Hoffs, author of The Sinking of RMS The Lost Story of the Victorian Titanic and a collection
"Matt Potter's HAMBURGERS AND BERLINERS brings back the adventures, the frustrations and the newness of moving to Germany. These honest missives made me want to do it all over again."—Christopher Allen, author of Conversations with S. Teri O'Type
"Matt Potter's HAMBURGERS AND BERLINERS took me to Germany—with brief forays to Austria, Portugal and other European countries—without me having to shift an inch from my sofa. Potter's prose is, as always, absorbing, amusing, enlightening and engaging. If you are thinking of a trip to Europe (or Australia, where Potter originates) make sure you read HAMBURGERS AND BERLINERS before you go. This intimate portrait of an Australian abroad should be nestled in your hand luggage beside your spare undies and bottled water—it's just as essential. Potter examines the differences between cultures big and small-between countries, continents or, at the other end of the scale, the microcultures that exist within a block or a street. He constantly questions the what and the why of things, observing idiosyncrasies and habits and ingrained patterns of thought in a way that makes you see your own surroundings and behaviours afresh. Never uncomfortably disrespectful (though often funny), Potter had me smirking with some of his descriptions and going 'Aha!' at others. HAMBURGERS AND BERLINERS is that rare thing, a guide to humanity, forgiving in its delivery but covering every niggly aspect of living as a foreigner abroad in delicious detail, warts and all. If you want to give your brain a holiday, get it, read it, and have a ball."—Gill Hoffs, author of The Sinking of RMS The Lost Story of the Victorian Titanic and a collection
"Matt Potter's HAMBURGERS AND BERLINERS brings back the adventures, the frustrations and the newness of moving to Germany. These honest missives made me want to do it all over again."—Christopher Allen, author of Conversations with S. Teri O'Type
273 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2015
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Matt Potter
50 books21 followersMatt Potter is a journalist, editor and broadcaster. He has reported for BBC Radio from Eastern Europe, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia, and co-presented Radio 1's award-winning global travel shows. As a journalist, his nose for the unusual has seen his writing appear in places as diverse as the Daily Telegraph, Golf Monthly, Esquire, Sunday Telegraph, Jack, Maxim, the Irish Examiner and Q, and his stories on cocaine trafficking in Latin America have been published in Russian, Spanish and English. As a journalist in Belgrade, he broke the story of the NATO 'spy' giving away secrets to Serb forces on the web. He speaks a handful of languages but attempts to speak at least twenty more. Matt is 39 and lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 15, 2015
One of the joys of traveling is to see the world with fresh eyes, to delight in the simple variations that life elsewhere holds. So what a treat to read Matt Potter’s new book, Hamburgers and Berliners and Other Courses in Between, just as my own homesickness for Germany was starting to kick in. Part travelogue, part memoir, and with a hefty dose of cultural and personal musings, one man, approaching middle age, decides he can wait no longer to realize his dream of living in Germany. Collected as a series of “letters home”, Potter reveals daily life an outsider—learning the language, the culture, and the nuances of living out of one’s comfort zone. As anyone who has traveled knows, it’s all about the small moments and the small victories—from getting on the right train (finally!), to being understood by native speakers, to the simple observations about sunglasses, sidewalk etiquette, eating alone in restaurants, and the difference between self-tanning and regular hand cream! Generously peppered with dry wit and historical tidbits, Hamburgers and Berliners is less a guidebook and more a window into both the loneliness and celebrations of following one’s heart.
November 25, 2015
Both travel journal and an examination of cultural diversity, this book is a joy and a must-read for the observant soul that relishes travel as the mirror through which we not only gain a better understanding of other people but of ourselves. Laugh-out-loud funny, profoundly insightful, touching in its willingness to admit fallibility, this is one that will resonate with everyone who's ever lived outside their country (and can laugh about it).
November 25, 2015
Matt Potter's memoir about being an expat Aussie living and working in Germany in 2008 and 2009 entertains from start to finish, and Potter's personality, perseverance, and sense of humor shine as he adjusts to and often enjoys German life. The book is essentially a series of emails written to friends back home. Potter tells of walks around various cities in Germany and other parts of Europe, restaurants and the meals he chooses, people he observes, people he meets socially and at work, and all along he provides commentary and criticism with a keen perception of cultural differences (not just Germans vs. Aussies or Hamburgers vs. Berliners, but northern Germans vs. southern Germans in general, plus plenty about Praguers, Parisians, Viennese, Lisboans, and more).
Potter's frustrations seem to have affected me more than his many joys. Here, for example, on pages 130 - 131, he writes, "One of my issues with people here is that, if there is a power structure and / or you want something from someone else, they shit on you. It is expected. And there is this expectation that if you don't do it (because you can) then there is something wrong with you. It can be very distressing. I am completely over it."
Later, when a woman in a wheelchair wants to ride a bus, but there's already another woman in a wheelchair on that bus along with two large suitcases beside her that belong to other people, Potter describes in detail how the bus driver stops to speak with the woman who wants to ride, explains something to her in German as he points to the other wheelchair bound woman and the suitcases beside her, then leaves without letting the new would be rider onto the bus. On pages 228 and 229, Potter writes, "The driver did not ask the owners of the suitcases to move them (which could have been easily achieved) and it looked like he was telling the woman on the footpath that the wheelchair quota on the bus had already been reached.... It was really horrible and embarrassing and nasty and disenfranchising to watch. And I felt I was inadvertently playing a part in it too, by not saying anything."
It's horrible for me to make the following comment, but as I read both of the above passages, I couldn't help but think of the Holocaust. The idea that people "shit on you" only "because [they] can" and Matt's own feeling of "playing a part" in the rejection of the woman in the wheelchair "by not saying anything" - these scenarios, when I think of the Holocaust, conjure thoughts of two types of citizen bystanders: those who laughed at the plight of the Jews because it didn't affect them (those who shit on others because they can) and those who felt guilty for not acting to stop the killing, but still did nothing. These thoughts, of course, are just thoughts that happened to occur to me as I read, I don't mean to compare Potter's experiences to the killing of eleven million people. In my own limited experience speaking with modern German people about the Holocaust, they are deeply ashamed.
On a lighter note, I liked Potter's perception of his own accent, described as he participated in an improv comedy workshop on page 189, "My accent bounces off the walls and hovers about the room like no one else's: a fog at about ear height." The book is chock full of delightful little observations like this one.
The only reason I'm giving this book four stars instead of five is that for my taste, it's a bit heavy on logistical info: Potter often discusses which train and bus routes he takes, transit mistakes he makes, etc. While I understand the value of this sort of information, particularly in a memoir, I found myself skimming those parts as the book went on because I knew none of it would register with me unless I were to look at an actual map (related note: Potter occasionally mentions to readers that they can look up a particular address on Google Maps for further clarity, which in and of itself I didn't mind, in fact I found these mentions rather fun for how they identify our times).
Overall, this unique collection is a lot of fun and paints an intriguing picture of modern German life from an expat perspective.
Potter's frustrations seem to have affected me more than his many joys. Here, for example, on pages 130 - 131, he writes, "One of my issues with people here is that, if there is a power structure and / or you want something from someone else, they shit on you. It is expected. And there is this expectation that if you don't do it (because you can) then there is something wrong with you. It can be very distressing. I am completely over it."
Later, when a woman in a wheelchair wants to ride a bus, but there's already another woman in a wheelchair on that bus along with two large suitcases beside her that belong to other people, Potter describes in detail how the bus driver stops to speak with the woman who wants to ride, explains something to her in German as he points to the other wheelchair bound woman and the suitcases beside her, then leaves without letting the new would be rider onto the bus. On pages 228 and 229, Potter writes, "The driver did not ask the owners of the suitcases to move them (which could have been easily achieved) and it looked like he was telling the woman on the footpath that the wheelchair quota on the bus had already been reached.... It was really horrible and embarrassing and nasty and disenfranchising to watch. And I felt I was inadvertently playing a part in it too, by not saying anything."
It's horrible for me to make the following comment, but as I read both of the above passages, I couldn't help but think of the Holocaust. The idea that people "shit on you" only "because [they] can" and Matt's own feeling of "playing a part" in the rejection of the woman in the wheelchair "by not saying anything" - these scenarios, when I think of the Holocaust, conjure thoughts of two types of citizen bystanders: those who laughed at the plight of the Jews because it didn't affect them (those who shit on others because they can) and those who felt guilty for not acting to stop the killing, but still did nothing. These thoughts, of course, are just thoughts that happened to occur to me as I read, I don't mean to compare Potter's experiences to the killing of eleven million people. In my own limited experience speaking with modern German people about the Holocaust, they are deeply ashamed.
On a lighter note, I liked Potter's perception of his own accent, described as he participated in an improv comedy workshop on page 189, "My accent bounces off the walls and hovers about the room like no one else's: a fog at about ear height." The book is chock full of delightful little observations like this one.
The only reason I'm giving this book four stars instead of five is that for my taste, it's a bit heavy on logistical info: Potter often discusses which train and bus routes he takes, transit mistakes he makes, etc. While I understand the value of this sort of information, particularly in a memoir, I found myself skimming those parts as the book went on because I knew none of it would register with me unless I were to look at an actual map (related note: Potter occasionally mentions to readers that they can look up a particular address on Google Maps for further clarity, which in and of itself I didn't mind, in fact I found these mentions rather fun for how they identify our times).
Overall, this unique collection is a lot of fun and paints an intriguing picture of modern German life from an expat perspective.
October 13, 2015
Australians have a reputation as intrepid travelers. Matt Potter’s latest book fortifies that impression. Potter spent two extended stays in Germany, the first in Hamburg, the second in Berlin. While there Potter supported himself by teaching English as a second language. The book is composed of the email dispatches he sent to friends and family back home. Would that we all had a friend abroad sending us emails like these!
With keen eyes, ears, and a sly sense of humor, Potter turns mundane travel details—missed connections, verbal misunderstandings, bureaucratic snafus—into the stuff of drama and comedy. The author is fascinated by language, its use and misuse. The book will either have you planning your own trip to Germany or, as in my case, glad Potter went to Germany and wrote a book about it.
With keen eyes, ears, and a sly sense of humor, Potter turns mundane travel details—missed connections, verbal misunderstandings, bureaucratic snafus—into the stuff of drama and comedy. The author is fascinated by language, its use and misuse. The book will either have you planning your own trip to Germany or, as in my case, glad Potter went to Germany and wrote a book about it.
December 1, 2015
When I read Hamburgers and Berliners I felt first envy - envy of the travelling, the work and the experiences. Then I felt awe - that someone did all of this all alone. Finally, respect and admiration that the experiences were recorded in so much glorious detail and so many hilarious observations. The descriptions of the breakfasts and the shopping trips, the tangled transport experiences and the encounters with natives and other travellers are brilliant. When I finished the book, I felt a huge sense of regret that it was over for me. Experiences of travel and work are rarely recorded so completely or so richly, so that, wherever you are or whether you are travelling or not, you can gain something real from the unfailing honesty and candid humour. Thank you, Matt Potter.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews