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Onkel Toms Hütte, Berlin
Im Berlin der frühen Nachkriegszeit treibt ein Serienmörder sein Unwesen. Ihm fallen vier Frauen aus unterschiedlichen Milieus zum Opfer: eine UfA-Schauspielerin, eine Psychiatrie- Krankenschwester, eine Prostituierte und eine Adelige im Auswärtigen Amt. Sie sind alle jung, blond und werden brutal zugerichtet und erwürgt.
544 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
November 30, 2014
I quite enjoyed this, but maybe as a bit of a guilty pleasure in the end.
The real shining positive point of this novel is the back stories for each of the murder victims. They tend to go into some details covering their adolescence, through to adulthood, which encompasses the rise of the nationalists, the war and then the direct aftermath. In some regard, this novel is really just a collection of short stories about women of various social standing, living in pre and post war Prussia. The detail in their stories is outstanding, even if a little cliched or just a bit difficult to believe in places.
I've seen some negative reviews, suggesting that the goings on in these back stories are too convenient and that the choice of women is also too obvious. However, I don't think any of the women are in positions which are totally unbelievable. They are all very different, which seems fair enough to myself, as otherwise we might have just had four middle/working class housewives to read about. I admit that some of the story aspects are far fetched and some of it falls together a bit neatly, but I don't believe any of it is beyond the realms of possibility.
However, that is where the positives end really.
The overarching storyline is that of a serial killer and the detective trying to apprehend him. This area of the story is incredibly weak. If anything, the most difficult aspect to believe of the entire novel is the killer. We are introduced to him early on and given the briefest of motives for his streak, but it feels like a formality. We find out in the second chapter that he kills women (horribly, I might add), simply because one laughed at his trousers' contents. That's a fairly wispy premise. The eventual unveiling of the killer is absolute nonsense too, with the detective having already solved it, but for some reason doing little about it and then just quickly explaining himself right at the end.
The real issue with the killer plot line is that it only serves to link the women and their back-stories together. Their stories do briefly intertwine in places, but the serial killer aspect is purely linkage. On its own, it's not interesting and doesn't stand up to any scrutiny.
Similarly, the sub-plot which involves the detective's son is entirely superfluous. I suppose it adds another short story to the pile, but his is a bit dull. He just craves for material possessions in a deprived time, which while fleshing out the idea that he was just a normal child in strange times, adds absolutely nothing to the story.
The translation has also taken a bit of a beating in the reviews too. The phraseology throughout is very repetitive, with certain words just seeming to clash. I don't agree with what some reviewers have pointed out here, but it certainly does read a bit peculiarly at times. I couldn't possibly read the German version, so I'm unsure whether the translation is a fair representation or not.
My final issue is a bit left field, given the subject matter. The sheer volume of sex here and the sexual attitudes of primarily the women are very surprising. Every woman involved (including some as young as 14) are completely sexually open and will take a man whenever they fancy. They are very much the main drivers of it in any of the scenes when something unpleasant isn't happening. While it would be nice to believe that they could be so empowered, it's difficult to resolve with the period in which the story is set. To be honest, it's difficult to resolve as a concept in 2014. The final scene involving the detective's son and the tailor's daughter being a case in point. The girl is meant to be 14, which makes the whole thing seem very unlikely. If this is a true reflection of Germany's attitude towards sex, then I'm surprised they're recognised as being so industrious. I just don't know how they get anything done. Well, apart from each other....
Finally, I never ever want to see or hear the phrase 'mound of Venus' ever again.
The real shining positive point of this novel is the back stories for each of the murder victims. They tend to go into some details covering their adolescence, through to adulthood, which encompasses the rise of the nationalists, the war and then the direct aftermath. In some regard, this novel is really just a collection of short stories about women of various social standing, living in pre and post war Prussia. The detail in their stories is outstanding, even if a little cliched or just a bit difficult to believe in places.
I've seen some negative reviews, suggesting that the goings on in these back stories are too convenient and that the choice of women is also too obvious. However, I don't think any of the women are in positions which are totally unbelievable. They are all very different, which seems fair enough to myself, as otherwise we might have just had four middle/working class housewives to read about. I admit that some of the story aspects are far fetched and some of it falls together a bit neatly, but I don't believe any of it is beyond the realms of possibility.
However, that is where the positives end really.
The overarching storyline is that of a serial killer and the detective trying to apprehend him. This area of the story is incredibly weak. If anything, the most difficult aspect to believe of the entire novel is the killer. We are introduced to him early on and given the briefest of motives for his streak, but it feels like a formality. We find out in the second chapter that he kills women (horribly, I might add), simply because one laughed at his trousers' contents. That's a fairly wispy premise. The eventual unveiling of the killer is absolute nonsense too, with the detective having already solved it, but for some reason doing little about it and then just quickly explaining himself right at the end.
The real issue with the killer plot line is that it only serves to link the women and their back-stories together. Their stories do briefly intertwine in places, but the serial killer aspect is purely linkage. On its own, it's not interesting and doesn't stand up to any scrutiny.
Similarly, the sub-plot which involves the detective's son is entirely superfluous. I suppose it adds another short story to the pile, but his is a bit dull. He just craves for material possessions in a deprived time, which while fleshing out the idea that he was just a normal child in strange times, adds absolutely nothing to the story.
The translation has also taken a bit of a beating in the reviews too. The phraseology throughout is very repetitive, with certain words just seeming to clash. I don't agree with what some reviewers have pointed out here, but it certainly does read a bit peculiarly at times. I couldn't possibly read the German version, so I'm unsure whether the translation is a fair representation or not.
My final issue is a bit left field, given the subject matter. The sheer volume of sex here and the sexual attitudes of primarily the women are very surprising. Every woman involved (including some as young as 14) are completely sexually open and will take a man whenever they fancy. They are very much the main drivers of it in any of the scenes when something unpleasant isn't happening. While it would be nice to believe that they could be so empowered, it's difficult to resolve with the period in which the story is set. To be honest, it's difficult to resolve as a concept in 2014. The final scene involving the detective's son and the tailor's daughter being a case in point. The girl is meant to be 14, which makes the whole thing seem very unlikely. If this is a true reflection of Germany's attitude towards sex, then I'm surprised they're recognised as being so industrious. I just don't know how they get anything done. Well, apart from each other....
Finally, I never ever want to see or hear the phrase 'mound of Venus' ever again.
January 28, 2015
This is a whodunit with a difference. Well, with several differences. It's about a serial killer, and quite a lot of crime novels are about that.
The most notable difference is that it pays as much attention to the victims as it does to the killers or the cops.
In many crime novels the victims are simply dead bodies, and the police investigating the crime have to identify them to find out who they were, and very often the reader knows little more about them than the police. In this case, however the story deals with them as real people with a history. One effect of this is to make one conscious of the enormity of murder. It is not simply a puzzle to be solved. It brings to an end, unexpectredly and with little warning, the life of a person with hopes and fears and loves and relationships.
Another difference is that it is set in Berlin in 1945, immediately after the end of the Second World War. After so much killing on an industrial scale, it requires a change of mental gears to deal with peacetime crimes. When so many people have died violent deaths in the previous few months, what do one or two more matter? So it is about a society in transition, and seeking to recover mormality.
Another difference, related to the last, is that it gives a picture of life in Berlin, not merely at the time in question, but over the previous 20 years. It shows how ordinary people responded to the rise of the Nazis to power, their behaviour in power, and how they responded to the war. I think that, quite apart from the plot and the characters, which are very good, this aspect of the setting may be the best feature of the book.
How do I know this?
I was 4 years old in 1945, and did not visit Germany until 20 years later. So how can I judge that the picture of life in Nazi Germany is accurate and authentic?
I think I can know by extension. I know that A Dry White Season tells it like it was in apartheid South Africa, even though it is a work of fiction, because I lived through the period. And this book has the same flavour of authenticity. It shows the ambiguities and inconsistencies and contradictions of living in an increasingly authoritarian society, and is worth reading for that alone.
The most notable difference is that it pays as much attention to the victims as it does to the killers or the cops.
In many crime novels the victims are simply dead bodies, and the police investigating the crime have to identify them to find out who they were, and very often the reader knows little more about them than the police. In this case, however the story deals with them as real people with a history. One effect of this is to make one conscious of the enormity of murder. It is not simply a puzzle to be solved. It brings to an end, unexpectredly and with little warning, the life of a person with hopes and fears and loves and relationships.
Another difference is that it is set in Berlin in 1945, immediately after the end of the Second World War. After so much killing on an industrial scale, it requires a change of mental gears to deal with peacetime crimes. When so many people have died violent deaths in the previous few months, what do one or two more matter? So it is about a society in transition, and seeking to recover mormality.
Another difference, related to the last, is that it gives a picture of life in Berlin, not merely at the time in question, but over the previous 20 years. It shows how ordinary people responded to the rise of the Nazis to power, their behaviour in power, and how they responded to the war. I think that, quite apart from the plot and the characters, which are very good, this aspect of the setting may be the best feature of the book.
How do I know this?
I was 4 years old in 1945, and did not visit Germany until 20 years later. So how can I judge that the picture of life in Nazi Germany is accurate and authentic?
I think I can know by extension. I know that A Dry White Season tells it like it was in apartheid South Africa, even though it is a work of fiction, because I lived through the period. And this book has the same flavour of authenticity. It shows the ambiguities and inconsistencies and contradictions of living in an increasingly authoritarian society, and is worth reading for that alone.
January 11, 2016
I am conflicted about this novel to be perfectly honest. Frei's depiction of life and experience in the days immediately after the end of the war between the Allies and Germany has the serious weight of authenticity and lived history. There's marvelous period detail, a powerful, evocative atmosphere of despair, shame, guilt, uncertainty, hunger, deprivation and post-traumatic stress on a national scale.
Unlike many serial killer stories the focus is more on the murderer's victims and their lives, used as a way to examine the Nazi years from a variety of perspectives drawn from all levels of society, some working better than others it must be said, with a tendency to cliché.
Tasked with solving the case of an accumulating series of murders of young blue-eyed blonde women, strangled and horribly abused, their bodies all found in the American zone in the district around Onkel Toms Hütte (housing estate, U-bahn station, shopping area) German Inspector Karl Dietrich, is an engaging character. He's a decorated war veteran who served with the elite Panzer division, struggling with the harsh conditions of life under Allied occupation and adjusting to life as an amputee. However, that focus on the victims mentioned above, leads to under-development of the police procedural, crime-solving aspect of the case.
More problematic is the nasty, lurid nature of descriptions of the serial killer's sexually motivated crimes, and passages of very bad sex in parts of the book detailing the lives of victims leading up to their murders.
The identity of this serial killer isn't hard to guess and the ending didn't quite convince me, but Frei's descriptions of the difficulties of life in postwar Berlin, a divided city under military occupation, held my attention throughout and kept me reading despite serious reservations about aspects of the book. Some readers of a more sensitive nature might be too disturbed, however. There is a lot of sexual violence, including descriptions of rape, as you would expect if you know anything about what happened to German women after Russian soldiers entered Berlin.
Woven, rather clumsily, into the book's narrative history of German experience during the 30s and through the summer of 1945 is a coming of age sub-plot involving Karl Dietrich's son Ben who deals on the black market instead of going to school, to buy a fancy outfit to making an impression on a girl he fancies. Ben's aspirations go unnoticed by his parents who are too busy with the demands of work and the daily struggle to survive. He is more realistic than other supporting characters who exist as types rather more than real people.
For further background I would recommend A Woman in Berlin, an anonymously published account of a journalist's experience of the final days under heavy Allied bombing raids and vengeance taken by the Russians on German women of all ages. Films such as Fritz Lang's M (pre-war) and Der Verlorene (1951) with Peter Lorre, and, of course, The Third Man portray the Noir atmosphere, tense with fear and betrayal, and for visual impact you cannot beat Roberto Rossellini's Germany Year Zero (1948), filmed in war-devastated Berlin.
The book's strengths make up for its flaws as far as I am concerned and I would recommend it, with reservations, to any reader with an interest in the German perspective on the immediate post-war experiences of ordinary Berliners. I would like to know what happens to the Dietrich family, so Frei must have done something right, to make me care for his characters.
Unlike many serial killer stories the focus is more on the murderer's victims and their lives, used as a way to examine the Nazi years from a variety of perspectives drawn from all levels of society, some working better than others it must be said, with a tendency to cliché.
Tasked with solving the case of an accumulating series of murders of young blue-eyed blonde women, strangled and horribly abused, their bodies all found in the American zone in the district around Onkel Toms Hütte (housing estate, U-bahn station, shopping area) German Inspector Karl Dietrich, is an engaging character. He's a decorated war veteran who served with the elite Panzer division, struggling with the harsh conditions of life under Allied occupation and adjusting to life as an amputee. However, that focus on the victims mentioned above, leads to under-development of the police procedural, crime-solving aspect of the case.
More problematic is the nasty, lurid nature of descriptions of the serial killer's sexually motivated crimes, and passages of very bad sex in parts of the book detailing the lives of victims leading up to their murders.
The identity of this serial killer isn't hard to guess and the ending didn't quite convince me, but Frei's descriptions of the difficulties of life in postwar Berlin, a divided city under military occupation, held my attention throughout and kept me reading despite serious reservations about aspects of the book. Some readers of a more sensitive nature might be too disturbed, however. There is a lot of sexual violence, including descriptions of rape, as you would expect if you know anything about what happened to German women after Russian soldiers entered Berlin.
Woven, rather clumsily, into the book's narrative history of German experience during the 30s and through the summer of 1945 is a coming of age sub-plot involving Karl Dietrich's son Ben who deals on the black market instead of going to school, to buy a fancy outfit to making an impression on a girl he fancies. Ben's aspirations go unnoticed by his parents who are too busy with the demands of work and the daily struggle to survive. He is more realistic than other supporting characters who exist as types rather more than real people.
For further background I would recommend A Woman in Berlin, an anonymously published account of a journalist's experience of the final days under heavy Allied bombing raids and vengeance taken by the Russians on German women of all ages. Films such as Fritz Lang's M (pre-war) and Der Verlorene (1951) with Peter Lorre, and, of course, The Third Man portray the Noir atmosphere, tense with fear and betrayal, and for visual impact you cannot beat Roberto Rossellini's Germany Year Zero (1948), filmed in war-devastated Berlin.
The book's strengths make up for its flaws as far as I am concerned and I would recommend it, with reservations, to any reader with an interest in the German perspective on the immediate post-war experiences of ordinary Berliners. I would like to know what happens to the Dietrich family, so Frei must have done something right, to make me care for his characters.
March 19, 2013
Although this was a 99p kindle deal and I'm always a bit wary of bargains...caveat emptor etc, the fact that the Sunday Telegraph review said that it was "filled with brilliantly drawn characters, mesmerizingly readable, and disturbingly convincing” sold it to me. Sadly it was none of those three things and I suspect it was just trying too hard to be too many things. At its heart, it attempted to be a noir detective mystery with a serial killer stalking immediate post war West Berlin, killing a series of blonde, blue eyed women. However, this too often ended up on the periphery. The investigation is led by a German detective Karl Deitrich, who is sometimes assisted and often baulked in his efforts by the US military. The trouble is that this central plot is disturbed by overly long interludes which go into great, if unconvincing detail about the lives of the women who have been murdered. This becomes the central theme really. In these sections the author tries to draw out the politics and a sense of the horror of living under Nazi rule, the devastation they left behind and the subsequent brutal cruelty of the Soviet invading soldiers, particularly evidenced by the gang raping of women of all ages. To be fair, he does this very well at times despite the unconvincing characters. The two murdered women who get the longest sections are respectively a good hearted aristocrat whose child has Downs & an up market prostitute who becomes the wife of a concentration camp commandant - yes they are that contrived. The intended serious messages are then constantly interrupted by a large amount of badly written, unnecessary and frankly pretty tawdry sex scenes. I can't tell whether it is the phrase of the author or the translator but I got a bit tired of the incessant caressing of the "mound of Venus" lol, and the use of language generally. As such the crimes and the investigation took a back seat and I just got bored, particularly as the identity of the killer was pretty obvious well before the end. So in summary, it was just about OK and worth my 99p but I'm glad I didn't invest any more cash in it.
March 29, 2019
Note to self: BE MORE CAREFUL! I made the mistake of not realising I was buying a translation.
More than once I had the impression that when the translator didn't know a word, she just picked the top suggestion at leo.org. Awful! "Gauntlet" for a simple bike glove? "Diadem" for a tiara? "Medicament" for a drug or medicine? My worst (and that was used more than once) is: "she carried a tray of vanilla ices on sticks". Please!*
What makes translation bungling like this so bad is that one loses one's concentration and keeps watching for more botched language and in the process notices errors in the actual plot. Either the editor was non-existent or extremely sloppy (some details are just not right for the time and the setting, a few time references are wrong, etc.).
The sub-plot concerning the police inspector's son is not only predictable but unnecessary. The few instances where it is aiding the plot could be achieved differently.
But my biggest gripe is the picture of German women during WWII and the time preceeding it. Apparently they all grew up with sexually healthy attitudes (the one who who didn't wasn't really scarred by her bad upbringing) and appetites and lead a relaxed and satisfying sexlife without any hang-ups. In addition, none of them were Nazis - at best, they conformed without much thought (due to their youth) but objected on a personal and moral level if they weren't actually courageously fighting the fascists. Yeah, very believable.
The only reason I'm giving two instead of one star is the plot device that the victims are given a more prominent voice than is usual in a who-dunnit. However, these insertions are too long - I ended up reading them after I finished the book as such.
*Since reading this I've checked up on the translator and am pretty shocked about her credentials, I seriously suspected a German translating into English. She must have either hated the book, not understood it/the time it is set in or she translated it in an appalling rush.
More than once I had the impression that when the translator didn't know a word, she just picked the top suggestion at leo.org. Awful! "Gauntlet" for a simple bike glove? "Diadem" for a tiara? "Medicament" for a drug or medicine? My worst (and that was used more than once) is: "she carried a tray of vanilla ices on sticks". Please!*
What makes translation bungling like this so bad is that one loses one's concentration and keeps watching for more botched language and in the process notices errors in the actual plot. Either the editor was non-existent or extremely sloppy (some details are just not right for the time and the setting, a few time references are wrong, etc.).
The sub-plot concerning the police inspector's son is not only predictable but unnecessary. The few instances where it is aiding the plot could be achieved differently.
But my biggest gripe is the picture of German women during WWII and the time preceeding it. Apparently they all grew up with sexually healthy attitudes (the one who who didn't wasn't really scarred by her bad upbringing) and appetites and lead a relaxed and satisfying sexlife without any hang-ups. In addition, none of them were Nazis - at best, they conformed without much thought (due to their youth) but objected on a personal and moral level if they weren't actually courageously fighting the fascists. Yeah, very believable.
The only reason I'm giving two instead of one star is the plot device that the victims are given a more prominent voice than is usual in a who-dunnit. However, these insertions are too long - I ended up reading them after I finished the book as such.
*Since reading this I've checked up on the translator and am pretty shocked about her credentials, I seriously suspected a German translating into English. She must have either hated the book, not understood it/the time it is set in or she translated it in an appalling rush.
July 10, 2019
I thought the book had a lot of very interesting parts about what it was like after the war in Berlin. I especially enjoyed reading from a German point of view. The author set the scene very well in terms of the rationing, lack of basic necessities, overcrowding and lack of housing, and difficulty adjusting to life surrounded by Americans and Russians. If this were written as a series of short stories it would have been more successful. Unfortunately it was meant to be a murder mystery without the mystery. We knew who the killer was and his motives by chapter 2. Both of those were very weak.
There were a lot of little things that killed this book for me. I should preface this by saying that I teach European history at a college and did my graduate work in Berlin so things that bother me may not bother others. Either way, you don't have to be a scholar to know that women in Nazi Germany were not as sexually loose as Frei wrote them.
I didn't mind the vignettes of the victims' lives as I found them infinitely more interesting than the characters investigating the murders. The American captain was colorless and the German detective made illusions to the horrors of the past without much payoff. The subplot about his son Ben was pointless but for Frei seemed to serve several functions: to insert himself into the story as the "objective" observer of post-war Germany. Ben is the same age Frei was in 1945 so I'm guessing there's some autobiographical stuff there. He also used Ben to comment on the resilience of the Germans. Ben is unaffected by the horrors of war and excited about the future. Finally, Ben is also there to insert still more sex into the story which Frei seems to love to do. Ben goes around ripping everyone off and conning the silly Americans because he's trying to make enough money to buy a suit so he can have sex with the tailor's daughter. Ben enjoys watching other couples have sex and the author goes into great detail about what he sees. Frei wrote at length about the appearance of the man's "prick," its length, its girth, its color. And who can forget the mound of Venus and the color and consistency of all the pubic hair? When an author uses the word vulva, I'm ready to throw the book down. I've never heard any woman use that word to describe their anatomy nor have I. Oh and Frei loves to describe the burning pain in a woman's genitals. I think he used that term several times. Why can't male writers figure out how to describe sex or rape without getting creepy or ridiculous? The book ends with a 15 year old virgin girl somehow knowing how to perform oral sex on a virgin boy who is having trouble sealing the deal. There's so much oral sex in this book as to be ridiculous. I think Pierre Frei doesn't get out enough.
The biggest issue in this book was the way Frei wrote women. Every single woman in the book was sexually adventurous and extremely open. Some of these women did things many women won't even do today. Historically, pre-war Berlin was a decadent place with nude cabarets, easily accessible birth control, and single women living on their own. However, this was a relatively small niche of women. Once Hitler took over, women were relegated back to the home and sexuality reverted back behind closed doors. Certainly there were exceptions but not to the extent Frei wrote.
All of the women are confident enough to seduce men even if they have never been intimate before. The first woman, who grew up on a farm, meets a man and the first time they go out together, she immediately takes a bath in his house and calls him into the bathroom where she services him and then watches in wonder as they have sex. Frei had me laughing when he wrote that she didn't even feel the pain of deflowering because she was so amazed at watching it. That's a totally male perspective on a woman's first time. This woman goes around seducing and servicing men without any timidity. Somehow she always knows exactly what to do sexually even though she had never done it before. Uh huh.
Another female victim has her son committed to an asylum and when she goes to question the doctor, she's extremely upset but still worried about how she looks. She somehow figures out that he likes S&M so becomes a dominatrix without any self-consciousness.
Women seduce Russian and American soldiers without any hesitation in this book. We are expected to believe that it doesn't bother them because they need access to food and supplies so they gotta do what they gotta do. "A Woman in Berlin" is a memoir written by a German woman who becomes the mistress of a Russian soldier in post-war Berlin. Her conflicting emotions and fear of being raped if she doesn't agree are described perfectly. The author does a great job of showing how the woman is ostracized by her neighbors for sleeping with the enemy. Frei's book has none of that which may say more about his views on women than anything else.
There were times reading this book that I felt like I needed a shower. How many times can we read about a woman servicing a man or about how she has 3 orgasms without the man doing much of anything? Without exception every woman in the book enjoys sex and is an enthusiastic and dominant partner. Very unrealistic for the period. How many times can we read about women sitting on top of men or on their knees in front of men? At a certain point it felt like Frei had only one hand on his keyboard. Many of the sex scenes were pointless and added nothing to the story beyond possible titillation of the author. He explains away female sexual dominance by saying that German women are very direct. That may be but loose women were often jailed or worse during the Nazi period. Home and hearth were still very real concepts to most women of the time. Twelve years of brainwashing didn't disappear overnight. The inspector's wife is either on her knees or standing in line for groceries. That's her whole life. There's no depth there! What bugged me the most is that all the women in the book seemed to use their bodies every time they needed or wanted something. It felt like Frei thought every man was looking for a quick tumble and every woman was willing to give it to them.
There were a lot of little things that killed this book for me. I should preface this by saying that I teach European history at a college and did my graduate work in Berlin so things that bother me may not bother others. Either way, you don't have to be a scholar to know that women in Nazi Germany were not as sexually loose as Frei wrote them.
I didn't mind the vignettes of the victims' lives as I found them infinitely more interesting than the characters investigating the murders. The American captain was colorless and the German detective made illusions to the horrors of the past without much payoff. The subplot about his son Ben was pointless but for Frei seemed to serve several functions: to insert himself into the story as the "objective" observer of post-war Germany. Ben is the same age Frei was in 1945 so I'm guessing there's some autobiographical stuff there. He also used Ben to comment on the resilience of the Germans. Ben is unaffected by the horrors of war and excited about the future. Finally, Ben is also there to insert still more sex into the story which Frei seems to love to do. Ben goes around ripping everyone off and conning the silly Americans because he's trying to make enough money to buy a suit so he can have sex with the tailor's daughter. Ben enjoys watching other couples have sex and the author goes into great detail about what he sees. Frei wrote at length about the appearance of the man's "prick," its length, its girth, its color. And who can forget the mound of Venus and the color and consistency of all the pubic hair? When an author uses the word vulva, I'm ready to throw the book down. I've never heard any woman use that word to describe their anatomy nor have I. Oh and Frei loves to describe the burning pain in a woman's genitals. I think he used that term several times. Why can't male writers figure out how to describe sex or rape without getting creepy or ridiculous? The book ends with a 15 year old virgin girl somehow knowing how to perform oral sex on a virgin boy who is having trouble sealing the deal. There's so much oral sex in this book as to be ridiculous. I think Pierre Frei doesn't get out enough.
The biggest issue in this book was the way Frei wrote women. Every single woman in the book was sexually adventurous and extremely open. Some of these women did things many women won't even do today. Historically, pre-war Berlin was a decadent place with nude cabarets, easily accessible birth control, and single women living on their own. However, this was a relatively small niche of women. Once Hitler took over, women were relegated back to the home and sexuality reverted back behind closed doors. Certainly there were exceptions but not to the extent Frei wrote.
All of the women are confident enough to seduce men even if they have never been intimate before. The first woman, who grew up on a farm, meets a man and the first time they go out together, she immediately takes a bath in his house and calls him into the bathroom where she services him and then watches in wonder as they have sex. Frei had me laughing when he wrote that she didn't even feel the pain of deflowering because she was so amazed at watching it. That's a totally male perspective on a woman's first time. This woman goes around seducing and servicing men without any timidity. Somehow she always knows exactly what to do sexually even though she had never done it before. Uh huh.
Another female victim has her son committed to an asylum and when she goes to question the doctor, she's extremely upset but still worried about how she looks. She somehow figures out that he likes S&M so becomes a dominatrix without any self-consciousness.
Women seduce Russian and American soldiers without any hesitation in this book. We are expected to believe that it doesn't bother them because they need access to food and supplies so they gotta do what they gotta do. "A Woman in Berlin" is a memoir written by a German woman who becomes the mistress of a Russian soldier in post-war Berlin. Her conflicting emotions and fear of being raped if she doesn't agree are described perfectly. The author does a great job of showing how the woman is ostracized by her neighbors for sleeping with the enemy. Frei's book has none of that which may say more about his views on women than anything else.
There were times reading this book that I felt like I needed a shower. How many times can we read about a woman servicing a man or about how she has 3 orgasms without the man doing much of anything? Without exception every woman in the book enjoys sex and is an enthusiastic and dominant partner. Very unrealistic for the period. How many times can we read about women sitting on top of men or on their knees in front of men? At a certain point it felt like Frei had only one hand on his keyboard. Many of the sex scenes were pointless and added nothing to the story beyond possible titillation of the author. He explains away female sexual dominance by saying that German women are very direct. That may be but loose women were often jailed or worse during the Nazi period. Home and hearth were still very real concepts to most women of the time. Twelve years of brainwashing didn't disappear overnight. The inspector's wife is either on her knees or standing in line for groceries. That's her whole life. There's no depth there! What bugged me the most is that all the women in the book seemed to use their bodies every time they needed or wanted something. It felt like Frei thought every man was looking for a quick tumble and every woman was willing to give it to them.
June 18, 2024
auch, wenn das buch während/nach dem zweiten weltkrieg spielt, hätte es ihm gut getan, weniger sexistisch, rassistisch und ableistisch zu sein. selten war es für mich in einem buch so offensichtlich, dass die weiblichen charaktere von einem männlichen autoren ausgedacht wurden - kaum auszuhalten. der schreibstil spricht nicht für den autoren. abgesehen davon war der eigentliche kriminalfall, um den es geht, wirklich langweilig und uninspiriert
July 9, 2019
The best thing I can say about this is that its plotting kept me reading to the end. It's about a serial killer operating in Berlin immediately after its 'liberation' by the Russians at the end of WW2. There are five murders and, after each death, Pierre Frei describes the life of each blonde, female victim. This gives him the opportunity to take the reader on a didactic journey through the Berlin civilians' wartime experiences and the privations they, particularly young females, had to endure to survive.
The author was born in Berlin in 1930 so he would have been fifteen at the time of the book and it would be interesting to know whether he lived in the city then. If he did, he certainly remembered all the street and station locations and names well and he sprays them into the text more to illuminate his knowledge than to advance the reader experience. The structure forces the ending to feel rushed and 'tagged on'.
The author's focus on the different ways that the victims used their attractiveness to men as bartering currency during the conflict introduced a morally dubious tone to the book as if Frei was implying that they somehow deserved their fate.
Throughout the book I was struck by how over-described everything was, including the sex and the way it gave the women power over men, and I wondered whether, because the book had been feted in Germany, this was the result of the translation. I was surprised to discover that the translator was Anthea Bell. She was one of the top people in her profession who had worked with luminaries such as W G Sebald. She died in 2018 after a distinguished career. I hope for her sake that this book was not her swan song.
The author was born in Berlin in 1930 so he would have been fifteen at the time of the book and it would be interesting to know whether he lived in the city then. If he did, he certainly remembered all the street and station locations and names well and he sprays them into the text more to illuminate his knowledge than to advance the reader experience. The structure forces the ending to feel rushed and 'tagged on'.
The author's focus on the different ways that the victims used their attractiveness to men as bartering currency during the conflict introduced a morally dubious tone to the book as if Frei was implying that they somehow deserved their fate.
Throughout the book I was struck by how over-described everything was, including the sex and the way it gave the women power over men, and I wondered whether, because the book had been feted in Germany, this was the result of the translation. I was surprised to discover that the translator was Anthea Bell. She was one of the top people in her profession who had worked with luminaries such as W G Sebald. She died in 2018 after a distinguished career. I hope for her sake that this book was not her swan song.
April 28, 2020
I love a great detective story, and this is one. But what separates this story from most novels is the emphasis Frei places on the CRIME VICTIMS.
Four or five blonde women are found murdered in post-war Berlin. A spree-killer is on the loose. The novel centers on the German policeman (and his family) and an American policeman, stationed in the occupied city, who team up to find the killer. But, not neglected are the women who were murdered. All were "fleshed out". All the women had played a role, some large and some small, in anti-Nazi activities during the war. All were on the verge of life-changing events that were cut still by the murderer's chain.
Along with the crime story is an often-humorous story of the German policeman's 15 year old son, playing the angles to try to buy a well-cut suit that will win him the heart - and body - of a hot-to-trot girl. (The tailor's daughter). As the author's note says that author Frei was born in 1930, I wonder if this part was "his" story.
This is a very good book.
Four or five blonde women are found murdered in post-war Berlin. A spree-killer is on the loose. The novel centers on the German policeman (and his family) and an American policeman, stationed in the occupied city, who team up to find the killer. But, not neglected are the women who were murdered. All were "fleshed out". All the women had played a role, some large and some small, in anti-Nazi activities during the war. All were on the verge of life-changing events that were cut still by the murderer's chain.
Along with the crime story is an often-humorous story of the German policeman's 15 year old son, playing the angles to try to buy a well-cut suit that will win him the heart - and body - of a hot-to-trot girl. (The tailor's daughter). As the author's note says that author Frei was born in 1930, I wonder if this part was "his" story.
This is a very good book.
August 26, 2024
Das Buch ist so langatmig, dass man sich nicht an den Charakter erinnern kann, der am Ende der Mörder ist. Die neben Story mit Ben ist auch komplett unnötig und hat nichts mit den Morden zu tun.
June 12, 2025
auch wenn das Ende etwas knapp und ein wenig zu abrupt kam war es doch ein sehr schönes Buch
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 27, 2011
It was interesting reading this book in parallel with “Every Man Dies Alone”, Hans Fallada’s story of wartime Berlin. Don’t ask why I was reading them in parallel! But there were many hooks between the two books. “Every Man” was written just after the war, in Berlin. This one was written about the immediate post war period, in Berlin. One of the characters in the book, a bookseller / librarian, even mentions reading the current Hans Fallada book in 1944. They both briefly explore the relationship the Goebbels had with the German film industry.
That being said, the parallels end after a certain point. “Every Man” is a serious and well-thought though book. This one is a rapid-fire series of murders of blonde women, juxtaposed with their previous experiences, leading up to the war, through the war and immediately after it. This focus on the victim’s life, related just after they have been found dead, lets the reader get to know the victim, as well as some insights into 1930’s and 1940’s life in Germany. It also explores the relationship between the US military police and the German police, and the way that they eventually build up respect.
Unfortunately, the procession of stories left me mixed up with which woman was which, and with whom she was associated. It also detracted from the actual detecting of the criminal, who is found by accident. The other detraction for me was the over-indulgence in violent sex in the story, much more than was necessary for the story.
That being said, overall I enjoyed it. The construction was good, it was an easy read, and the idea f getting to know the victims and their environments is a good idea. Worth a read.
That being said, the parallels end after a certain point. “Every Man” is a serious and well-thought though book. This one is a rapid-fire series of murders of blonde women, juxtaposed with their previous experiences, leading up to the war, through the war and immediately after it. This focus on the victim’s life, related just after they have been found dead, lets the reader get to know the victim, as well as some insights into 1930’s and 1940’s life in Germany. It also explores the relationship between the US military police and the German police, and the way that they eventually build up respect.
Unfortunately, the procession of stories left me mixed up with which woman was which, and with whom she was associated. It also detracted from the actual detecting of the criminal, who is found by accident. The other detraction for me was the over-indulgence in violent sex in the story, much more than was necessary for the story.
That being said, overall I enjoyed it. The construction was good, it was an easy read, and the idea f getting to know the victims and their environments is a good idea. Worth a read.
August 11, 2014
Compelling and embarrassing in equal measure. Really enjoyed the back stories of all the murder victims, great insight into life in wartime Berlin. Found the serial killer plot itself unnecessarily violent and unpleasant and in fact the book would have been none the worse without it. The revelation of the killer's identity was a real anticlimax after a couple of very obvious red herrings and the over-frequent sex scenes (did Berlin ladies really just shag at the drop of a hat?) were laughable at times, something lost in translation maybe? Worth a read but not the greatest piece of literature ever.
January 22, 2009
This one needs 3 1/2 stars. It is a mundane serial killer mystery about a killer who targets blonde, blue-eyed German girls. What makes it rather compelling is that it is set in Berlin in the immediate aftermath of WW II when the city is occupied. And it is made more compelling by the device of devoting a long chapter to the life story of each murder victim, so you get an idea of what the war years were like for Berliners. The writing style is stiff, but that may be because it is translated from German.
Read
January 11, 2014Long time ago, but I liked it. A good combination of a thrill, historic lesson to learn.
February 26, 2016
Geschichtlich auf jeden Fall interessant. Ein paar Theman/Motive haben sich wiederholt, aber die Struktur der Textes war unterhaltsam. 3.5
October 15, 2023
Ein Serienkiller, ein Kommissar - viel mehr braucht es häufig nicht für einen spannenden Roman. Historisch eingeordnet wird das Geschehen in das Berlin 1945, wobei viele Erzählstränge auch schon deutlich früher anfangen.
Der Autor ist wirklich gut darin Kurzgeschichten zu erzählen. Denn eigentlich werden in dem Buch die ausführlichen Lebensgeschichten von verschiedenen Frauen erzählt, die bis auf das äußere nichts miteinander zu tun haben und die wenig überraschend dem Mörder in die Hände fallen.
In kurzen Kapiteln zwischendrin wird der ermittelnde Kommissar, der eigentlich bei einer Wach&Schließ Gesellschaft gearbeitet hat, seine Familie und das Leben der Nachkriegszeit dargestellt.
Die Geschichte um die Morde bringt das Buch erst zu einem Ganzen zusammen, wenn sich auch die Spannung um den Kriminalfall in Grenzen hält. Viel interessanter sind tatsächlich die Lebensgeschichten. Der Autor schafft es, dass sich die Lesenden in kurzer Zeit in die jeweilige Protagonistin hineinversetzen, mit ihr mitfiebern und mitleiden. Hier liegt definitiv die große Stärke des Buches, welches man an diesen Stellen kaum weglegen kann.
Soweit so gut, hier liegt also ein kurzweiliges und interessantes Buch auf dem Tisch, was sich wirklich gut lesen lässt.
Wäre da nicht noch das sehr omnipräsente Thema Sex. Ob relevant für die Geschichte oder nicht, der Autor lässt keine Gelegenheit aus, die Protagonistinnen nackt zu machen. Ob minderjährig oder erwachsen, freiwillig oder mit Gewalt, egal in welcher Konstellation - als Lesender hat man Mitleid mit den Frauen, aber vor allem aufgrund der blühenden Phantasie des Autors.
Der Autor ist wirklich gut darin Kurzgeschichten zu erzählen. Denn eigentlich werden in dem Buch die ausführlichen Lebensgeschichten von verschiedenen Frauen erzählt, die bis auf das äußere nichts miteinander zu tun haben und die wenig überraschend dem Mörder in die Hände fallen.
In kurzen Kapiteln zwischendrin wird der ermittelnde Kommissar, der eigentlich bei einer Wach&Schließ Gesellschaft gearbeitet hat, seine Familie und das Leben der Nachkriegszeit dargestellt.
Die Geschichte um die Morde bringt das Buch erst zu einem Ganzen zusammen, wenn sich auch die Spannung um den Kriminalfall in Grenzen hält. Viel interessanter sind tatsächlich die Lebensgeschichten. Der Autor schafft es, dass sich die Lesenden in kurzer Zeit in die jeweilige Protagonistin hineinversetzen, mit ihr mitfiebern und mitleiden. Hier liegt definitiv die große Stärke des Buches, welches man an diesen Stellen kaum weglegen kann.
Soweit so gut, hier liegt also ein kurzweiliges und interessantes Buch auf dem Tisch, was sich wirklich gut lesen lässt.
Wäre da nicht noch das sehr omnipräsente Thema Sex. Ob relevant für die Geschichte oder nicht, der Autor lässt keine Gelegenheit aus, die Protagonistinnen nackt zu machen. Ob minderjährig oder erwachsen, freiwillig oder mit Gewalt, egal in welcher Konstellation - als Lesender hat man Mitleid mit den Frauen, aber vor allem aufgrund der blühenden Phantasie des Autors.
April 28, 2020
Disappointing to be honest. Not much of a mystery and more of a “the lives and deaths of five women in Nazi Germany” tale. And you already know when, where and how they die so the emotional ties never really bind. Also, it needed another editing. There are several typos and poor translations that should have been cleaned up. The transitions between settings/time periods/characters can be far too abrupt, as well. I had to backtrack several times when I realized a change had occurred with no indication. The History involved is fairly elementary. Convenient run-ins, impossible coincidences, deus ex machinas and incredibly stupid antagonists. And, boy, the Germans must have had a LOT of sex in the 1920-40s! Everybody sleeps together right away. And very young! And how many molesters and homosexuals lived in Berlin back then! EVERY freakin’ person knows at least one of each! Even the protagonists aren’t very likable or decent characters. The author really must have an awful view of life in general.
June 9, 2018
Die Schicksale fünfer Frauen, die außer nem grausamen Tod (durch nen Serienkiller), blondem Haar und demselben HintergrundSetting nichts gemeinsam haben und das ist der Haken an dem Buch, denn Grundplot wie auch Binnenerzählungen wirken wahllos aneinandergekleistert.
Da wären
- eine Schauspielerin, die sich hochschläft
- eine Mutter, die ihr Kind verteidigt
- eine Aristokratin in diplomatischer Mission
- eine Zwangsprostituierte auf der Flucht
- eine Witwe in KriegsWirren
Bemerkens- und lesenswert dagegen ist die authentische Vor&NachkriegsAtmosphäre, da steckt Gehalt drin, was man von der KrimiKomponente leider nicht behaupten kann.
Anrührender GenreMix aus Drama, Kriegsbericht, LausbubenIntermezzi, Sentimentalität und recht viel SexEpisoden. Insgesamt weniger kohärent als depri-stimmungsvolle ErzählSammlung;
Da wären
- eine Schauspielerin, die sich hochschläft
- eine Mutter, die ihr Kind verteidigt
- eine Aristokratin in diplomatischer Mission
- eine Zwangsprostituierte auf der Flucht
- eine Witwe in KriegsWirren
Bemerkens- und lesenswert dagegen ist die authentische Vor&NachkriegsAtmosphäre, da steckt Gehalt drin, was man von der KrimiKomponente leider nicht behaupten kann.
Anrührender GenreMix aus Drama, Kriegsbericht, LausbubenIntermezzi, Sentimentalität und recht viel SexEpisoden. Insgesamt weniger kohärent als depri-stimmungsvolle ErzählSammlung;
October 16, 2018
This is an interesting book, set in post war Berlin in 1945. The author has done a lot of research, and the atmosphere feels authentic.
However, tho it was interesting enough to finish, there were three problems with Berlin. Most important, I did not like how it was organized. The mystery is a set of serial killings, and after each killing we get a review of the victim’s life. There are subplots about the investigators and about a teenager trying to be a rebel. So the book continually stops, starts, and wanders.
The second problem is the mystery itself. There are too many red herrings.
Third (sorry Anti-fas of the world) Every Nazi is Evil. Obviously not all Nazis were sweet and lovable, but could just one be sort of human? There were eight million Party members.
So, ok if you are intrigued by the period. Otherwise not so much.
However, tho it was interesting enough to finish, there were three problems with Berlin. Most important, I did not like how it was organized. The mystery is a set of serial killings, and after each killing we get a review of the victim’s life. There are subplots about the investigators and about a teenager trying to be a rebel. So the book continually stops, starts, and wanders.
The second problem is the mystery itself. There are too many red herrings.
Third (sorry Anti-fas of the world) Every Nazi is Evil. Obviously not all Nazis were sweet and lovable, but could just one be sort of human? There were eight million Party members.
So, ok if you are intrigued by the period. Otherwise not so much.
March 11, 2020
Set in the Uncle Tom’s Cabin area in the American sector of Berlin, this is the story of a German detective and an American police officer trying to catch a serial killer. The search lacks any real pace because the back story each of the five women attacked is described at length. Essentially, the construct of the book is used to carry these five biographies through the thirties and the years of the war. Written by a German author and translated into English, this was a powerful book, but slightly heavy going at times.
May 7, 2017
Composed of a number of vignettes of the victims, "Berlin" tells the story or a serial killer at loose in th3e American sector of post war Berlin. It is unusual in that the victims become real people for the reader before there lives are cut off. Powerfully written and containing a wealth of detail. A great story.
December 7, 2021
I would have given a higher rating - maybe even a 4- but there’s too much, too graphic, disgusting sex. The plot is good and kept me guessing. It’s unusual in dealing more with the victims than the killer or the police…and I understand the sexual aspect of the crimes…but too much detail!!! Nasty details!!!
October 16, 2019
This was a great story. Flashbacks to the lives of murder victims before their demise. Really gives a sense of pre-war, wartime, and post-war Berlin. Possibly too much focus on sex, which just detracts from the story at times, feeling shoehorned in.
May 10, 2022
Discovered new thriller
This is first book I have read by this imaginative author. Structured on the lives of serial killer's victims this novel approach puts new life in an old crime story. The setting of postwar Germany adds more interest. Highly recommended.
This is first book I have read by this imaginative author. Structured on the lives of serial killer's victims this novel approach puts new life in an old crime story. The setting of postwar Germany adds more interest. Highly recommended.
December 30, 2017
Vor allem historisch interessant und erschreckend.
May 1, 2020
Captivated by the interwoven character stories and the flow of the narrative.
December 1, 2020
Not totally successful to present a view of pre and post war Berlin
April 17, 2022
Sehr guter Krimi. Besonders gruselig für Berliner*innen die alle Orte des Buches genau kennen.
June 16, 2023
Absolutely brilliant I’ve read it twice!!
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