Berlin Tales

by Helen Constantine (Editor), Lyn Marven (Translator), Siegfried Kracauer (Contributor)

If there is one city that captures the tragedy and euphoria of the twentieth century, it is Berlin. The scene of socialist revolution and Nazi oppression, invaded and occupied, divided and blockaded, it rose again after German reunification to become a thriving global cultural center. Not surprisingly, Berlin has been home to some of the finest writers in any language, who have rooted their tales in the nooks and neighborhoods of this fascinating place. In Berlin Tales, translator Lyn Marven and editor Helen Constantine offer a collection that reveals the literary brilliance and urban richness found in Berlin over the decades. The stories are grouped together by district--from the Jewish Mitte to Turkish Kreuzberg, from Alexanderplatz to individual streets--and layered on top of each other historically, providing a narrative palimpsest that tells us much about the city and its writers. The city's image, meaning, and appeal to immigrants and tourists find full expression here, in this remarkable array of work from across the decades.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Germany

248 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 2009

About the author

Helen Constantine read French and Latin at Oxford. She was Head of Languages at Bartholomew School, Eynsham, until 2000, when she gave up teaching and became a full-time translator. She has published volumes of translated stories, Paris Tales, and French Tales and edits a series of City Tales for Oxford University Press. Paris Metro Tales will be published in March 2011. She has translated Mademoiselle de Maupinby Théophile Gautier and Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos for Penguin and is currently translating Balzac’s La Peau de Chagrin for OUP. She is married to the poet, David Constantine and with him edits Modern Poetry in Translation.

(from http://www.mptmagazine.com/author/hel...)

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

update 2024
I saw this book on the shelf and I thought "have I read this" - naturally I pulled it down and started to flick through and read a couple of pages. No nothing familiar yet, maybe I haven't read it after all, but I will check on Goodreads, and there I found I have read and reviewed it and after a couple of years forgotten it entirely.

Original review:
The other views of this book are generally unimpressed, and I am sympathetic to their viewpoint.

This is a collection of a lot of stories with an average length of about ten pages, they were mostly set in the twentieth century with perhaps one or two from the current millennium. Admittedly I read three quarters or more of the book while travelling in big thirsty gulps and so I was very likely tired and distracted, but my impression was that the voice of these stories was extremely similar - I think other collections of short stories get round this by using a several translators. Translation is a hard and often thankless task and admittedly I don't know any of the stories here in their originals, but I was not wowed or impressed by any of the stories here - though again perhaps that is an issue with the selection of the tales. The one which stood out most for me was the story by the woman who was a political exile from Turkey who was excited by streets named after Marx and Rosa Luxembourg. That story had the flavour of what a city can mean to you as a foreigner or a visitor. A good number of the stories (including that one) were affected by Berlin's division post 1945 into two, of these the one which touched me intellectually the most was about the destruction of the old Palace of the Republic and the range of architectural innovations and features that had been incorporated into it that were lost. There was a poignancy in Uwe Johnson's piece about how the division was visible in the divided inner-city transport network - though possibly only if like me you where born in a Capital city.

I was surprised that with the arguable exception of one piece by Wladimer Kaminer none of the stories addressed immigration - which is a typical big city experience. Worst of all was my disappointment in the Alfred Doblin story which read more like a diary entry from years when Berlin Alexanderplatz was germinating slowly in his head than an actual short story and managed to lack any of the energy of the later novel despite having the same elements.

I can see the appeal of a collection of stories set in one city, it's perfect for the days of weekend city breaks - fly in, visit the sites, sample the lifestyle, fly home - and read a sampler of the literature to enhance your trip, however this collection did not work for me, it stirred no memories of my admittedly brief visits to Berlin nor did it lodge a lump of Fernweh in my throat which could only be loosened by a currywurst and a swig of Berliner Weisse, or the sight of a wild boar stealing a naked sunbather's laptop on the bank of the river Spree.

[Sal Noel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can I review after reading only 3 of the stories? Seems unfair as there may be treats to come but shouldn't an editor hook the reader in with a great opening tale? Appears to me to be a case of- We need some short stories about Berlin- go and write something... oh just look out of your window and write what you see...
I like a story to have some characters and some sort of a storyline ( or a memorable style)- all I saw was descriptions of a city- Abandoned.

[Ginnybean]

Disappointed as the short stories were quite ill written - it was difficult to actually understand them. Shame as I love Berlin!

[Philip Coulter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really mixed set of stories. Unfortunately a fair amount of underwhelming writing by good authors (Uwe Johnson, Durs Grunbein who I do like!), pieces that were clearly only picked because of a city theme.

I did really, really like the stories by Gunter Kunert, Wolfdietrich Schnurre and Ulrike Draesner. Particularly Kunert. Something about Kathrin Roggla's piece made me return to it as well.
These are not the only good stories, but (for me) the stand outs.

[Kelly Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seriously, were all the good bits lost in the translation process?

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this in Berlin on our trip so couldn’t help but love it. There are some strange stories in there for sure but fun to „see“ the city again! ❤️

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Berlin tales is a collection of short stories about Berlin. Many of them are translated and I think much got lost in translation and often the translation is too literally as the stories are disjointed and often fail to make sense. If the book was not called Berlin Tales it would be difficult to work out where many of the stories were set as they make little reference to Berlin in them.

[Tom]

From Ursula

[Zoya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I was disappointed by this collection of tales. No plots, no characters.

[Amanda Witt]

A good little selection of stories taking place from the 1930's through to the '90's, the war, the period after, before and after the wall's construction and destruction.
As my father was from Berlin, I felt familiar with some places, and one story takes place in his suburb.