Status Updates From Die Schleife an Stalins Bar...

again, writing is meh. story is very interesting but also lingers a lot on things that aren't ... THAT important.

mom made me read it.
so far, so okay - writing style is not ... great. text needs a breather. there is so much information packed in there and everything has the same significance, be it combing hair or being thrown in a cell.

Her husband is such a fine fellow that he also runs off with 50,000 DM of his employer's. & the author as his wife is liable for the sun, her lawyer tenderly reminds her of the traditional wording of the wedding vows.
Luckily she couldn't have an abortion so she also has a baby to care for while she is traumatised by her time in prison.
Also luckily there is such a thing as divorce.

Released from prison, the author joins her mother. She swiftly marries a fellow ex-prisoner and rapidly finds herself pregnant. Her mother is a wise woman and at the doctor's she asks 'if he could...'
But no! It's the 1950s in West Germany, so no abortion. Quickly it turns out that the new husband has been dealing with his psychological problems by spending her money on pretty girls (& wine & song?).

The narrator has her two front teeth knocked out by a Russian prison guard who fancies her. For this he is sent back from Rest Germany to Russia, and he then sends her a dress and a box of cigarettes.

Perhaps she was wrong to interpret his being sent back to Russia as a punishment...

Making chess pieces out of bread...where have I read that before? ... (thinks )... Stefan Zwieg "Chess novella" maybe?