It’s city week and my choice fell on a book set in Berlin – Lucy Fricke’s Das Fest/The Party. Fricke is a very successful German author and has written a few bestsellers, one of which, Töchter/Daughters, has been translated. I was one of those who absolutely didn’t like Daughters. It was marketed as something literary, yet it was at best mediocre chick lit. Nonetheless, I felt like giving this one a chance because I liked the premise. Jakob, a once successful film director, is turning fifty. Not exactly an event he feels like celebrating. His film success is long gone. He hasn’t had a real relationship since his divorce and other than his best friend Ellen there don’t seem to be that many people in his life.
Ellen can’t accept this, can’t accept his despondency and turns up on his door step with a bottle of champagne and a secret plan, which Jakob will discover slowly during the course of the day. Unbeknownst to him, she has contacted the people who were once important to him. One after the other will “magically” turn up and together they take trips down memory lane.
Jakob has always lived in Berlin and the day is also an exploration of his old haunts, places where he used to hang out, where he used to live. Like any big or smaller city, Berlin has changed considerably during the last decades. Gentrification is rearing its ugly head everywhere but there are still places with the old magic and Jakob is happy to discover those. Those are places where people live a little differently from everyone else, adopt a more alternative lifestyle.
I had hoped that Berlin would figure a bit more prominently but I knew it wasn’t a real “Berlin novel”, just a novel set in Berlin.
The Party was praised for being realistic, melancholy, but ultimately uplifting. That’s not wrong. There’s also a love story and Jakob is able to make peace with a few complicated relationships of his past.
Sadly, I liked this even less than Daughters. Daughters had a few funny moments, bordering on slapstick, but the humor in The Party is pure slapstick and, in my opinion, not really funny at all.
I didn’t mind reading Das Fest as the idea and the themes were appealing. These big birthdays are so often not as joyful as they should or could be. At times, there’s also immense pressure to celebrate them in a big way. Not wanting to participate and just let the day go by like any other is something I can relate to. So I liked this aspect but overall the novel is just a bit to cutesy for me.
Before you tell me I should have picked THE Berlin novel, here are the links to a four part readalong of Berlin Alexanderplatz, which took place during German Literature Month 2019.
Beauty is a Sleeping Cat 
Yes, I wasn’t bowled over by Daughters either but I might have picked up this one for the Berlin theme. Shame it wasn’t better executed.
It’s not worth for the Berlin theme, in my opinion and even weaker than Daughters.
Noted!
We obviously interpreted Genre Week very differently (I think I’m glad I went my way !).
Do you mean this post? It was a typo. 😏 I changed it to city week meanwhile. I failed in genre week. I wanted to review two poetry collections but not having the translations at hand made it awkward.
Ah, I thought you’d gone for a Chick-Lit contribution 😉
You could say that. Accidentally. But even as a choice for city week – it’s very 🫤
I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you, Caroline. Not an author I’ve come across before – and given your experience, I doubt whether she’s for me!
Thanks, Jacqui. This isn’t for you at all.
I’m not tempted by this, but I really admire you for giving the author another chance!
You never know and the story had potential but, yes, give it a miss.
Oh dear. It does sound like an interesting premise, with the friends taking him back through key events of his life, so there’s a lot of potential for a good story there. Shame it didn’t pan out. I do find that the way a book is presented makes a difference – if you’re expecting something literary and it falls short, you feel disappointed, whereas if it was marketed as something lighter, you’d know what to expect. I think publishers often do authors a disservice by trying to shoehorn books into categories where they don’t quite fit.
The premise was great but not the execution. I think in this case it was my mistake. I thought it would be different from the last one in tone but it’s not. And the slapstick elements were so silly.
Have you read Behead Karim Khani? I’ve read his second novel but the first is said to be equally good and has been translated. He’s Iranian born and the way he uses the German language is something else. I hope the translation captures that. And obviously his experience as immigrant in the 70s – it’s raw and harsh. I mention him because won’t get time to review him this month.
No, I haven’t read anything by him. I looked around and couldn’t find any English translations of his books, which is a shame because his writing sounds excellent.
I’m sorry. I misunderstood this article. I really thought it was available already. He’s praised so much maybe it’s on its way.
https://www.new-books-in-german.com/recommendations/dog-wolf-jackal/
Ah, I see. Yes, I think that site is about publicising books that have done well in German and deserve an English translation. So yes, maybe it’s on its way, but nothing so far. I did like the excerpt I found translated here: https://www.asymptotejournal.com/special-feature/dog-wolf-jackal-behzad-karim-khani/ Not sure if captures the inventive use of language from the German original, but maybe a full-length book translation would do that.
I have read his second and he’s very innovative there. I’m not sure yet about this one. I’ve only read the first third.