Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade, Parthenope, Where Dragons Live and Thunderbolts* reviewed by MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE
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A toxic German fairytale
JOHN GREEN takes issue with a mainstream novel designed to denigrate the GDR
REALITY DENIED: Concert in the foyer of the Palast der Republik, Jugendtanz, 1976
CHRIS SEARLE wallows in an evening of high class improvised jazz, and recommends upcoming highlights in May
MARY CONWAY applauds the revival of a tense, and extremely funny, study of men, money and playing cards
MEHDI ACHOUCHE explores the constant fascination of cinema with Marxist alienation from Fritz Lang and Chaplin to Bong Joon Ho
FIONA O’CONNOR steps warily through a novel that skewers many of the exposed flanks of the over-privileged
MARY CONWAY applauds the study of a dysfunctional family set in an Ireland that could be anywhere
MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
The Granddaughter
Bernhard Schlink, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20
SCHLINK’s novel, The Reader, was made into an acclaimed film, starring Kate Winslet. In that novel, he dealt with Germany’s Nazi legacy. In this novel, he takes the legacy of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as his subject.
Schlink concocts a story to illustrate the mainstream narrative of Germany having lived through two dictatorships and of a continuous timeline of development between Nazism and the GDR. It is little wonder that his novels have garnered approbation in the mainstream press.
Like virtually all books written about life in the GDR by (West-) German authors, this one is replete with the usual tropes. The author is also one of those who was parachuted into a leading position in East Germany after unification — or “annexation” as many former GDR citizens call it — becoming a professor of law at Berlin’s Humboldt university.
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