Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye. This week, all thee came from #6degrees chains.
A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous
Why I have it: via Hopewell’s Library
Summary: For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building – the author captures the lives of her fellow Berliners in all their humanity, as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the Russians.
I’m thinking: Yes – how had I missed this one?
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad
Why I have it: because I enjoyed Bunny.
Summary: Growing up in the suburban hell of Misery Saga (a.k.a. Mississauga), Lizzie has never liked the way she looks. With punishing drive, she counts almonds consumed, miles logged, pounds dropped. She grows up and gets thin, navigating double-edged validation from her mother, her friends, her husband, her reflection in the mirror.
I’m thinking: Yes – Awad is odd, and I like it. It’s a no after reading the review at Grab the Lapels.
The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy
Why I have it: I’ve enjoyed Levy’s writing in the past.
Summary: 1988: Saul Adler, a narcissistic historian, has been invited to Communist East Berlin to do research; in exchange, he must publish a favorable essay about the German Democratic Republic. As a gift for his translator’s sister, a Beatles fanatic who will be his host, Saul’s girlfriend will shoot a photograph of him standing in the crosswalk on Abbey Road. As he waits for her to arrive, he is grazed by an oncoming car, which changes the trajectory of his life.
I’m thinking: Yes – the opening hooked me.
The Levy’s been sitting on my TBR shelves for many months now. Perhaps I’ll wait and see what you think about it.
Unexpectedly, I couldn’t get into the Levy at all, but A Woman in Berlin looks promising – thanks.
The Awad doesn’t appeal but the others sound really interesting. Like you, I’ve really enjoyed Levy in the past.
I’ve since changed my mind about the Awad… I reckon Levy is consistently good, so looking forward to this one.
I read A Woman in Berlin many years ago and it is one of the most traumatic and effecting non-fiction books I’ve ever read. I’ve also read 13 Ways when it was shortlisted for the Giller but can’t really remember much about it.
Bracing myself for Woman in Berlin (might wait until well after lockdown – things traumatic enough in Melbourne at the moment).
A Woman in Berlin, if it’s genuine, sounds amazing. Not sure about 13 Ways – Melanie/GTL’s crusade against representations of fat women finding happiness through dieting is pretty convincing.
My understanding is that Woman in Berlin is genuine and that the identity of the author is now known.
I thought 13 Ways was ultimately about the fact that the subject did not find happiness (this expectation is based on Awad’s other books that don’t follow the script) HOWEVER, I popped over to GTL and read Melanie’s review – she gives it the thumbs down, so I’ll strike it from the list.
I really didn’t like the first half of the Levy, but loved the second half which made sense of everything that had come before. It’s a very smart book.
This Levy didn’t effect me as much as Hot Milk, but it did get under my skin and as Cathy said, it’s clever.
I couldn’t get into the Levy, which was a disappointment because I’d loved Hot Milk.
Woman in Berlin is a classic but may be difficult for women who have experienced abuse.