A young man searches for maturity in 1980’s Berlin
Jed, screwup son of an upper middle class Chicago family, comes to
Berlin after rehab, to stay with his accomplished second cousin Cello, her
German husband and her cute band of biracial boys. Only he understands that sophisticated
beautiful Cello was once chubby Ruthanne, music student who literally choked
her way offstage at every recital. Cello
is being charitable, but Jed is clearly aware of his inferior status. Meanwhile, he is fascinated by hot German men and
by the mysterious philosophical architect who takes a shine to Jed.
I bailed on this one after attempting fifty pages a night for three
nights, each night falling asleep about fifteen pages in. This novel is a textbook case of the perils
of the passive main character.
The tension never built and never even started building, I think, to any
sense of emotional stakes. I am still
puzzling out why this happened as the setting was great, the initial setup with
blood relative/twin Cello seemed fruitful, the narrator’s sometimes snippy tone
and his pithy nuggets of information were interesting. I believe it was because there was no
orchestrated conflict between Cleo and Jed. You can't build a novel on aphorisms.