Keeping Up With the Germans (Philip Oltermann)

Philip Oltermann
Keeping Up With the Germans



I hesitate to read books written by foreigners about British culture, or indeed books written by Brits about other cultures. They are often lazy caricatures and at best reinforce why you think you have a great culture with inane positive generalisations. Also I often  pick holes in what is written, not surprisingly as I have always lived in England bar a year or so travelling / bumming around the Americas. Although this book has all of the above in parts I guess that goes with the territory and the author understands that and has made a real attempt to analyse both German and British cultures by the innovative instrument of various meetings between both nationalities from the last couple of centuries.

I wasn't sure whether the book was by a German noting British oddities which is apparent when Philip first comes to live in London's suburbia noting bathrooms with carpeting and separate hot and cold taps (something which my German friends just cannot get their heads around). Or by a truly anglicised German looking at German customs such as new year walks up the Brocken in the Harz mountains which is somewhere I've had the pleasure of visiting. The book goes into much deeper analysis of both cultures and the national psyches and how each look at each other and is both intriguing and compelling.

A couple of notable sections are the impressive build of sash windows with their perfectly balanced counterweights hidden from view (ever opened one up?) but ultimately being either draughty or painted shut and therefore needing to be replaced. And the German obsession at new year with an English sketch from the music hall era called Dinner For One which I'd never heard of until my German friends showed me it a few months ago whilst visiting Berlin. To me it's an amusing sketch with little dialogue in the style of Norman Wisdom or Eric Sykes when TV was B&W and shut down at 10.30 with the national anthem. To the Germans it's a national institution. Go watch... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lzQxjGL9S0  Going back to my hesitation in reading books like this the sketch is everything you would expect a foreigner to think about Brits - class separation (butler with my name James), empire artifacts, eccentricity, heavy drinking, slapstick and finally crude innuendo but of course nothing explicit. But to be fair funny all the same and may sum up the public face of Britain from the 1950s although obviously not now.

In conclusion an enjoyable book that made me think about both German and my culture, and how both are perceived. Interested in how it comes across to a German very interested in British culture and how to a Brit who's married to a German and works regularly over there. Let me know boys.

Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance (Johnny Rogan)

Johnny Rogan
Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance




This book was written just after The Smiths split so is pretty old but came highly recommended and therefore I thought worth a read. I was never a big Smiths fan having seen a massively overhyped show in the early 80s. Admittedly it wasn't them doing the hyping but a few of my mates raved about this new band that were the saviour of post punk indie rock and pop with a singer who had the detached attitude of Johnny Rotten. So I went along to see them at Birmingham University (gigography in the book says 30/9/83) and was somewhat disappointed watching a band with very little audience engagement and a fey singer sneering at the audience with gladioli affectedly hanging out his back pocket singing and screeching. I remember that the music wasn’t as astoundingly innovative as my mates had made out with a fairly competent rock rhythm section and bluesy guitar. If I’d seen them cold without warning and Morrissey had said hello to us then maybe I’d have appreciated them more. Maybe he wasn't into playing to a load of students at what would have been a freshers week gig. Henceforth I was never a fan although liked a few of their more upbeat tunes and obviously danced around to them at the ubiquitous indie disco. I probably saw them at Glastonbury too as when they played I think I was there and there weren't as many stages as now to choose from. Looking back I can see the brilliance of some of their songs but there's still a hell of a lot of miserablist whining to scour through before the gems.

So to the book rather than my musings. It's put together mainly through interviews and the only Smith who seems to have cooperated is the drummer Joyce. I read that Morrissey hated the book but he's a cantakerous old git so not sure that means a lot. It's well written and although at first it seems a bit thrown together with odd memories of those he's interviewed as time goes on the storyline becomes more coherent soon giving us a rich insight into the band and their challenges. The early days of Morrissey at school are very reminiscent of my schooldays although perhaps my school was a little more interested in teaching and less in corporal punishment. But not a lot. As ever when reading these band biographies I regret not taking the time to learn the guitar and become a rock and roll star but guess many do learn and few make a living out of it. The Smiths come over as a fairly dysfunctional group. Brilliantly gelling as musicians, which I guess it's all about, but communications between themselves and certainly with others outside the group were appalling eventually leading to their demise. The Morrissey / Marr team's independence, or control freakery, seems a major contribution to stress as nothing was contractually agreed and in trying to keep control of management they just had to do too much. Or disappoint people who were trying to help them. The author seems to have a genuine respect for all the group and the book reads fairly. A few very interesting snippets especially the close involvement of Grant Showbiz of Here and Now fame (look em up). Ironically it was the punk meets hippy psychedelic dance funk crossover bands that Here and Now preceded that made me think that The Smiths, pretty early on in their career, were the last of the indie popsters who would be swept away with richer soundscapes. Acid house and the rave scene did indeed seriously damage indie guitar bands but they reemerged with Brit Pop.

Overall a good read and of interest whether you're a Smiths fan or simply want to read the life story up to the demise of The Smiths of admittedly two of the great songwriting duos and one of the more interesting and controversial characters from British popular culture from the last few decades.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (John Boyne)

John Boyne
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas



A very tenderly written book in language as if for kids which it probably was. I'd never fancied reading it as tend to avoid distressing subjects if sentimental which I thought it may be. As both my daughters (16 and 11) have read and raved about it I thought I'd give it a go. Glad I did and finished in two sittings. It has an innocence reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (which I really should read again) but maybe that's a lazy comparison. The worries and pains of the main character are both sharply contrasted with but at the same time sympathetically compared with those of his imprisoned friend. On one level it's a story about loss, friendship and being a child. That's the way it's written and it's only when I stop to think about the context does the horror of the situation make itself felt. That dark side of the relationship is brilliantly understated and even obviously violent episodes are explicitly not described to us keeping us in some ways more innocent than the children themselves. My second session was at midnight in bed and a feeling of dread washed over me not wanting to know what happens but rushing towards the end. The ending is so delicately described that I had to read again thinking about what was happening rather than what was described. Even the very last scene has a pathos that suggests empathy rather than hatred. The last lines bring us back to the context and how this world really isn't as innocent as the story is written. This morning I asked my 11 year old daughter if she knew what happened at the end and she described quite mechanically the horror and said that they were told at school and also by her 16 year old sister. Definitely written for children who maybe don't read it with the sentimental eyes that I did cos they are themselves going through the pains of being young and made to do what others (myself included) tell them to often without any real understanding as to why. Maybe that's what ultimately unites the two friends despite the obvious difference between their situations. In the end their friendship brings them together united in their inability to decide their fate.

News of a Kidnapping (Gabriel García Márquez)

Gabriel García Márquez
News of a Kidnapping

I usually find GGM very readable and love the way he richly builds up characters and situations making you feel part of it. However although this is meant to be his best book I found it really difficult to get into. He brings so many characters in to play and has a seemingly scattergun approach as to who you get to know and who not. Added to this anyone without the advantage of being in power or with influence is seemingly dismissed by him as if their or their family's pain is nothing. Maybe this is deliberate as I guess in Columbia at this time life was very cheap and no one cared about the working class. The dead driver is dismissed with a sentence whereas we are told to feel sorry for our privileged kidnappee as she's roughly manhandled into a car. He also bangs on about the poor food and conditions that his privileged characters have to endure and it's only at the end of the book that one of the "bad guys" points out what I was thinking all the way through - i.e. that this is how most people live in the Columbian slums anyway so stop complaining. And as a veggie lentils don't sound so bad anyway and pulses are the staple diet for most in South America.

The narrative lurches from kidnapped to political workings all the time without really going into any context but maybe it was written for Columbians who'd lived through this period. I was in Columbia in the late 80s and so followed the disastrous times then and into the 90s but even so I could have done with a quick recap as to who Escobar was and how the situation with him, other drug cartels and the para military / police militias had come about and their atrocities in the slums.
I felt little sympathy for the main characters especially as they came from the social and political elite and had access to power including the president and indeed Escobar too. Maybe also it's because we don't get into the prisoners' personalities and the mental stress is reported as if in a news bulletin rather than in an empathetic way which is odd for Marquez as he's very good at that in other books I've read. I also wondered if something was lost in translation although the translator is Edith Grossman who I've read and though did brilliantly for Don Quixote and The General in His Labyrinth.
I got more into the book when it moves to less prisoners so you get to know them better and when it goes into the mechanisms of political influence and the governments way of dealing with Escobar and then learning about him. The release of the last two and Escobar's surrender were interesting although sometimes a little unbelievable and again could have had more context (written for Columbians?) as to who he was and how built up such an empire - cartels and the govt war on narcotics and police atrocities in the slums. The ending feels a bit rushed with nothing on the aftermath except for Escobar's fate.

In the end I was glad I persevered and enjoyed the 2nd half more than first. Not at all sure it's his best book though...