The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

TK

Eileen Battersby's take

At first glance the judges must be applauded for including two remarkable European works, Compass, by the gifted French writer Mathias Énard (translated by Charlotte Mandell) and Bricks and Mortar, by visionary German realist Clemens Meyer (translated by Katy Derbyshire).

Bricks and Mortar is starker [than Compass] if no less compelling. Meyer, best known to date for his assured second book, All the Lights (2008; 2011, also translated by Derbyshire), confronts the sex trade in Germany from just before the fall of the Berlin Wall until the present day. At the centre is an Everyman thug and his rise and fall. It has echoes of Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929). It is full of voices and individual stories.

Published in Germany in 2013 and one of my books of 2016, Bricks and Mortar is a movie waiting to be made. Its blunt humanity and cinematic energy are sustained through a daunting technical control, which complements the edgy artistry.

This book is truly amazing and I am very happy that it is getting the attention it deserves not only in, but also outside of Germany! I just wrote a little review and I would be happy to hear other people`s opinion on Meyer´s work and his chances of winning. Here`s my text:

If you like Genet, Burroughs, and Fauser, you will love this. While the book deals with the sex trade as one of the capitalist industries conquering the former GDR after 1989, it is neither voyeuristic nor a moral tale. What makes Clemens Meyer’s writing so compelling is his immense empathy for his protagonists who are portrayed with great dignity. As outsiders in the midst of historic turmoil, they are trying (and often failing) to come to terms with the reality they live in. Meyer refrains from putting pimps, prostitutes, and policemen in boxes like “good”, “bad”, “criminal”, or “victim”. Rather, they are complex and often ambiguous, just like the world they live in.

This idea is also reflected in the book`s style, which is cut-up, intertwined and multidimensional, orchestrating many voices and scenes. And while you are busy putting the pieces together, the story punches you in the face again and again.

If you read Meyer before, this will not come as a surprise: His declared goal has always been to challenge and unsettle his readers – “literature has to hurt”, as he puts it. Judging by this standard, “Bricks and Mortar” is Meyer’s masterpiece. The book breathes disorientation, disconnectedness and melancholy, but the protagonists constantly struggle to uphold their personal integrity and dignity. It is indeed painful to read – if you do not feel like either puking or crying after reading the chapter written from the perspective of a child forced into prostitution, you are probably not human.

I am always stunned by the intensity of Meyer`s work. I can physically feel his texts, and that’s a very rare thing. So if you enjoy reading stories about people who normally tend to be overlooked or stereotyped, and if you are not afraid to dissect and reassemble a living text, got for this book, it is truly amazing!

Thanks for that - you've got me excited to read this one.

Thank you, Paul!

I am halfway through this and it is without doubt a challenging book to read, mainly because of the structure. As Meike says, it has multiple story lines and the stories are not told chronologically, so you are continually jumping between stories and jumping around in time. And there is rarely anything in the text to tell you where/when you have jumped to - you have to work it out for yourself or wait for it to gradually become clear as a chapter progresses.

Meike's "disorientation" is a very apt word, I think.

But very bold writing and what seems to me to be excellent translating (although I'm no expert - I can only go by the fact that it reads well in English!).

Thank you for your thoughts, Neil! I really liked how Meyer reflects the themes of upheaval, confusion and loss in form and content of this book, and my mind was also working overtime to find all treasures hidden in this labyrinth of at text (I´m not sure to what degree I succeeded, but I enjoyed the experience) :-)
I am really interested to hear your final verdict once you finished the book!

I've finished this now. Review here: Bricks and Mortar

For me, this is a book for the short list.

Thanks for sharing, Neil. I'm very interested in this one. I am not sure if it's been picked up by a US publisher, but hopefully soon!

On one of the other threads we got into a discussion on translators (or publishers) changing titles.

Interesting comment here from the translator for this one explaining why she changed the title - the original Im Stein would be In The Stone.

blog.fitzcarraldoeditions.com/im-stei...

Not sure I'm too convinced by her argument, particularly that she resorted to inserting the phrase Bricks & Mortar into the test to retro-justify the title, and thee fact that the author isn't a fan of the English title. I may have to deduct a penalty star when I get around to it.

Paul wrote: "On one of the other threads we got into a discussion on translators (or publishers) changing titles.

Interesting comment here from the translator for this one explaining why she changed the title ..."

Thanks for sharing this link, Paul, it`s very interesting! I read the book in its original German version and was surprised that the title was changed for the English translation, particularly as the English title narrows down the meaning of "Im Stein" ("In the Stone"). "Bricks and Mortar" evokes images of something being built up, so it highlights that the book talks about the real estate industry that was hyped after the fall of the Berlin wall or the building of the sex industry as the epitomy of capitalism in the former GDR. But the book also uses images likes caves, tunnels, and tombstones to describe the workings of this industry and the inner-workings of the people depicted in the book. In my opinion, the contrasts between overground and underground, building up and vanishing, and also between past and present are one key to understand the book. There is no justification to over-emphasize one aspect as they are equally important.

In all of Meyer`s work, people or things disappearing is a recurring theme. As I understand it, his thesis is that the past is never really over, it co-exists with the presence as it has shaped people`s minds - so "In the Stone" would clearly have been the better title (don`t deduct the star though, it`s not Meyer`s fault! :-)).

I am thinking of adding a star to my rating to go to the full 5: this is a book that I can't stop thinking about.

Well deduct one for the dodgy choice of title and you can call it quits at 4.

Another one I am saving up till the end of the longlist to end on a high.

This is five stars minimum! :-) I read this book years ago and it is still clear and vivid in my mind. Neil, maybe you would also like "When we were dreaming", have you checked that out yet?

I haven't checked that out ... but I can't find it on Goodreads or on Amazon ... is that the English title?

I've only just read Paul's quote of Eileen Battersby. 100% agree with the comment about a movie waiting to be made - I think I said something in my review about the filmic quality of the book.

Neil wrote: "I haven't checked that out ... but I can't find it on Goodreads or on Amazon ... is that the English title?"

On Goodreads it is Als wir träumten - looks like translated into Danish, French, Italian, even Turkish but not English yet.

Die Nacht, die Lichter: Stories have been translated into English, also by Katy Derbyshire.

Oddly on Goodreads, there's an edition called "Quand on revait" which says it is in english!

Oh, I am sorry, I was sure there was a translated version of this book as it is far more famous than "Im Stein" over here, but there is only a subtitled version of the movie that was made of it - there are a lot of people agreeing with you on the cinemartic quality of Meyer's writing! :-) Unfortunately, this particular film does not do justice to the book, so I can't recommend it.

No problem. Sadly, although I studied German at school, that was over 40 years ago, so I don't think my language skills would be up to it! I'm a bit better at French, so perhaps "Quand on revait"?

"Die Nacht, die Lichter" is great, too! He won the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair for this short story collection which is a big deal for the national book market.

I would also try "Quand on revait", it is very moving and I learnt a lot about how it must have felt for people in the former GDR when their home country and their former lives just disappeared while they had to find a new direction.

Clement Meyer is actually speaking at the British Library in May (not a MBI event)

https://www.bl.uk/events/european-lit...

Looks worth going - anyone fancy as M&G meet up?

I`d love to, but it`s just too far away :-(