A dry, satirical look at the Berlin intelligentsia and upper class of 1930 and what happens when a mediocre Jewish Everyman becomes an overnight cabaret sensation (look, it was a slow news day). Tergit skewers the capitalist drive to make as much money as possible off the hot shit for the moment - a drive that still exists in ever-increasing amounts of media tie-in rubbish and branding in the 21st century. An interesting book for me to read and contrast with the Germany of Fritz Lang’s M (a favorite movie) and Isherwood’s Berlin Stories.