When I first started reading Gabriele Tergit’s Käsebier Takes Berlin (translated by Sophie Duvernoy), I thought I was reading the author’s attempt to cash in on or mimic Berlin Alexanderplatz, by Alfred Döblin. Tergit’s style—especially when describing life along the Kurfürstendamm—is as frenetic and Impressionistic as Döblin. Also, Käsebier Takes Berlin was published about two years after Berlin Alexanderplatz. Thankfully, the differences started quickly appeared. The cast of Käsebier Takes Berlin is larger and are mostly of a higher social class in than in Döblin’s epic. The scope is also different, given its larger cast and shorter timeline. I think, on balance, I liked Käsebier Takes Berlin a bit more, mostly because I started to really despise the main character of Berlin Alexanderplatz and partly because of its shorter time line...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.