Reviews for Summerhouse, later

The average rating for Summerhouse, later based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-01-23 00:00:00 Stacey Patterson Judith Hermann's debut collection of short stories. It has nine stories, most of them set in contemporary Germany (one of them is set in New York and it has American characters). I liked most of the stories. My most favourite story was 'Sonja' which was about a man who has a relationship with two women - one is clearly a romantic relationship with his girlfriend while another is with a mysterious woman and it is not really romantic, but fascinating and difficult to describe. The story sounded suspiciously similar to Peter Stamm's 'Seven Years' and so I went and checked their publication dates. Hermann's book came out in 1998, while Stamm's book came out in 2011. I found myself yelling - "Peter Stamm, please, please, please, don't do this! Please write your own stories!!" Judith Hermann gets an extra dose of affection for writing an original story and Peter Stamm - well, if he does this again, he will be moving into the blacklist. My second most favourite story was 'Hunter Johnson music' which is about a brief friendship between a middle-aged man who lives in a hotel in New York and a young woman who stays there for a brief while and how both of them briefly bond over classical music. I also liked the title story and another called 'The Red Coral Bracelet'. If you like contemporary German literature, especially short stories, this book is for you. Many of the reviews said that the book is about the post-Berlin-wall generation. For example - "Nine glimpses of post-wall Berlin that shimmer with dark wit and intelligence" and "Focuses on the breakout generation of Berliners...who grew up after the Wall came down." Well, for starters, not all the stories are set in Berlin. One of the stories is set in New York and has only American characters. In one of the stories, the characters mostly spend their time in the countryside driving around in cars. One of the stories is set in a tropical island in the Caribbean. Another has a character from Bali. One of them is about the Russian adventure that one of the characters has. The point is that this book is not about post-Berlin-Wall Berliners. It is a contemporary work of German literature and is a short story collection. I hate descriptions which equate all German literature into categories like post-Berlin-Wall, Cold War Era, Holocaust, Weimar era etc. There are German books which are not political - there are love stories, crime novels, literary fiction, philosophical novels and every other kind in between. German literature is rich and defies all attempts to put it into a small box. So reviewers, please don't pigeonhole German literature!

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-13 00:00:00 Tyler Dawson A nameless young woman recalls her great-grandmother in Russia, reminded of her by the treasured possession, an antique red coral bracelet that had triggered an abrupt change in both their lives. A cab driver, called Stein (stone), dreams of an old stone summer house along a lake outside the big city, yet may be in greater need for a friend to realize the dream. These two stories form the bookends of Judith Hermann's debut collection, "Summerhouse, later" (2001, in German 1998). Nine stories depict scenes in the lives of, primarily, thirty-something individuals, who, alone or in small groups, represent a Berlin generation in limbo - hovering between past and future. For them, the fall of the Berlin Wall and all that came before is long past, yet their expectations for the future remain uncertain or vague at best, for some it is beyond any need for reflection even. While each story is distinct in its theme and characters, together they make up more than the sum of the parts. There is an overarching sense of Berlin reality, a sense of loss, covered up by attitudes of laissez-faire and disinterest in others and even oneself. In some aspect reminiscent of the 1968 generation, yet without any political or social ambitions, intensely argued at the time, Hermann's characters seem to be drifting through life: jobs are casual, careers not apparent or of interest. The individuals avoid forming serious attachments; sex is casual or not at all of interest; love, if it happens is fragile or fleeting. Conversations are aloof - the sense of loneliness permeates much of the stories. Written in a quiet, detached, and precise language, these first impressions of a disaffected youth, however, are only created at the surface level. Underneath, we immediately sense the characters' uneasiness and helplessness, their deep-seated sense of loss, the need for nostalgic reminiscences of a better past and, yes, glimmers of hope. Hermann's understanding and sensitive depiction of her characters' minds and their circumstances speaks directly to the reader. We feel strangely affected and moved by her protagonists; they and their stories will linger in your mind for a long time. Hermann's narrators live somewhat outside the established society, most are uncertain about their role in the present (post-wall) society. The setting is not always Berlin, yet, like the author herself, the characters carry Berlin in their blood wherever they go. Landscapes and seasons are closely connected; both often mirror the inner sentiments of the stories' characters. It is usually winter in Berlin - with the suffering of cold in the old poorly heated apartments being offset by the enjoyment of walks in the snow. Summer is evoked in the countryside around Berlin, at the lake or the river Oder. A group of friends is invited to a Caribbean island; naively, they want to experience a hurricane... Or Marie, who is reflecting on her new artist friend: "Happiness is always the moment before, The second before the moment in which I actually should be happy. In that second I am happy and don't know it". I liked all nine stories, even if for varying reasons. Judith Hermann appeared on the German literary scene in 1998 with this first of her (now three) story collections and, since then, has garnered several prestigious literary awards. In Germany she has been grouped together with other young women authors, all born around 1970, and all from Berlin (East or West), such as Jenny Erpenbeck (Visitation) or Julia Franck (The Blindness of the Heart: A Novel).