Book Review: Marzahn, Mon Amour

Dresden-born published author Katja Oskamp decides in her mid-40s to make a professional turn: with her husband chronically ill and her daughter out of the nest, at the end of a training course she will become a podiatrist working in a small office in the Eastern part of Berlin, a neighbourhood called Marzahn. Her everyday interaction with her clients - mostly old retired men and women whose most of their lives were spent in the German Democratic Republic - inspired her to write a collection of short stories, published in 2019 - Marzahn, Mon Amour.

Although I am living in Berlin for over a decade and I am quite acquainted with this city´ secrets, I haven´t been to Marzahn more than twice, and at least once it was completely by accident. I had not a single ounce of interest to walk the alleys bordered by 10+ storey blocks of houses which remind me strongly of urban planning whose spirit I have no interest to be part thereof. At the first sight, there can be easily qualified under the larger category of ´communism architecture´ and one can spot it all over the former Eastern block, from Lithuania to Romania, but in fact, a more educated eye will see it in the French suburbs as well, as a tribute to the urban philosophy of Le Corbusier, aiming to answer the overpopulation and the increasing social mobility.

I´m personally familiar with the stories shared between women at the beauty parlor or at the hairdressing salon, but in Marzahn, Mon Amour there is a whole world which unfolds - literally - at the author´s feet. All of the characters featured in the book do have a GDR common story thread, from Friedrichstadt Palast memories to work in various factory and mostly dramatic post-unification memories. There is the average Eastern experience without the expected nostalgia. The author, herself growing up in the GDR, is taking notes and later turn their stories into her written story. The combination between memoir, journalistic realism - which reproduces even the accents and special way of talking used by its subjects - and literary talent creates unique life accounts through which the portrait of a neighbourhood - Marzahn, is created. 

Oskamp herself does not live in this part of the city and it is rather a visitor on the alleys of the residential area inaugurated in the 1980s. While at work, she observes her clients that for the price of 22 euro pro treatment are a perfect source of literary inspiration. The notes are related not only to the people, but also of their environment, including their key social meeting points, such as the cemetery of the church. But there are also 11,000 dogs registered in this part of the city, maybe because old people may need a 4-foot trustworthy companion too. (Now, there is a bit of sociological approach too).

I enjoyed Marzahn, mon amour in the original German language, in one long sitting. It´s a great linguistic experience as well, besides the human traces as well. Although it did not change too much my thoughts about this part of the city, it has accomplished to reveal a way of documenting and approaching a topic therefore, I take it as a relevant writing inspiration as well as a reference for contemporary Berlin-based German literature. 

Rating: 3 stars