There are Greeks living in Germany who speak Italian because they run a pizzeria.
There’s Katka, whose mescaline cactus enables her to separate body and mind, with the result that they check in a nuthut together.
There’s Klaus who tries to broaden his vocabulary with the help of a radio programme, Russian for Children, and promptly ends up in jail on his first visit to Moscow.
There are contract killers on the trams, bodies in the basement and there is also the young woman who says she has a mouse in her head after being experimented on by mysterious scientists. Not to forget all these lunatics on the road:
Welcome to the wonderfully absurd world of Vladimir Kaminer. Welcome to Berlin !
Of his encounters with these crazed people, Kaminer makes unforgettable tales of compassion and humour.
He describes life in Berlin since the Wall came down in a series of short, wonderfully understated and comic vignettes.
Kaminer moved from Moscow to Berlin little over a decade ago in a lucky wave of emigration, hoping for a better life and an apartment of his own.
But, he found much more: a country adrift in the extraordinary flux of reunification and a city that was was casting a spell on artists, drifters, losers and hopeless idealists.
I’ve read several of Kaminer’s book and almost died laughing after each page, how sad that not all of them have been translated to English yet.
His last books I had in my hands was “Militärmusik” (“Military Music”) which covers, among other hilarious events, his 2 year service in the Soviet Army.
Gosh, how much did this chapter remind me of my own time in uniform. Only that my time was significantly longer and was spent on the other side of the iron curtain.
Hey, maybe I will write my own book on my military time some day . But unfortunately I’m not as much of a humorist as Kaminer and not as skilled as Jaroslav Hasek.
And, after all, who in the world would like to read a book about the well-behaved soldier Heribert who never received a Cold-War-Victory Medal. Sniff.
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