Morning:
10°c
Occasionally life offers unexpected treats. This week, I get a big one: the Goethe Society has asked a few of us London Germanophiles to read from our favourite German literary work. It's not as hard going as it sounds: no verbs at the end of three-page sentences, because it is in English.
So I am dusting down Christa Wolf's The Quest for Christa T, because it reminds me of my formative years at the end of the Cold War in the old East Germany, people I was close to struggling with the end of a belief that was intertwined with their inner lives. It's one of those rare works that catapults you back into a disappeared society but tells you something about human nature and longing that outlives the world Wolf is describing.
Naturally I try to unearth what else is on the favourites' list: Sandy Nairne from the National Portrait Gallery is reading from WG Sebald's Austerlitz, and the MP Gisela Stuart from Daniel Kehlmann's Measuring the World. Tickets from www.goethe.de/london.
You can change a lot about yourself but not really the book that meant most to you. So David Cameron sticks loyally to the choice he must have made as an earnest young Etonian: Robert Graves's trenches classic Goodbye to All That. The late Sir Isaiah Berlin (who had read more than any other living being) upheld the great Russian potboiler Dr Zhivago as his life-changing novel. Peter Mandelson shows his softer side, preferring the moral fable The Bridge of San Luis Rey, in which Thornton Wilder examines the fates that bring a varied cast of people to risk all on a wobbly suspension bridge (not unlike the state of the Labour Party).
Books, they say, are what is left of us. Really, they are what made us.
* Wandering through Brewer Street, that teeming weekend fault line between civilised Soho and clip joint purgatory, I am distracted by a bold red, white and blue sign proclaiming, "British Sex Shop". What is a British sex shop exactly? Does it sell aids for people who just can't quite get round to it very often, are distracted by the Man U match in the background or only really get round to it with any gusto on holiday? Might Gordon Brown discover it as part of his unending Britishness campaign? Best not encourage him.
* Something fascinates me about Kate Moss's after-hours life. It seems to take place entirely in a trio with her boyfriend Jamie Hince and Topshop owner Sir Philip Green. Pairs of friends (or more than friends) is the classic way to socialise, but three is really the ideal small group. It's easy to organise, more fun and less likely to lead to obsessive combinations, since someone always wants to change the subject. Kate's onto something in the Club of Three.
Reader views (2)
Club of Three? I could hardly believe I was reading this. So trivial. Shame, cos I liked the piece about the books.
- Tom, Islington, Lodon, 03/03/2009 15:57
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Glad to hear you like Christa Wolf! Talking of East Germany, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's box office hit The Lives of Others reminded me of another book by Christa Wolf which makes excellent complementary reading to the movie. It's called What Remains (German title: Was Bleibt) and follows her monologue as she goes about her daily routine while being monitored by the Stasi. The surveillance was deliberately overt in order to achieve intimidation and a continuous fear of an impending arrest. It's a great book - although I'm not sure the existential despair can be conveyed to the same degree in English.
- John, London, 03/03/2009 14:38
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