by Gina Cariño
Home >> Books: Berlin Noir, Rome Noir
DUBLINERS in Dublin, THE DECAMERON in Tuscany, MYRA BRECKINRIDGE in L.A… Hesse in Germany, Max Frisch in Switzerland… A Gala biography when tracing the Dalà triangle in Girona, a primer on César Manrique while discovering your mineral self in Lanzarote… CRIME AND PUNISHMENT in St. Petersburg in the course of a run-through of Raskolnikov’s route!
Yes, crime! If you’re visiting a great metropolis, read something set in that metropolis, and make it NOIR. Then you can almost put aside your tourist’s map. Crime novels are surprisingly good mappings of cities, sections of cities, or layers of cities. They give you a particularly visceral sense of what’s going on in a certain place at a certain time. And they transport you to a wide range of locations and atmospheres, acquaint you with a wide range of characters and walks of life.
For anyone Berlin-bound, how about some top-class crime literature? BERLIN NOIR is a trilogy of masterfully-plotted novels by Philip Kerr. They are: MARCH VIOLETS, THE PALE CRIMINAL, and A GERMAN REQUIEM.
The first two happen in pre-war Berlin. The third starts with post-war Vienna but goes back to pre-war Berlin. Kerr gives us a sinister parade of guys from the SA, SS, Sipo, Orpo, Kripo (Criminal Police), and Gestapo, plus Jews, jazz, jewels. And in between, the proverbial ex-cop, now a private investigator working from the Alexanderplatz, who is of course cynical, cultured, sexy, sans souci, and not completely incorruptible. Bernie is his name. Warning: Bernie Gunther’s sense of humor is a bit male chauvinist, even homophobic, probably like that of any Berlin “bullâ€? in those days. Well, at least he hates Nazis.
The actual sleuthing is interspersed with brilliant historical and socio-political asides on the Nazi hatred of “international Jewry,â€? “international Bolshevism,â€? and other internationals. There is nothing like the crime novel to map out the periods of history that obsess you. And the detective will take you through the scenes and streets of a Berlin still undivided. He’ll even take you to the international food delicatessen of the KaDeWe department store on the Ku’damm (Kurfürstendamm). The deli was there even then! How thrilling!
For the Rome-bound, I don’t recommend Dan Brown’s ANGELS AND DEMONS. The scenes of the crimes are too much along the usual sightseeing itinerary, and because the chase happens in a single night, the tour is too fast. There is no time for sitting around in non-sights, including people’s living rooms and kitchens. I recommend UNHOLY TRINITY, by Paul Adam. It sounds trashy, but it’ll do for our purposes. The main character, Andy Chapman, lives in Rome, in the Trastevere quarter. He wasn’t just suddenly flown in from the U.S. and the CERN. More importantly, the plot brings us back to the “partisansâ€? and the Fascist Blackshirts of the final days of Mussolini. Nothing like the Noir genre of fiction to map out periods of history that obsess you. And IN SITU.
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2006-08-17 11:00:00 +0200
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What an interesting article! I find I have musical- time connections with places. I don’t mean music from the place or by a local composer but something else. Every place/time has a soundtrack.
Manchester in the 1980s was Sit Down by James
Then San Sebastián in the 1990s was Peggy Gordon
Madrid …mmm…I don’t know.
When I was in Berlin, I read a book of stories by The Brothers Grimm. I read this book because my mother said that these brothers lived in Berlin. To prepare for our trip to Rome, she made me read about the life of Julius Caesar, who was killed very violently. I also read mythology. When the Trojans lost the Trojan War, some of them escaped and their children or grandchildren, Romulus and Remus, founded another Troy, but it was Rome. In Rome, I saw a statue of Romulus and Remus with the she-wolf.
The last novel I have read is “La sombra del viento” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The plot is placed in Barcelona in the first half of the 20th century, especially in the post war. I have just been once to Barcelona, and mostly in the airport, so I dont know if the descriptions that CRZ makes of Barcelona are real or invented. But I remember that while I was reading the book ( it is one of the best I have ever read) I felt like going to Barcelona and find out if all those streets, houses and buildings are really there. The next time I go to Barcelona I will carry this book with me and I will find it out.
A promise is a promise
Barcelona of course has its own cynic of a private detective in the person of Pepe Carvalho, of Galician stock, who has the additional lure of being a gourmet and a chef on the side. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s “black series” is sprinkled with actual recipes that blend into the crime narrative as if they rightfully belonged there, and they do!
Food! A new topic. What do people eat when they travel? True, not everything has to be “relevant.” A memorable “irrelevant” read for me was LOLITA in Amsterdam…
It’s me, Wesley but from home, enjoying my holidays waking up late and being non-intellectual.
I like to read books set in places that I have just visited to bring back good memories and to have the scenery fresh in my mind. Although not a literary masterpiece, Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress took me back to Seville (although not third world country he describes). Also, La Sombra del Viento is good way to see Barcelona from another perspective.
Reading books and saying “I’ve been there” is “great,” like when you watch a film and can step into the picture and take part all because of your travels. I’ll be back next week..are there any books about “Semana Grande?”
Happy Augusting.
I just went over the posting limit. It’s me, Wesley, again. Love the food idea!
Hello, everybody,
When I’m going in holidays to another country I like also to read a novel that occurs in that country. For example, Egypt is a country plenty of magic, and you can find a lot of novels about the Ancient Egypt or about the Napoleon’s egyptian aventure . While you are in a Nile river’s boat, if you are reading a book about Ramses or about Hatsetput ¿? (I don’t remember very well the correct name of the unique queen of the Ancient Egypt), it’s like you would be living the history.
In my trip to Costa Rica I was reading a book by José MarÃa Mendiluce, “Pura Vida”. In its pages, you can find the authentic way of live of people there. They don’t worry about stress, about things that are important for us. They are so near of nature and the animals that you can find everywhere in the country, that they only worry about life.
Reading a book about the country that you’re visiting, gives you another point of view of the things that you are knowing, and this is always very interesting.
Bigs cities, like Berlin or Rome, are the perfect landscape for Noir literature, because the people that live there, live also very near of crime, of the black side of human’s nature.
If you are coming to Madrid you can read some novel by Benito Pérez Galdós. They aren’t modern, but if you walk by the downtown’s streets, you can recognise yet a lot of things.
Greetings.
Conchi Calvo
This article is one of the best I have read in weeklyletter.com. Congratulations Gina!
I think that reading a novel is one of the best ways to prepare a trip or to remember a place where you’ve been before. Here are some books with a good description of some places that I’ve enjoyed:
-VENECIA: La Tempestad. Juan Manuel De Prada.
-NEW YORK: Llamame Brooklyn. Eduardo Lago.
-MOROCCO (Western Sahara): El Medico de Ifni. Javier Reverte.
Rafa.
Greetings from Heidelberg! If you ever come to my city, you should read “Der Vorleser” by Bernhard Schlink. The English title is “The Reader”, and I think that the Spanish title is “El lector”. Schlink is a specialist in detective stories, but “Der Vorleser” is another genre. At first it strikes you as very erotic but, towards the middle, it develops into a very revealing novel – and I mean socially and historically revealing, not physically revealing. I won’t comment on it anymore… just read it, whether or not you come to Heidelberg.