That's enough books by men for 2023

[lizbee]

Someone on here recommended S. A. Crosby's second and third books, but the library didn't have those available, so I just got his first, My Darkest Prayer. It was a perfectly cromulent work of southern noir, and I can absolutely see the seeds of his current reputation as a great crime writer. I did not throw my iPad across the room when the hero (who looks like Dwayne Johnson) has sex with an award-winning adult film star. iPads are expensive. I just put it down and stared into space for a few minutes, marvelling that some of us come up with Mary Sue Litmus Tests and warnings about wish-fulfillment characters, and others...

THEN I was watching season 4 of Das Boot (highly recommended, it's a really good series, comes with ALL the trigger warnings) and found myself wanting more media about Sad Germans Enduring Totalitarianism, but ideally without Nazis. The library recommended the works of David Young, an Englishman writing police procedurals set in 1970s East Germany. I was like, "I'd rather read something by a German," but the first book in the series was available, I was like, "It's Libby, it's free, whatever." 

So, Stasi Child, the first book. It was fine, I gave it three stars. Extremely coincidence-driven in the final act, and the writing was ... not great. Lots of "he sobbed" and "she screamed" where I would have conveyed mood and tone differently.

There's a whole thing about how the heroine was raped by her teacher at the police college, leading to a pregnancy (of twins!) which she aborted, and I was ... unconvinced that a true believer in socialism like this character would be so cut up about the abortion, as opposed to the rape. But okay.

The second book was available, I grabbed it.

My friends. It was bad.

I mean, the plot involves a hunt for abducted twin babies, because it turns out that East Germany is absolutely crawling with twins. The heroine also hooks up with a new man and, after having been told for years that the abortion left her infertile, she's ... pregnant! With twins! (Meanwhile, we get chapters from the POV of a red herring in the twinnapping, who worked as a nurse assisting an abortionist, and as someone who grew up with a lot of pro-life propaganda around the house, I could tell where the author got his research. Like, I could tell you which video he watched. Charlton Heston did an introduction!)

And, of course, the twinnapper STEALS HER BABIES FROM HER UTERUS VIA ILLICIT C-SECTION so the heroine goes after him -- bleeding from the surgical wound -- because a connection has formed from her womb to her brain (really) telling her where the babies are.

Also the twinnapper is her childhood friend, who has somehow risen to a high rank in the Stasi despite being the son of counter-revolutionaries and himself leading an anti-government group. But that is also a red herring.

Anyway. I'm gonna keep an eye out for German crime fiction in translation, but I think that's quite enough David Young for one lifetime, and also we have ten days left in 2023, I'm going to spend them reading books that weren't written by men.

(Watch my library holds all come in and make a liar of me!)

Comments

[muccamukk]

Two books with twins and zero confused identities seems a bit odd in terms of literary tropes. What would Shakespeare think?

[lizbee]

I think he'd say there are too many dead babies and it's just kind of weird.

[selenak]

wanting more media about Sad Germans Enduring Totalitarianism, but ideally without Nazis.

I assume you've watched The Lives of Others already?

As for books - good grief, that novel sounds ghastly - there are two modern classics, female authors who wrote while enduring Nazi-free totalitarianism in the GDR, who I believe have been translated into English, Christa Wolf and very recently (though 50 years after German publication) Brigitte Reimann.

[lokifan]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

God that's grim.