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Marzahn, mon amour: Geschichten einer Fußpflegerin
Katja Oskamp ist Mitte vierzig, als ihr das Leben fad wird. Das Kind ist aus dem Haus, der Mann ist krank, die Schriftstellerei, der sie sich bis dahin gewidmet hat: ein Feld der Enttäuschungen. Also macht sie etwas, was für andere dem Scheitern gleichkäme: Sie wird Fußpflegerin in Berlin-Marzahn, einst das größte Plattenbaugebiet der DDR. Und schreibt auf, was sie dabei hört.
Es sind Geschichten wie die von Herrn Paulke, vor vierzig Jahren einer der ersten Bewohner des Viertels, Frau Guse, die sich im Rückwärtsgang von der Welt entfernt, oder Herrn Pietsch, dem Ex-Funktionär mit der karierten Schiebermütze. Geschichten voller Menschlichkeit und Witz, Wunderwerke über den Menschen an sich – von seinen Füßen her betrachtet.
Es sind Geschichten wie die von Herrn Paulke, vor vierzig Jahren einer der ersten Bewohner des Viertels, Frau Guse, die sich im Rückwärtsgang von der Welt entfernt, oder Herrn Pietsch, dem Ex-Funktionär mit der karierten Schiebermütze. Geschichten voller Menschlichkeit und Witz, Wunderwerke über den Menschen an sich – von seinen Füßen her betrachtet.
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 22, 2019
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2238 people want to read
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July 24, 2023
Winner of the Dublin Literary prize 2023
Translated into English from German by Jo Heinrich
Another excellent addition to my Berlin shelf. The novel is the memoir of the author while working as a Podiatrist in the former Eastern Berlin neighbourhood called Marzahn. The author have been trying unsuccessfully to make a living as a writer until one day she enlists in a podiatry course. After successfully completing the course, she find a job in a beauty saloon situated at the ground floor of an unappealing concrete block of flats, the trademark of Marzahn. The flats are mostly populated by older working class people. This book is structured as a series of vignettes through which we meet some of her clients. They are a diverse assortment of feet problems and fascinating life stories. Most of them are old, enjoyed triumphs but also many losses. Some stories were funny, other were touching and sad. The author writes about her clients with great empathy. Through their stories, we manage to form a picture of a part of Berlin that we do not have the chance to see as tourists.
Translated into English from German by Jo Heinrich
Another excellent addition to my Berlin shelf. The novel is the memoir of the author while working as a Podiatrist in the former Eastern Berlin neighbourhood called Marzahn. The author have been trying unsuccessfully to make a living as a writer until one day she enlists in a podiatry course. After successfully completing the course, she find a job in a beauty saloon situated at the ground floor of an unappealing concrete block of flats, the trademark of Marzahn. The flats are mostly populated by older working class people. This book is structured as a series of vignettes through which we meet some of her clients. They are a diverse assortment of feet problems and fascinating life stories. Most of them are old, enjoyed triumphs but also many losses. Some stories were funny, other were touching and sad. The author writes about her clients with great empathy. Through their stories, we manage to form a picture of a part of Berlin that we do not have the chance to see as tourists.
June 18, 2023
Now Winner of the Dublin Literary Award 2023
English: Marzahn, mon amour
This is a book about Menschlichkeit, a term that can't be directly translated into English, as it doesn't only mean "humanity" or "humaneness", but also refers to the human capacity to empathize, to the beauty and grace of building connections. Marzahn is located in East Berlin, in the former GDR, and it houses many working class people and people living under precarious circumstances in large concrete buildings, the infamous GDR Plattenbau. To illustrate this quarter's reputation: Ilka Bessin was unemployed and suicidal when she invented the comedy character "Cindy from Marzahn", an overweight, badly dressed, undereducated and unemployed inhabitant of the quarter - and Cindy made her rich and famous. The character was a coping mechanism for Bessin's own experiences and addressed many societal issues by walking the thin line between being the butt of the joke while playing into the cliches society has ascribed to her, but also bringing national attention to the people living in the anonymous buildings and their struggles. Bessin has by now long been an advocate for underprivileged people.
So when most Germans think of Marzahn, the image that comes to mind is Cindy. Oskamp now ventures into way less flashy territory (but please note how the book cover reflects Cindy's signature color, pink!): In vivid vignettes, she paints narrative portraits of the customers she met as a chiropodist. As a middle-aged woman, she felt stuck in her career as a writer and also realized that these middle years made her more invisible, so Oskamp learnt a new trade and decided to offer her services to people that are often overlooked by society, the people in Marzahn.
Many of the vignettes are heartwarming and moving, some are very funny. The quirks, worries and experiences of the author's clients are portrayed in a respectful and empathetic manner, and even the customers she doesn't like (like a former GDR functionary) get an emotional, exact depiction: Oskamp always aims to truly see them, to listen, to, if possible, connect to what drives or worries them. The whole mosaic builds an intricate picture of Marzahn and the people living there, and I think that for non-Germans reading the translation, the lingering impact of the GDR might be particularly revealing (I often feel like people elsewhere do underestimate the importance of this in today's Germany).
So no wonder our President Steinmeier sees this book as an important reflection of our country. It really is.
English: Marzahn, mon amour
This is a book about Menschlichkeit, a term that can't be directly translated into English, as it doesn't only mean "humanity" or "humaneness", but also refers to the human capacity to empathize, to the beauty and grace of building connections. Marzahn is located in East Berlin, in the former GDR, and it houses many working class people and people living under precarious circumstances in large concrete buildings, the infamous GDR Plattenbau. To illustrate this quarter's reputation: Ilka Bessin was unemployed and suicidal when she invented the comedy character "Cindy from Marzahn", an overweight, badly dressed, undereducated and unemployed inhabitant of the quarter - and Cindy made her rich and famous. The character was a coping mechanism for Bessin's own experiences and addressed many societal issues by walking the thin line between being the butt of the joke while playing into the cliches society has ascribed to her, but also bringing national attention to the people living in the anonymous buildings and their struggles. Bessin has by now long been an advocate for underprivileged people.
So when most Germans think of Marzahn, the image that comes to mind is Cindy. Oskamp now ventures into way less flashy territory (but please note how the book cover reflects Cindy's signature color, pink!): In vivid vignettes, she paints narrative portraits of the customers she met as a chiropodist. As a middle-aged woman, she felt stuck in her career as a writer and also realized that these middle years made her more invisible, so Oskamp learnt a new trade and decided to offer her services to people that are often overlooked by society, the people in Marzahn.
Many of the vignettes are heartwarming and moving, some are very funny. The quirks, worries and experiences of the author's clients are portrayed in a respectful and empathetic manner, and even the customers she doesn't like (like a former GDR functionary) get an emotional, exact depiction: Oskamp always aims to truly see them, to listen, to, if possible, connect to what drives or worries them. The whole mosaic builds an intricate picture of Marzahn and the people living there, and I think that for non-Germans reading the translation, the lingering impact of the GDR might be particularly revealing (I often feel like people elsewhere do underestimate the importance of this in today's Germany).
So no wonder our President Steinmeier sees this book as an important reflection of our country. It really is.
March 9, 2025
Winner of the 2023 Dublin Literary Award
Translation shortlisted for the Society of Authors TA First Translation Prize
She loses the fight against her tears of emotion when I cry out, 'Our Work is priceless! Our clients are the best! Marzahn, mon amour!’
`Oh God, the writer in her's coming out!' says Flocke grinning.
‘And so it must, honeybunch,' I say. 'Man shall not live by feet alone.'
‘At least she's not using complicated sentences,' sobs Tiffy in her Saxon accent.
Marzahn, mon amour is Jo Heinrich's translation of Katja Oskamp's 2019 German-language original, which was subtitled "Geschichten einer Fußpflegerin" (= Stories from a Chiropodist). This is Oskamp's first book in English (but not her first in German) and Heinrich's first published translation.
It is the first in Peirene Press's 2022 series their 34th book - Peirene release 3 books a year (this their 12th year), beautifully presented, and all of a neatly compact length, 7 of which have been featured in the International Booker / Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
The narrator of the novel is, or was, a published writer, but reaching middle age, with her partner in ill-health and her new novella rejected by publishers, she opts for a complete change in direction.
The middle years, when you're neither young nor old, are fuzzy years. You can no longer see the shore you started from, but you can't yet get a clear enough view of the shore you're heading for. You spend these years thrashing about in the middle of a big lake, out of breath, flagging from the tedium of swimming. You pause, at a loss, and turn around in circles, again and again. Fear sets in, the fear of sinking halfway, without a sound, without a cause. I was forty-four years old when I reached the middle of the big lake. My life had grown stale: my offspring had flown the nest, my other half was ill and my writing, which had kept me busy until then, was more than a little iffy. I was carrying something bitter within me, completing the invisibility that befalls women over forty. I didn't want to be seen, but nor did I want to see. I'd had it with people, the looks on their faces and their well-meant advice. I sank to the bottom.
On 2 March 2015, a few days after her forty-fifth birthday she commences a course to retrain as a chiropodist, and then joins a salon set up by her former fitness instructor, Tiffy (alongside a third colleague Flocke, a former barmaid) in the Marzahn district of Berlin, in the former GDR, known for its Plattenbau, prefabricated concrete apartment buildings. The narrator's biography in this regard echo the author's own.
After a brief introduction explaining this background (expanded on in a middle setion when Flocke, Tiffy and the narrator go on an outing to a spa), the novel itself consists of a series of vignettes of the life stories of various of the customers she comes to know over the next 4 years as they chat while she treats their feet:
Most of my clients are regulars and pay me a visit every four to seven weeks. Over time, I've got to know these clients, their foibles and their quirks, their life stories, their fates. I'm fond of them, I know what they like, and I'm always pleased to see them again, safe and well, after a few weeks. With their frequent care, my regulars' feet are in good condition.
This isn't a Cuskian project: we learn little about the narrator herself from these stories, other than how her job rebuilds her fractured connection with others and eventually leads to her starting writing again, but rather, pieced together, we get a picture of a community, lives often disrupted by the fall of the Berlin Wall with employers disappearing overnight, from a range of pensioners cheerfully dealing with the vicissitudes of old-age, through teenager daughters of her writing friends unnecessarily self-conscious about their feet, to an ex-functionary who still lives his life, organising hiking trips for his social club, as if he were a state agent,and who asks the narrator if she wouldn't mind having sex with him so he can test out the new medicine he has to restore his erections.
There is a charming quality to many of the stories and an underlying faith in humanity, and that the novel comes with a blurb from Ronan Hession is very appropriate as it is reminscent of the qualities of his own work.
This review of the German original, but written in English, gives an excellent flavour of many of the stories.
3.5 stars - a book I'd recommend to others (4 stars) although perhaps a little simple in literary terms for my own taste (3 stars for me).
Translation shortlisted for the Society of Authors TA First Translation Prize
She loses the fight against her tears of emotion when I cry out, 'Our Work is priceless! Our clients are the best! Marzahn, mon amour!’
`Oh God, the writer in her's coming out!' says Flocke grinning.
‘And so it must, honeybunch,' I say. 'Man shall not live by feet alone.'
‘At least she's not using complicated sentences,' sobs Tiffy in her Saxon accent.
Marzahn, mon amour is Jo Heinrich's translation of Katja Oskamp's 2019 German-language original, which was subtitled "Geschichten einer Fußpflegerin" (= Stories from a Chiropodist). This is Oskamp's first book in English (but not her first in German) and Heinrich's first published translation.
It is the first in Peirene Press's 2022 series their 34th book - Peirene release 3 books a year (this their 12th year), beautifully presented, and all of a neatly compact length, 7 of which have been featured in the International Booker / Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
The narrator of the novel is, or was, a published writer, but reaching middle age, with her partner in ill-health and her new novella rejected by publishers, she opts for a complete change in direction.
The middle years, when you're neither young nor old, are fuzzy years. You can no longer see the shore you started from, but you can't yet get a clear enough view of the shore you're heading for. You spend these years thrashing about in the middle of a big lake, out of breath, flagging from the tedium of swimming. You pause, at a loss, and turn around in circles, again and again. Fear sets in, the fear of sinking halfway, without a sound, without a cause. I was forty-four years old when I reached the middle of the big lake. My life had grown stale: my offspring had flown the nest, my other half was ill and my writing, which had kept me busy until then, was more than a little iffy. I was carrying something bitter within me, completing the invisibility that befalls women over forty. I didn't want to be seen, but nor did I want to see. I'd had it with people, the looks on their faces and their well-meant advice. I sank to the bottom.
On 2 March 2015, a few days after her forty-fifth birthday she commences a course to retrain as a chiropodist, and then joins a salon set up by her former fitness instructor, Tiffy (alongside a third colleague Flocke, a former barmaid) in the Marzahn district of Berlin, in the former GDR, known for its Plattenbau, prefabricated concrete apartment buildings. The narrator's biography in this regard echo the author's own.
After a brief introduction explaining this background (expanded on in a middle setion when Flocke, Tiffy and the narrator go on an outing to a spa), the novel itself consists of a series of vignettes of the life stories of various of the customers she comes to know over the next 4 years as they chat while she treats their feet:
Most of my clients are regulars and pay me a visit every four to seven weeks. Over time, I've got to know these clients, their foibles and their quirks, their life stories, their fates. I'm fond of them, I know what they like, and I'm always pleased to see them again, safe and well, after a few weeks. With their frequent care, my regulars' feet are in good condition.
This isn't a Cuskian project: we learn little about the narrator herself from these stories, other than how her job rebuilds her fractured connection with others and eventually leads to her starting writing again, but rather, pieced together, we get a picture of a community, lives often disrupted by the fall of the Berlin Wall with employers disappearing overnight, from a range of pensioners cheerfully dealing with the vicissitudes of old-age, through teenager daughters of her writing friends unnecessarily self-conscious about their feet, to an ex-functionary who still lives his life, organising hiking trips for his social club, as if he were a state agent,and who asks the narrator if she wouldn't mind having sex with him so he can test out the new medicine he has to restore his erections.
There is a charming quality to many of the stories and an underlying faith in humanity, and that the novel comes with a blurb from Ronan Hession is very appropriate as it is reminscent of the qualities of his own work.
This review of the German original, but written in English, gives an excellent flavour of many of the stories.
3.5 stars - a book I'd recommend to others (4 stars) although perhaps a little simple in literary terms for my own taste (3 stars for me).
May 16, 2020
Eine wunderbares kleines Büchlein, in dem die Erzählerin (identisch mit Katja Oskamp? Zumindest gibt es einige Übereinstimmungen, z.B. arbeitet sie tatsächlich als Fußpflegerin) uns wissen lässt, dass sie in ihren 40ern das Gefühl hatte unsichtbar zu werden (wem sagt sie das!).
Die mittleren Jahre, in denen du weder jung noch alt bist, sind verschwommene Jahre. Du kannst das Ufer nicht mehr sehen, von dem du einst gestartet bist, und jenes Ufer, auf das du zusteuerst, erkennst du noch nicht deutlich genug. In diesen Jahren strampelst du in der Mitte des großen Sees herum, gerätst aus der Puste, erschlaffst ob des Einerleis der Schwimmbewegungen. Ratlos hältst du inne und drehst dich dann um dich selbst, eine Runde, noch eine und noch eine. Die Angst auf halber Stecke unterzugehen ohne Ton und ohne Grund, meldet sich.
Sie probiert also etwas Neues. Auf wenig Verständnis stieß ihre Ausbildung zur Fußpflegerin in ihrem Umfeld, doch die Geschichten aus einem Fußpflegesalon in Marzahn sind herzergreifend.
Das Buch besteht fast ausschließlich aus kleinen Porträts der Kunden. Man erfährt einiges aus ihrem Leben, ihren guten und schlechten Zeiten, ihrem Charakter, dem Zustand ihrer Füße. Viele sind alt und/oder krank, vom Leben gebeutelt sind sie fast alle, doch gehen sie sehr unterschiedlich damit um.
Diese Beschreibungen sprühen vor Witz, Traurigkeit und Mitgefühl. Es ist eine Freude, das zu lesen. Und gleichzeitig bewundert man die Erzählerin für ihr Mitgefühl, ihre Neugier und ihre Geduld – mit Menschen wie mit Füßen. Man bekommt fast ein schlechtes Gewissen, dass man selbst nicht so edel ist. Fast erleichternd ist es dann, wenn die Erzählerin ihrer mangelnde Sympathie mal Ausdruck verleiht wie im Fall der Tochter Noll, die ihre Mutter wenig gut behandelt.
Und wie geht es der Erzählerin nach einigen Jahren in diesem neuen Beruf?
Meine Liebe ist flüssig geworden und passt in die unwahrscheinlichsten Zwischenräume. Das Bittere, das ich vor mir hertrug, ist verschwunden und mit ihm der letzte Rest jugendlicher Arroganz. An ihrer statt registriere ich eine beginnende Altersmilde, die zuweilen in einen leisen Hang zum Kitsch mündet […]. Ist mir egal. Es sieht mich ja keiner.
Eine wunderbare Hommage an Menschen, an einen unterschätzen Berliner Bezirk und ein selten literarisch gewürdigtes Körperteil.
Die mittleren Jahre, in denen du weder jung noch alt bist, sind verschwommene Jahre. Du kannst das Ufer nicht mehr sehen, von dem du einst gestartet bist, und jenes Ufer, auf das du zusteuerst, erkennst du noch nicht deutlich genug. In diesen Jahren strampelst du in der Mitte des großen Sees herum, gerätst aus der Puste, erschlaffst ob des Einerleis der Schwimmbewegungen. Ratlos hältst du inne und drehst dich dann um dich selbst, eine Runde, noch eine und noch eine. Die Angst auf halber Stecke unterzugehen ohne Ton und ohne Grund, meldet sich.
Sie probiert also etwas Neues. Auf wenig Verständnis stieß ihre Ausbildung zur Fußpflegerin in ihrem Umfeld, doch die Geschichten aus einem Fußpflegesalon in Marzahn sind herzergreifend.
Das Buch besteht fast ausschließlich aus kleinen Porträts der Kunden. Man erfährt einiges aus ihrem Leben, ihren guten und schlechten Zeiten, ihrem Charakter, dem Zustand ihrer Füße. Viele sind alt und/oder krank, vom Leben gebeutelt sind sie fast alle, doch gehen sie sehr unterschiedlich damit um.
Diese Beschreibungen sprühen vor Witz, Traurigkeit und Mitgefühl. Es ist eine Freude, das zu lesen. Und gleichzeitig bewundert man die Erzählerin für ihr Mitgefühl, ihre Neugier und ihre Geduld – mit Menschen wie mit Füßen. Man bekommt fast ein schlechtes Gewissen, dass man selbst nicht so edel ist. Fast erleichternd ist es dann, wenn die Erzählerin ihrer mangelnde Sympathie mal Ausdruck verleiht wie im Fall der Tochter Noll, die ihre Mutter wenig gut behandelt.
Und wie geht es der Erzählerin nach einigen Jahren in diesem neuen Beruf?
Meine Liebe ist flüssig geworden und passt in die unwahrscheinlichsten Zwischenräume. Das Bittere, das ich vor mir hertrug, ist verschwunden und mit ihm der letzte Rest jugendlicher Arroganz. An ihrer statt registriere ich eine beginnende Altersmilde, die zuweilen in einen leisen Hang zum Kitsch mündet […]. Ist mir egal. Es sieht mich ja keiner.
Eine wunderbare Hommage an Menschen, an einen unterschätzen Berliner Bezirk und ein selten literarisch gewürdigtes Körperteil.
August 31, 2019
Im besten Sinne sentimentale und zärtliche Porträts von Menschen, die sonst selten in Büchern vorkommen: zu alt, zu (ost-)deutsch, zu unraffiniert in ihrem Auftreten, ihrer Sprache, ihrem Geschmack. Lebensgeschichten erzählt von einer zur Fußpflegerin umgeschulten Erfolslosschriftstellerin. Aber das war wohl selbst der Autorin (oder ihrem Verlag) ein wenig zu unsexy, daher das angehängte "mon Amour". Aber (Gl)amour jibts hier nich wirklich.
Oskamp, die zunächst ihre eigene, altersbedingte "Unsichtbarkeit" als Bedrohung und Beleidigung interpretiert, macht ihren neuen Beruf zur Berufung. Und findet durch die Begegnung mit den Menschen und deren Füße zurück in die Spur des Lebens.
Nun geht es nicht mehr darum sich gegen die eigene Unichtbarkeit zu stemmen, sondern das literarische Talent zu nutzen um jene sichtbar zu machen, die den meisten (siehe oben) prinzipiell erzählensunwert scheinen. Die Autorin schafft es Menschen und ihre Leben auf wenige Seiten zu verdichten und erfahrbar zu machen. Oskamp mag Menschen und hat ein großes Einfühlungsvermögen, aber immer siegt die Würde über den Kitsch.
Man liest diese Porträts voller Rührung, Bewunderung, aber ehrlicherweise auch Grauen, ob der eigenen, irgendwann anstehenden Unsichtbarwerdung.
Oskamp, die zunächst ihre eigene, altersbedingte "Unsichtbarkeit" als Bedrohung und Beleidigung interpretiert, macht ihren neuen Beruf zur Berufung. Und findet durch die Begegnung mit den Menschen und deren Füße zurück in die Spur des Lebens.
Nun geht es nicht mehr darum sich gegen die eigene Unichtbarkeit zu stemmen, sondern das literarische Talent zu nutzen um jene sichtbar zu machen, die den meisten (siehe oben) prinzipiell erzählensunwert scheinen. Die Autorin schafft es Menschen und ihre Leben auf wenige Seiten zu verdichten und erfahrbar zu machen. Oskamp mag Menschen und hat ein großes Einfühlungsvermögen, aber immer siegt die Würde über den Kitsch.
Man liest diese Porträts voller Rührung, Bewunderung, aber ehrlicherweise auch Grauen, ob der eigenen, irgendwann anstehenden Unsichtbarwerdung.
June 20, 2023
A bored, struggling writer realises she’s in her “middle years” where she’d:
Once she’d received her chiropodist certificate, she found she
... spend these years thrashing about in the middle of a big lake, out of breath, flagging from the tedium of swimming.Presumably, the writer is the author, herself, and this book, a piece of autofiction. She decides she needs a change and at the invitation of an acquaintance who owns a salon, she retrains as a chiropodist / podiatrist and will, eventually, join Flocke and Tiffy at Tiffy’s salon in Marzahn, Germany.
Once she’d received her chiropodist certificate, she found she
... came up against revulsion, incomprehension and, the hardest to bear, sympathy. From writer to chiropodist—what a spectacular comedown. I had forgotten how much people, the looks on their faces and their well-meant advice, got on my nerves.But, she thought,
I wasn’t going to wait around for them. I had two strong hands that could do a worthwhile job. It wouldn’t be an easy start, but it would be glorious, like all beginnings.And she absolutely did a worthwhile job, her clients appearing to truly appreciate all she did for them in the hours they spent together. This sweet little novella was akin to a diary, as a slice of her clientele was introduced to us—15 mostly elderly clients, every one of them memorable in their own way. She summed it up best here:
You’re at an age when your child’s youth takes you back to your own, but your partner’s illness has turned you from lover into carer. Surfacing in the middle of the big lake and swimming on, there’s plenty you can see, plenty you are familiar with and even more you can imagine. You’re at an age when, if you’re at the start of an adventure, thoughts of how it will end are already creeping in on the quiet. My middle years, working as a chiropodist in Marzahn, will have been good years.4.5 rounded to 5 “Slice-of-Life” stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
February 16, 2022
A totally delightful, kind-hearthed, empathic read.
A character study of a group of people living in and around a multi-storied plattenbauprefab apartment building in the working class quarter of Marzahn, East Berlin, told through the eyes and ears of woman facing her middle years.
The narrator is a 45 year old woman, whose partner is ill, requiring her to abandon her career as a writer and take up something else. She retrains as a chiropodist and joins Tiffy who offers beauty treatments and massage and Flocke who does nails, in a salon at the foot of an eighteen storey building.
Fed up with rejections, she becomes part of this small team and larger community, seeing her regular clients, getting to know them, listening, observing, caring for them, part of the fabric of a unique, idiosyncratic neighbourhood.
In each chapter, we meet another client, another character, a life, shared in an engaging and often humorous way, as she participates in the ritual of what is something between a pedicure and reflexology, an hour long treatment of the feet, listening to or being silent with the person who occupies that quiet hour, a temporary escape from their day to day lives.
A chronicler of their personal histories, we witness the humanity behind the monolith structures of these housing estates, the connections created between the three women and the warmth and familiarity they provide to those who cross their threshold.
Absolutely loved it, highly recommend.
A character study of a group of people living in and around a multi-storied plattenbauprefab apartment building in the working class quarter of Marzahn, East Berlin, told through the eyes and ears of woman facing her middle years.
The middle years, when you're neither young nor old, are fuzzy years. You can no longer see the shore you started from, but you can't yet get a clear enough view of the shore you're heading for. You spend these years thrashing about in the middle of a big lake, out of breath, flagging from the tedium of swimming. You pause, at a loss, and turn around in circles, agaon and again. Fearsets in, the fear of sinking halfway, without a sound, without a cause.
The narrator is a 45 year old woman, whose partner is ill, requiring her to abandon her career as a writer and take up something else. She retrains as a chiropodist and joins Tiffy who offers beauty treatments and massage and Flocke who does nails, in a salon at the foot of an eighteen storey building.
Fed up with rejections, she becomes part of this small team and larger community, seeing her regular clients, getting to know them, listening, observing, caring for them, part of the fabric of a unique, idiosyncratic neighbourhood.
In each chapter, we meet another client, another character, a life, shared in an engaging and often humorous way, as she participates in the ritual of what is something between a pedicure and reflexology, an hour long treatment of the feet, listening to or being silent with the person who occupies that quiet hour, a temporary escape from their day to day lives.
A chronicler of their personal histories, we witness the humanity behind the monolith structures of these housing estates, the connections created between the three women and the warmth and familiarity they provide to those who cross their threshold.
Absolutely loved it, highly recommend.
October 10, 2024
A Podiatrist's Tales
Review of the Peirene Press paperback edition (February 2022) translated by Jo Heinrich from the German language original Marzahn, mon amour: Geschichten einer Fußpflegerin (2019)
Marzhan, Mon Amour is a series of short story portraits of various customers, primarily seniors, of a writer in her mid-life career change job as a podiatrist in the beauty salon situated in the Marzahn tower-block district of Berlin, which she shares with owner Tiffy and co-worker Flocke. The book seems to be marketed as fiction, but its premise is taken from author Katja Oskamp's own real-world experience in the same job. There are occasional interludes where you learn the background of the beauty salon workers themselves, such as:
The 15 or so customer vignettes are very sympathetic portrayals of people who are often living or have lived difficult lives, for which their foot-care problems become a metaphor. Along the way you also become quite wrapped up in appreciating the love and care that the salon workers have for their patients. Above all the book reads as a testament to perseverance and the acceptance of change.
I was happy to have this introduction to Katja Oskamp's writing in this first English translation of her work. The author has three other books to her credit in GR's bibliography.
I read Marzhan, mon amour in advance of its official publication date in February 2022 due to my annual subscription to Peirene Press. Subscribers receive the publisher's books several weeks ahead of their official release date. Marzhan, mon amour is the first of Peirene's 3-book publication plan for 2022.
Trivia and Links
Peirene Press will likely have an online book launch in the next several weeks for Marzahn, mon amour and you can watch for it at their events page here.
Marzahn, Mon Amour is the planned group read for the March 17, 2022 meeting of the Borderless Book Club, which will include a Q&A with translator Jo Heinrich. Additional links and information will be emailed to Club members in advance of the meeting i.e. these are usually links to related online articles, interviews, reviews, etc.
Review of the Peirene Press paperback edition (February 2022) translated by Jo Heinrich from the German language original Marzahn, mon amour: Geschichten einer Fußpflegerin (2019)
Marzhan, Mon Amour is a series of short story portraits of various customers, primarily seniors, of a writer in her mid-life career change job as a podiatrist in the beauty salon situated in the Marzahn tower-block district of Berlin, which she shares with owner Tiffy and co-worker Flocke. The book seems to be marketed as fiction, but its premise is taken from author Katja Oskamp's own real-world experience in the same job. There are occasional interludes where you learn the background of the beauty salon workers themselves, such as:
Flocke signals for a third round of Aperol Spritzes, while I launch into an ode to Marzahn and its inhabitants, who moved there forty years ago, now bravely coming to the end of their lives, with their walking frames, their oxygen cylinders and their state pensions, sometimes spending whole days without speaking to another soul, pouring out their famished hearts to us when they come to the salon, gratefully absorbing every touch, happy for once not to be treated like imbeciles in the place that Tiffy, our dear little Tiffy, has built all on her own. Tiffy stares at me with her deep brown eyes welling up, then she loses the fight against her tears of emotion when I cry out, 'Our work is priceless! Our clients are the best! Marzahn, mon amour!'
'Oh God, the writer in her's coming out!' says Flocke, grinning.
'And so it must, honeybunch,' I say. 'Man shall not live by feet alone.' - excerpt from the chapter Work Outing in Marzahn, Mon Amour
The 15 or so customer vignettes are very sympathetic portrayals of people who are often living or have lived difficult lives, for which their foot-care problems become a metaphor. Along the way you also become quite wrapped up in appreciating the love and care that the salon workers have for their patients. Above all the book reads as a testament to perseverance and the acceptance of change.
I was happy to have this introduction to Katja Oskamp's writing in this first English translation of her work. The author has three other books to her credit in GR's bibliography.
I read Marzhan, mon amour in advance of its official publication date in February 2022 due to my annual subscription to Peirene Press. Subscribers receive the publisher's books several weeks ahead of their official release date. Marzhan, mon amour is the first of Peirene's 3-book publication plan for 2022.
Trivia and Links
Peirene Press will likely have an online book launch in the next several weeks for Marzahn, mon amour and you can watch for it at their events page here.
Marzahn, Mon Amour is the planned group read for the March 17, 2022 meeting of the Borderless Book Club, which will include a Q&A with translator Jo Heinrich. Additional links and information will be emailed to Club members in advance of the meeting i.e. these are usually links to related online articles, interviews, reviews, etc.
Read
March 7, 2025Seicht, stellenweise lustig, oft berührend.
August 29, 2021
Nette Lebensgeschichten, die ein bisschen ans Herz gehen, in einem Stil, den ich manchmal etwas unangenehm und fad fand. Das Buch, sowohl positiv als auch negativ gesehen, ist vor allem: nett.
September 3, 2020
Genau die richtige Mischung aus Witz und Feingefühl. Mochte ich sehr!
February 26, 2025
Lektüre für Berufspendler. Kurze Kapitel, die jeweils einen Gast des Fußpflegesalons vorstellen und fast immer gleich aufgebaut sind: Alter (hoch) und Gebrechen (zahlreich), was wurde gearbeitet (meist in der DDR, dann nach der Wende prekär). Anschließend findet Oskamp als Destillat der jeweiligen Arbeit am Fuß ein bis zwei charakteristische Besonderheiten ihrer Kunden. Oft dominiert am Ende die Erkenntnis, dass die Marzahnerinnen und Marzahner trotz erlebter Härten sich nicht unterkriegen lassen.
Da Oskamp hier keinen Episodenroman, sondern bittersüße Sozialvignetten liefert, gibt sie sich mit einer Aneinanderreihung der Geschichten zufrieden. Verschränkt oder wieder aufgegriffen wird kaum etwas, lesen wie Kekse essen, einen nach dem anderen. Daher perfekt fürs Pendeln, ob nach Marzahn oder Grünau ist egal, die Lebensläufe dürften in der ganzen DDR ähnlich gewesen sein.
Gefallen haben mir die direkten Gespräche zwischen Oskamp und den Kunden. Die verschiedenen Varianten des Berlinerischen kriegt sie gut auf die Seite, sehr passend.
Natürlich kann man sich fragen, was Oskamp mit dem Buch eigentlich will (Marzahn-Menschenzoo-Besuch für bessergestellte Literaturfreunde?), aber leidlich unterhaltsam fand ich es doch.
Da Oskamp hier keinen Episodenroman, sondern bittersüße Sozialvignetten liefert, gibt sie sich mit einer Aneinanderreihung der Geschichten zufrieden. Verschränkt oder wieder aufgegriffen wird kaum etwas, lesen wie Kekse essen, einen nach dem anderen. Daher perfekt fürs Pendeln, ob nach Marzahn oder Grünau ist egal, die Lebensläufe dürften in der ganzen DDR ähnlich gewesen sein.
Gefallen haben mir die direkten Gespräche zwischen Oskamp und den Kunden. Die verschiedenen Varianten des Berlinerischen kriegt sie gut auf die Seite, sehr passend.
Natürlich kann man sich fragen, was Oskamp mit dem Buch eigentlich will (Marzahn-Menschenzoo-Besuch für bessergestellte Literaturfreunde?), aber leidlich unterhaltsam fand ich es doch.
December 22, 2023
Format: audiobook ~ Narrator: Angeline Armstrong
Content: 4 stars ~ Narration: 5 stars
Complete audiobook review
Winner of Dublin Literary Award 2023
Marzahn, Mon Amour is a poetic and poignant memoir by Katja Oskamp. Marzahn is a district in the eastern part of Berlin. In her forties, the author changes her profession and becomes a pedicurist. Through her encounters with diverse clients, mostly elderly residents of Marzahn, she tells the story of Marzahn and its people.
Each chapter, dedicated to one of her clients or coworkers, reads like a vignette. In each, she explores human connections, joys, and sorrows of everyday life. It’s remarkable how she finds beauty even in the most unexpected places.
The narration by Angeline Armstrong is excellent and suits the novel entirely.
Thanks to Bolinda Audio for the advance copy and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.
Content: 4 stars ~ Narration: 5 stars
Complete audiobook review
Winner of Dublin Literary Award 2023
Marzahn, Mon Amour is a poetic and poignant memoir by Katja Oskamp. Marzahn is a district in the eastern part of Berlin. In her forties, the author changes her profession and becomes a pedicurist. Through her encounters with diverse clients, mostly elderly residents of Marzahn, she tells the story of Marzahn and its people.
Each chapter, dedicated to one of her clients or coworkers, reads like a vignette. In each, she explores human connections, joys, and sorrows of everyday life. It’s remarkable how she finds beauty even in the most unexpected places.
The narration by Angeline Armstrong is excellent and suits the novel entirely.
Thanks to Bolinda Audio for the advance copy and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.
February 8, 2024
Als Hörbuch gehört, vielleicht war es mein erstes Hörbuch überhaupt (Anlass: meine Mutter war am Auge operiert worden). Die Sprecherin (Update: ach so, ist ja die Autorin selbst) ist bei den Dialogen sehr gut, aber wo keine Dialoge sind, fand ich sie oft monoton. Vielleicht war sie auch nur nicht immer gleich gut in Form. Ich mochte das Konzept, es war mir aber an zu vielen Stellen herablassend und teilweise direkt verächtlich (vor allem am Anfang, wo es um Frauenkörper geht). Auch danach hatte ich oft das Gefühl, dass da Menschen in eine Form geklopft werden, wenn zum Beispiel ein Paar, das davon abgesehen überhaupt keine Rolle oder Funktion hat, ungefähr zwanzig Mal hintereinander als "die Lesben", "die Lesben", "die Lesben" bezeichnet wird. In Rezensionen wird gelobt, dass hier so liebevoll über die Menschen geredet wird. Mir kam es nicht so vor und ich würde nicht wollen, dass über mich so geschrieben wird, wenn ich mal zur Fußpflege gehe.
July 24, 2024
I piedi del popolo
Capita a volte di scegliere un libro senza disporre di particolari indicazioni, e così dal titolo mi ero fatto l’idea che Marzahn fosse un uomo o una donna o un amante o al limite, viste le attuali tendenze, un animale domestico, e invece si tratta di tutt’altro: un quartiere periferico di Berlino Est.
La narratrice è un personaggio autobiografico: Katja Oskamp, giunta alla mezza età come scrittrice con poche soddisfazioni e scarso successo, compie una scelta radicale quando, previo aggiornamento professionale, decide di intraprendere l’attività di pedicure in un piccolo esercizio di estetista nel quartiere cui il titolo è dedicato.
Questo singolare assunto costituisce il punto di partenza del romanzo, il cui nucleo è rappresentato dagli appuntamenti con i clienti, una galleria di singolari personaggi per lo più anziani, marginali e spesso solitari residui della DDR che, nonostante i rovesci del destino, hanno mantenuto dignità e capacità di adattamento a una società in perpetua mutazione; esattamente il processo che sembra aver subìto il tranquillo quartiere di Marzahn con i suoi solidi palazzoni (plattenbau) frutto dell’edilizia socialista del secolo scorso, edifici con pochi fronzoli ma sufficientemente resistenti e funzionali ad evitare l’emarginazione che spesso alberga ai bordi delle metropoli.
I capitoli sono le storie delle vite dei “pazienti”, ognuna con le sue svolte dettate dal carattere, dalla professione ma soprattutto dalla sorte, che ci vengono narrate brevemente ma con delicatezza, curiosità, direi soprattutto con affetto, fino a disegnare un quadro unitario che rispecchia il temperamento di questa variegata comunità.
Ad un’umanità che chiede soprattutto di essere ascoltata, la narratrice/pedicure riserva la propria partecipata attenzione e nel contempo si dedica a una cura meticolosa di una parte del corpo troppo spesso trascurata e malmessa a causa degli anni e delle faticose esistenze attraversate, trasmettendo benessere e carezzevoli cure senza eccezioni, anche se alcuni “pazienti” sembrano meritarsele più di altri che restano chiusi in un bozzolo di risentimento e amarezza.
La struttura del libro potrebbe così essere ricondotta ad una raccolta di racconti, ma il piccolo salone di estetica con le tre solerti e non più giovani operatrici, a loro volta non immuni dalle traversie del passato, rappresenta un microcosmo che si fonde ai casermoni popolari di Marzahn, punto di riferimento e fonte di consolazione per la gente, un popolo (“tremilaottocento piedi”…) che resiste tra l’orgoglio e la rassegnazione, suscitando empatia e talvolta perfino commozione.
Capita a volte di scegliere un libro senza disporre di particolari indicazioni, e così dal titolo mi ero fatto l’idea che Marzahn fosse un uomo o una donna o un amante o al limite, viste le attuali tendenze, un animale domestico, e invece si tratta di tutt’altro: un quartiere periferico di Berlino Est.
La narratrice è un personaggio autobiografico: Katja Oskamp, giunta alla mezza età come scrittrice con poche soddisfazioni e scarso successo, compie una scelta radicale quando, previo aggiornamento professionale, decide di intraprendere l’attività di pedicure in un piccolo esercizio di estetista nel quartiere cui il titolo è dedicato.
Questo singolare assunto costituisce il punto di partenza del romanzo, il cui nucleo è rappresentato dagli appuntamenti con i clienti, una galleria di singolari personaggi per lo più anziani, marginali e spesso solitari residui della DDR che, nonostante i rovesci del destino, hanno mantenuto dignità e capacità di adattamento a una società in perpetua mutazione; esattamente il processo che sembra aver subìto il tranquillo quartiere di Marzahn con i suoi solidi palazzoni (plattenbau) frutto dell’edilizia socialista del secolo scorso, edifici con pochi fronzoli ma sufficientemente resistenti e funzionali ad evitare l’emarginazione che spesso alberga ai bordi delle metropoli.
I capitoli sono le storie delle vite dei “pazienti”, ognuna con le sue svolte dettate dal carattere, dalla professione ma soprattutto dalla sorte, che ci vengono narrate brevemente ma con delicatezza, curiosità, direi soprattutto con affetto, fino a disegnare un quadro unitario che rispecchia il temperamento di questa variegata comunità.
Ad un’umanità che chiede soprattutto di essere ascoltata, la narratrice/pedicure riserva la propria partecipata attenzione e nel contempo si dedica a una cura meticolosa di una parte del corpo troppo spesso trascurata e malmessa a causa degli anni e delle faticose esistenze attraversate, trasmettendo benessere e carezzevoli cure senza eccezioni, anche se alcuni “pazienti” sembrano meritarsele più di altri che restano chiusi in un bozzolo di risentimento e amarezza.
La struttura del libro potrebbe così essere ricondotta ad una raccolta di racconti, ma il piccolo salone di estetica con le tre solerti e non più giovani operatrici, a loro volta non immuni dalle traversie del passato, rappresenta un microcosmo che si fonde ai casermoni popolari di Marzahn, punto di riferimento e fonte di consolazione per la gente, un popolo (“tremilaottocento piedi”…) che resiste tra l’orgoglio e la rassegnazione, suscitando empatia e talvolta perfino commozione.
December 31, 2021
What a wonderful way to finish off the 2021 reading year!
Katja Oskamp decided to retrain as a chiropodist when her latest novella was rejected by publishers and her partner was sick and this is a memoir in vignettes of her work with various inhabitants of Marzahn, a huge prefabricated housing estate in the former GDR.
The majority of her clients are over fifty, some much older and each chapter takes one or two of these clients as its subject. She describes their feet, but not only their current physical state and the treatment she gives, but how and why their feet came to be that way. In simple, compassionate prose she tells us about the lives these clients have had, which inevitably include hardship of some kind, she writes of how their lives changed when reunification occurred and what their lives have come to be in their old age. One of my favorites was Gerlinde or Frau Bonkart of whom she says she wanted 'pay tribute..because if I don't no one else will'; so often the elderly are ignored and dismissed and it feels like Katja Oskamp wants to remedy this as someone who herself believes that women over forty become invisible.
Her stories aren't constricted to her clients as she also writes of the lives of her coworkers, Tiffy and Flocke and her relationship with them and there is also a lot of humor in the book as she catches up on the local gossip and has to deal with propositions from seventy year olds! These are Katja's stories but she often comes across as a simple spectator, one with immense warmth and compassion for those she treats but keeping her private life very much in the background.
When I described this to a friend as a book about a chiropodist writing about her clients I got a grimace in return but this is so much more than that. I was completely entranced and engaged by this book and its humor, empathy and sense of connection where a visit to a chiropodist is the highlight of someone's month. I don't feel I can truly get across how wonderful it was but if you want an warm, engaging but unsentimental read for the beginning of 2022 you couldn't do better than this book.
Katja Oskamp decided to retrain as a chiropodist when her latest novella was rejected by publishers and her partner was sick and this is a memoir in vignettes of her work with various inhabitants of Marzahn, a huge prefabricated housing estate in the former GDR.
The majority of her clients are over fifty, some much older and each chapter takes one or two of these clients as its subject. She describes their feet, but not only their current physical state and the treatment she gives, but how and why their feet came to be that way. In simple, compassionate prose she tells us about the lives these clients have had, which inevitably include hardship of some kind, she writes of how their lives changed when reunification occurred and what their lives have come to be in their old age. One of my favorites was Gerlinde or Frau Bonkart of whom she says she wanted 'pay tribute..because if I don't no one else will'; so often the elderly are ignored and dismissed and it feels like Katja Oskamp wants to remedy this as someone who herself believes that women over forty become invisible.
Her stories aren't constricted to her clients as she also writes of the lives of her coworkers, Tiffy and Flocke and her relationship with them and there is also a lot of humor in the book as she catches up on the local gossip and has to deal with propositions from seventy year olds! These are Katja's stories but she often comes across as a simple spectator, one with immense warmth and compassion for those she treats but keeping her private life very much in the background.
When I described this to a friend as a book about a chiropodist writing about her clients I got a grimace in return but this is so much more than that. I was completely entranced and engaged by this book and its humor, empathy and sense of connection where a visit to a chiropodist is the highlight of someone's month. I don't feel I can truly get across how wonderful it was but if you want an warm, engaging but unsentimental read for the beginning of 2022 you couldn't do better than this book.
August 21, 2024
2,5 Sterne - ganz okay, aber nicht das richtige Buch für mich.
Katja Oskamp war über 40 als sie sich zur Fußpflegerin ausbilden ließ. In diesem dünnen Band erzählt sie von ihrer Arbeit und den unterschiedlichen Menschen, die auf ihrem Fußpflegestuhl Platz nehmen. Die Idee ist cute, leider sind die Menschen und ihre Geschichten nicht wirklich divers und haben mich mit der Zeit gelangweilt.
Der Humor ist irgendwie boomerig, manche Geschichten fast pathetisch. Alles hat diese "das sind noch ehrliche Leute mit ehrlicher Arbeit" Attitude. Selbst die Geschichte über eine Geflüchtete ist natürlich eine über eine Deutsche aus Königsberg und auch die "hat ihr Leben lang gearbeitet" und "dem Staat nie auf der Tasche gelegen".
Wer richtig Bock auf ein sehr sehr deutsches Buch hat, der wird sich über "Marzahn Mon Amour" auf jeden Fall sehr freuen.
Katja Oskamp war über 40 als sie sich zur Fußpflegerin ausbilden ließ. In diesem dünnen Band erzählt sie von ihrer Arbeit und den unterschiedlichen Menschen, die auf ihrem Fußpflegestuhl Platz nehmen. Die Idee ist cute, leider sind die Menschen und ihre Geschichten nicht wirklich divers und haben mich mit der Zeit gelangweilt.
Der Humor ist irgendwie boomerig, manche Geschichten fast pathetisch. Alles hat diese "das sind noch ehrliche Leute mit ehrlicher Arbeit" Attitude. Selbst die Geschichte über eine Geflüchtete ist natürlich eine über eine Deutsche aus Königsberg und auch die "hat ihr Leben lang gearbeitet" und "dem Staat nie auf der Tasche gelegen".
Wer richtig Bock auf ein sehr sehr deutsches Buch hat, der wird sich über "Marzahn Mon Amour" auf jeden Fall sehr freuen.
Read
July 2, 2023This is like a piece of social history of a time and a place and a population—middle-aged and elderly people living in a high rise suburb of Berlin in the 21st century. It is charming, moving, neatly crafted, but also feels a bit repetitive when you try to read it through quickly as a novel. I could imagine the short chapters, which each introduce a different character, working better as a series of regular columns in a magazine.
May 11, 2025
Katja Oskamp schafft es, der zuweilen harten Realität ihrer meist kranken und älteren Kunden mit einem Gefühl der Normalität und Gleichmut zu begegnen und erzählt von diesen Begebenheiten. Das Buch ist gut geschrieben, das Thema, welches sonst häufig mit Scham belastet ist, ein selten besprochenes. Bonuspunkte gibt es auch für die Repräsentation von ehemals Ostdeutschen und Alt-Berlinern.
August 7, 2023
3.5/5
Yazarın kendi deneyiminden yola çıkarak yazdığı Marzahn Mon Amour, Berlin’in Marzahn semtinde yaşayan bir grup -genelde yaşlı ve işçi sınıfından gelen- insanın portresini sunuyor bize. Hepsi ayaklarından sorun yaşayan ve yazarın çalıştığı güzellik merkezine gelen bu insanların bazılarının hikayeleri hüzünlü, bazılarının da eğlenceli. Hepsinin ortak noktası yazarın anlattığı kişilere karşı duyduğu empati ve şefkat. Bu yüzden okurken de bitirince de iyi hissediyor insan. Uluslararası Dublin Edebiyat Ödülleri’nde kısa listeye kalan altı eserden biri olan Marzahn Mon Amour, kısa listeden okuduklarım içinde belki en iyisi değil ama bıraktığı sıcak his için fazlasıyla okunmaya değer.
Yazarın kendi deneyiminden yola çıkarak yazdığı Marzahn Mon Amour, Berlin’in Marzahn semtinde yaşayan bir grup -genelde yaşlı ve işçi sınıfından gelen- insanın portresini sunuyor bize. Hepsi ayaklarından sorun yaşayan ve yazarın çalıştığı güzellik merkezine gelen bu insanların bazılarının hikayeleri hüzünlü, bazılarının da eğlenceli. Hepsinin ortak noktası yazarın anlattığı kişilere karşı duyduğu empati ve şefkat. Bu yüzden okurken de bitirince de iyi hissediyor insan. Uluslararası Dublin Edebiyat Ödülleri’nde kısa listeye kalan altı eserden biri olan Marzahn Mon Amour, kısa listeden okuduklarım içinde belki en iyisi değil ama bıraktığı sıcak his için fazlasıyla okunmaya değer.
March 25, 2024
Não esperava gostar tanto, muito bom.
June 12, 2021
Una novela necesaria en estos tiempos en que muchos nos hemos tenido que reinventar, adaptar,superar crisis cotidianas cual dramas universales.
Demuestra la importancia de la actitud.
🌸En parte es autobiográfica .
🌸Nuestra protagonista, una escritora sin el éxito buscado ,en plena crisis de la mediana edad.
🌸Katja cambia la pluma por la bata blanca para trabajar haciendo pedicuras en un salón del barrio berlines de Marzahn,el barrio será un protagonista más.
🌸Una heroína del día a día que atraviesa Berlín en tranvía para recibir a una clientela habitual ,ganada con su buen trabajo y una labor psicológica que todos los que hemos trabajado "de cara al público "conocemos, pero que no todos disfrutan:empatia falta en este mundo y Katja la destila .
🌸Sus clientes no se sientan en un sillón, se sientan en un trono rosa y mientras solucionan sus problemas físicos...la van haciendo participe en la intimidad de su historia y sus crisis cotidianas.
Muchos de sus capítulos llevan por título el nombre de sus clientes y nos cuentan sus vivencias.
🌸Una novela que se disfruta,que deja un poso reflexivo importante, vivimos quejándonos, sin valorar lo que somos y lo que queremos ser.
A Katja ,Tiffy y Floke,como muchas personas de las que trabajan con uniforme, cuando cuelgan la bata blanca, sus clientes no las conocen en la calle,pero se vuelven a sus casas tan cansadas como satisfechas con su día a día y eso...es una lección magistral de vida.
💘Leerlo,disfrutarlo ,reflexionar.
Demuestra la importancia de la actitud.
🌸En parte es autobiográfica .
🌸Nuestra protagonista, una escritora sin el éxito buscado ,en plena crisis de la mediana edad.
🌸Katja cambia la pluma por la bata blanca para trabajar haciendo pedicuras en un salón del barrio berlines de Marzahn,el barrio será un protagonista más.
🌸Una heroína del día a día que atraviesa Berlín en tranvía para recibir a una clientela habitual ,ganada con su buen trabajo y una labor psicológica que todos los que hemos trabajado "de cara al público "conocemos, pero que no todos disfrutan:empatia falta en este mundo y Katja la destila .
🌸Sus clientes no se sientan en un sillón, se sientan en un trono rosa y mientras solucionan sus problemas físicos...la van haciendo participe en la intimidad de su historia y sus crisis cotidianas.
Muchos de sus capítulos llevan por título el nombre de sus clientes y nos cuentan sus vivencias.
🌸Una novela que se disfruta,que deja un poso reflexivo importante, vivimos quejándonos, sin valorar lo que somos y lo que queremos ser.
A Katja ,Tiffy y Floke,como muchas personas de las que trabajan con uniforme, cuando cuelgan la bata blanca, sus clientes no las conocen en la calle,pero se vuelven a sus casas tan cansadas como satisfechas con su día a día y eso...es una lección magistral de vida.
💘Leerlo,disfrutarlo ,reflexionar.
July 28, 2023
Il punto debole del romanzo è forse la struttura narrativa che, a tratti, diventa un format.
Entra il cliente, trattamento del cliente, storia del cliente, il cliente esce.
Fine della giornata.
Per fortuna però l'impianto generale della narrazione tiene.
È innanzitutto molto interessante la narrazione di un contesto sociale di una perifieria poco conosciuta di una grande metropoli.
In un certo senso ho trovato il romanzo pure un po' cinematografico, penso per la bravira dell'autrice nel ricreare davvero immagini che presentino i personaggi e le loro azioni, oltre che il loro vissuto.
Inoltre la brevità dei vari quadri rende il ritmo generale della storia molto avvincente.
Una scrittrice in crisi, Katja, decide di iscriversi a un corso da estetista e trova lavoro in un centro estetico della periferia berlinese. Di volta in volta, ci farà conoscere i personaggi che con regolarità entrano ed escono dalle sue giornate, consegnandole i piedi - contatto umano affatto usuale.
Devo dire che più che una commedia umana (come se non erro è scritto nella quarta di copertina) a me è sembrata una bella fetta della vita com'è. O un come eravamo e cosa saremo. C'è un generale tocco di tenrezza e nostalgia, oltre all'ironia che abbelliscono queste storie.
Piccole e belle.
Entra il cliente, trattamento del cliente, storia del cliente, il cliente esce.
Fine della giornata.
Per fortuna però l'impianto generale della narrazione tiene.
È innanzitutto molto interessante la narrazione di un contesto sociale di una perifieria poco conosciuta di una grande metropoli.
In un certo senso ho trovato il romanzo pure un po' cinematografico, penso per la bravira dell'autrice nel ricreare davvero immagini che presentino i personaggi e le loro azioni, oltre che il loro vissuto.
Inoltre la brevità dei vari quadri rende il ritmo generale della storia molto avvincente.
Una scrittrice in crisi, Katja, decide di iscriversi a un corso da estetista e trova lavoro in un centro estetico della periferia berlinese. Di volta in volta, ci farà conoscere i personaggi che con regolarità entrano ed escono dalle sue giornate, consegnandole i piedi - contatto umano affatto usuale.
Devo dire che più che una commedia umana (come se non erro è scritto nella quarta di copertina) a me è sembrata una bella fetta della vita com'è. O un come eravamo e cosa saremo. C'è un generale tocco di tenrezza e nostalgia, oltre all'ironia che abbelliscono queste storie.
Piccole e belle.
December 28, 2021
Die Geschichten, die die Autorin in diesem Buch erzählt, sind schön und anrührend. Liebevolle Portraits nicht immer liebevoller, sondern sehr menschlicher Menschen. Portraits, die uns unweigerlich auch einen Ausblick auf das eröffnen, was uns selbst irgendwann erwartet. Tatsächlich finde ich Aspekte meines eigenen Vaters in den Geschichten wieder.
All das gefällt mir, aber es schafft nicht, mich wirklich zu rühren.
Ich bin mir unsicher, vermute aber, dass das an der Art der Autorin liegt, zu schreiben. Ein wenig zu schlicht, zu flapsig und zu dünn ist mir die Sprache, um mich endgültig gefangen zu nehmen. Im Angesicht der einfachen Menschen, von denen erzählt wird, mag das stimmig erscheinen, aber wenn die Protagonistin etwa einem Kind Schokolade "zwischen die Kauleisten" schiebt, finde ich das unnötig (und) ärgerlich.
So stehe ich ein wenig zerrissen zwischen Zuneigung und, nach all der sehr hymnischen Kritik, einer Spur von Enttäuschung. Insgesamt kann ich aber nicht anders als weniger denn drei Sterne zu geben, was in meinem Verständnis eine überdurchschnittlich gute Wertung ist.
All das gefällt mir, aber es schafft nicht, mich wirklich zu rühren.
Ich bin mir unsicher, vermute aber, dass das an der Art der Autorin liegt, zu schreiben. Ein wenig zu schlicht, zu flapsig und zu dünn ist mir die Sprache, um mich endgültig gefangen zu nehmen. Im Angesicht der einfachen Menschen, von denen erzählt wird, mag das stimmig erscheinen, aber wenn die Protagonistin etwa einem Kind Schokolade "zwischen die Kauleisten" schiebt, finde ich das unnötig (und) ärgerlich.
So stehe ich ein wenig zerrissen zwischen Zuneigung und, nach all der sehr hymnischen Kritik, einer Spur von Enttäuschung. Insgesamt kann ich aber nicht anders als weniger denn drei Sterne zu geben, was in meinem Verständnis eine überdurchschnittlich gute Wertung ist.
September 29, 2023
“A partire dalla primavera del 2015 mi sono presa cura di circa tremilaottocento piedi, diciannovemila dita. Ho tenuto stretta fra indice e pollice ciascuna di esse”.
Nel mezzo del cammin della sua vita Katja, scrittrice con un romanzo per l’ennesima volta rifiutato sul tavolo, decide di dare una svolta alla sua carriera occupandosi di tutt’altro e passando dalla mente al corpo. Perciò si iscrive a un corso di pedicure curativo e trova lavoro in un centro estetico a Marzhan, quartiere di casermoni della defunta DDR, ma che adesso ha un cuore.
Il salone di bellezza, infatti, diventa un centro di relazioni umane, con il suo viavai di persone che diventano personaggi di cui la narratrice racconta la storia. Con delicatezza, compassione e humor gentile.
Anche la cura amorosa dei piedi altrui può essere un modo per trovare un senso alla vita perché “a volte, forse, la bellezza del mondo è racchiusa nel breve spazio di un unghia.”
Nel mezzo del cammin della sua vita Katja, scrittrice con un romanzo per l’ennesima volta rifiutato sul tavolo, decide di dare una svolta alla sua carriera occupandosi di tutt’altro e passando dalla mente al corpo. Perciò si iscrive a un corso di pedicure curativo e trova lavoro in un centro estetico a Marzhan, quartiere di casermoni della defunta DDR, ma che adesso ha un cuore.
Il salone di bellezza, infatti, diventa un centro di relazioni umane, con il suo viavai di persone che diventano personaggi di cui la narratrice racconta la storia. Con delicatezza, compassione e humor gentile.
Anche la cura amorosa dei piedi altrui può essere un modo per trovare un senso alla vita perché “a volte, forse, la bellezza del mondo è racchiusa nel breve spazio di un unghia.”
April 7, 2024
Um livro tocante, terno e pungente que conta a história de uma mulher que se aproxima da meia-idade e que decide abandonar a sua carreira frustrada de escritora para se tornar pedicura. Através da sua relação com os clientes e colegas, ela dá-nos conta das suas histórias pessoais, oferecendo um retrato íntimo dos habitantes de Marzahn.
January 18, 2025
Katja Oskamp surprises us with her work ‘Marzahn, Mon Amour’ (2019), a book that displays rare complexity and sensitivity in just a few pages. An intimate and very human portrait of life in Marzahn, a neighbourhood in former East Germany, told through an unexpected perspective: that of a pedicure.
Comentário complete em português no blog: https://narrativax.blogspot.com/2025/...
Comentário complete em português no blog: https://narrativax.blogspot.com/2025/...
March 28, 2024
2,5*
2023-jų metų International Dublin Literary Award nugalėtoja.
Noriu nenoriu, sąmoningai ar ne aš lyginu skaitomas knygas. Šiuo atveju, esu perskaičiusi dar du romanus iš trumpojo Dublino lit. prizo sąrašo - Percival Everett "The Trees" (sirgau už šią) bei Raros numatomą išleisti Fernanda Melchor "Paradais ir "Marzahn, mon amour" mane tiesiog nuvylė.
Autofikcinis vokiečių rašytojos Katjos Oskamp romanas apie vidutinio amžiaus rašytoją, kuri užstrigus karjerai persiklasifikuoja į medicininę pedikiūristę (chiropodist) ir randa darbą rytinio Berlyno Marzahn rajone. Salonas įsikūręs viename iš rajono daugiabučių ir rašytojos/pasakotojos klientai - senyvi to rajono gyventojai. Kai kurie buvę svarbūs ir galingi GDR piliečiai, o dabar su įaugusiais nagais ir suragėjusiais kulnais senukai/-ės pasakojantys savo gyvenimo istorijas noriai jų besiklausančiai pedikiūristei. Romanas pagrinde ir sudarytas iš trumpučių tų klijentų pasipasakojimų.
Visiškai manęs nepalietęs pasakojimas. Gal net kiek suerzinęs. O ir literatūriškumo man tikrai pritrūko. Ehh...
2023-jų metų International Dublin Literary Award nugalėtoja.
Noriu nenoriu, sąmoningai ar ne aš lyginu skaitomas knygas. Šiuo atveju, esu perskaičiusi dar du romanus iš trumpojo Dublino lit. prizo sąrašo - Percival Everett "The Trees" (sirgau už šią) bei Raros numatomą išleisti Fernanda Melchor "Paradais ir "Marzahn, mon amour" mane tiesiog nuvylė.
Autofikcinis vokiečių rašytojos Katjos Oskamp romanas apie vidutinio amžiaus rašytoją, kuri užstrigus karjerai persiklasifikuoja į medicininę pedikiūristę (chiropodist) ir randa darbą rytinio Berlyno Marzahn rajone. Salonas įsikūręs viename iš rajono daugiabučių ir rašytojos/pasakotojos klientai - senyvi to rajono gyventojai. Kai kurie buvę svarbūs ir galingi GDR piliečiai, o dabar su įaugusiais nagais ir suragėjusiais kulnais senukai/-ės pasakojantys savo gyvenimo istorijas noriai jų besiklausančiai pedikiūristei. Romanas pagrinde ir sudarytas iš trumpučių tų klijentų pasipasakojimų.
Visiškai manęs nepalietęs pasakojimas. Gal net kiek suerzinęs. O ir literatūriškumo man tikrai pritrūko. Ehh...
June 2, 2023
I wasn't sure what was so disagreeable about this book until I got to the chapter with the woman who jumped and "the lesbian couple", "the lesbian couple", "the lesbian couple", "the lesbians". And then it dawned on me - each character stands for something other than themselves and in no way the standing for is subtle. Oskamp will explain it to you, underline it and beat you over the head with it, all the while expecting reader uh-ah-ing over tepid sentimentality. Nope.
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