Kï½sebier Takes Berlin

By: Gabriele Tergit, Sophie Duvernoy (Translator, Introduction by)

Write A Review

Paperback | 30 July 2019

At a Glance

Paperback
304 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
20.3 x 13 x 1.7

Paperback

$34.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $8.69 with

or

Ships in 10 to 15 business days

In English for the first time, a panoramic satire about the star-making machine, set in celebrity-obsessed Weimar Berlin.

In Berlin, 1930, the name Kasebier is on everyone's lips. A literal combination of the German words for "cheese" and "beer," it's an unglamorous name for an unglamorous man-a small-time crooner who performs nightly on a shabby stage for laborers, secretaries, and shopkeepers. Until the press shows up.

In the blink of an eye, this everyman is made a star: a star who can sing songs for a troubled time. Margot Weissmann, the arts patron, hosts champagne breakfasts for Kasebier; Muschler the banker builds a theater in his honor; Willi Frachter, a parvenu writer, makes a mint off Kasebier-themed business ventures and books. All the while, the journalists who catapulted Kasebier to fame watch the monstrous media machine churn in amazement-and are aghast at the demons they have unleashed.

In Kasebier Takes Berlin, the journalist Gabriele Tergit wrote a searing satire of the excesses and follies of the Weimar Republic. Chronicling a country on the brink of fascism and a press on the edge of collapse, Tergit's novel caused a sensation when it was published in 1931. As witty as Kurt Tucholsky and as trenchant as Karl Kraus, Tergit portrays a world too entranced by fireworks to notice its smoldering edges.

Industry Reviews

"Portraying a society declining into fascism, the novel resounds with hollow laughter and is crisp throughout, but the journalistic sections feel most alive. These tableaus, which blend absurdism and poignancy, match the comic invention of classics like Michael Frayn's Towards the End of the Morning and Evelyn Waugh's Scoop." --Publishers Weekly

"A star is born, Weimar-style, in this German novel originally published in 1931....Tergit's novel deserves a place alongside Doeblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz, Canetti's Auto-da-Fe, and other key works of the period." --Kirkus

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

Orders over $89.00 qualify for free shipping.

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.