Black Deutschland

Darryl Pinckney's novel is fresh, fearless and uniquely brings the 1980s back to life with a new and powerful voice.    

Darryl Pinkney's Black Deutschland is a provocative journey through post-war German history through the eyes of Jed, a young black American expatriate living in West Berlin. Jed is a fascinating and unique narrator and was actually the reason I picked this book up. Other novels, films and TV shows bring this period of history to life but none with the particular view point of an outsider so keen to evoke a Berlin of both the past and the future.

Jed's dream begins on arrival in Berlin, a city which he views through the lens of Christopher Isherwood and his friends. Escaping Chicago Jed can be who he wants to be in a city where underground bars and cruising spots provide a warm welcome to a young black American.

"I was determined to pour down the drain behaviour brewed in envy and low self esteem"

As the weeks and years pass Jed throws himself into work and an obsession with the Bauhaus Modernism he sees around him. The combination of Walter Gropius buildings and liberal loving are irresistible. Pinckney cleverly constructs the narrative so that reminders of home are never far behind. Jed's mostly disapproving cousin lives with her husband in a middle class area of the city a million miles from Jed's Weimar cabaret lifestyle.

The novel is at its best when shadows begin to creep on to the streets of Jed's Berlin. Hollywood legendary pin-up Rock Hudson is diagnosed with AIDS and the inevitability of a new unified Berlin and Germany become a reality. But it is Jed who has really grown up and who must embrace the new future ahead of him.

Darryl Pinckney's novel is fresh, fearless and uniquely brings the 1980s back to life with a new and powerful voice.  

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep: Kitsch 70s decor aside this novel is ultimately a suburban saga full of tea towel ideology and cardigans at dawn

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is a great title for a book and with a unique cover design the book literally popped on the shelf and into my mitts. 

The story hinges upon the disappearance of Margaret Creasy and the subsequent ripples created through the still waters of suburban England; the community the Creasy's call home. The back drop to the story is the sticky and sultry summer of 1976 with it's legendary heat wave which turned dreary and damp Britain into the blazing balearics at a time when many people were just discovering the package holiday to Spain.

Cannon's attention to detail is good, in parts, with some references to SodaStream and chintzy decoration to keep fans of the 70s happy. You can almost hear the Slade 45s spinning in the broiling sunlight. 


The novel portrays a group of characters whose faith is challenged in different ways by the mysterious going ons at casa Creasley. Each of the neighbours paths cross in different, and unknown ways, and each responds differently under scrutiny. 

The title of the book refers to the different sorts of people in the World - we are each, the book leads us to believe, either goats or sheep when is comes to matters of faith. This is ultimately borne out in the discovery, by the community, of a vision of Jesus on a drainpipe.

Kitsch 70s decor aside this novel is ultimately a suburban saga full of tea towel ideology and cardigans at dawn. For me the story is lacking in anything to really remember. It is is neither period enough to really bring seventies Suburbia to life nor raw enough to be a compelling thriller.

Best reads of the year so far

The smell of print is alive and well in 2016! From new paperbacks to second hand book finds, fiction continues to fight the humdrum and banish the mundane.

Here's my very own shortlist, keep reading.....

Aquarium by David Vann

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff

Aquarium: Vann's writing style is so rich in characterisation and recurring motifs that the possible discussion points are endless

Aquarium by David Vann is a quirky coming of age drama that, uniquely,  both begins and ends in an aquarium. 13 year old Caitlin visits said aquarium, its in Seattle though that's not important, after school every day whilst she waits for her mother, Sheri, to finish work at the container port. This is a seemingly safe after school club of sorts that Sheri arranges so that she can work over-time to 'get on in life'. Evolution and survival of the fittest are both themes that run throughout this novel.  

Caitlin's daily dive to the bottom of the sea is both comforting and a window into the World. Like Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Caitlin instinctively understands the life of the fish she sees every day as they begin to frame her own life. The scrap book like line drawings throughout the book illustrate the level of empathy Caitlin feels for her fish.

The story is tight and at times claustrophobic as Caitlin's immediate family expands to include Sheri's boyfriend Steve, Caitlin's school friend Shalina and, most significantly, her Grandfather. Some sections are uncomfortable such as where Sheri forces Caitlin to face her own harrowing experiences as a teenager. Vann doesn't hold back on the descriptions of the emotional pressure Caitlin is put under by her close to the edge mother, this is at heart a no-holds barred family drama.

Aquatic motifs can be found throughout the novel as Vann immerses the reader deeper and deeper into Caitin's life. All the key scenes take place in water such as the scene with Sheri in the bath and later with Shalini in the snow. 

This is a novel in which men are forgivable and women are complicated and a story where humans are harder to understand that the sea life on display in the aquarium. Great writing, punchy dialogue and succinct plotting make this a brilliant quick read that would be perfect for book groups. Vann's writing is so rich in characterisation and recurring motifs that the possible discussion points are endless