Kairos

An unexpectedly tiresome and repellant read, with the scant reward being a better understanding of what it was like to be an East German before and after the fall of the Wall. This reward is far outweighed by my deep revulsion and rage at the toxic 'love' affair that is the heart of the story. I get that this dysfunctional 'relationship' is meant to be a metaphor for the relationship between the GDR and its people, but this is not enough to make it a good novel. It is only worth reading if you enjoy reading about a domineering, pretentious, arrogant older man abusing, controlling and demeaning a younger woman. Not to mention the writing which initially seemed brilliant but quickly became overly detached, clinical, repetitive, tedious and sometimes pompous.