Book of the month 2003

© S. Fischer

Micha and his friends Wuschel, Mario and Brille are seventeen and in love. The object of their affection is the ravishingly beautiful Miriam who takes no notice of them despite their many attempts to impress her. Micha, however, has worked out a plan to win her favour and appears to succeed where his friends fail.

The novel tells the story of adolescence and first love, with a difference. The story is set in East Berlin in the Seventies and no matter how much Micha and his friends would like to ignore the petty rules and obligations they are meant to observe, the Wall at the end of their street is a constant reminder of their being "cut off" from Western life and liberties.

Brussig's third novel is based on the film script he wrote for director Leander Haußmann. The origin of the novel is evident in so far as it consists of a string of episodes held together by the main characters rather than a fully developed plot. The novel succeeds, nonetheless, because Brussig has the ability of making the basically tragic appear funny. With dry humour he exposes the absurdities of a system that attempts to control its citizens in all spheres of their life and their - more often than not - pointless struggle against it. Identifying with the people in the East the reader laughs with Micha and his friends when they take gullible Western tourists for a ride and feels their frustration when the beautiful Miriam announces that only guys from the West are worth dating.

Brussig's novel is a very enjoyable way of getting an idea of what life in the former German Democratic Republic was like. Despite the obvious exaggeration and caricatures his novel conveys a sense of the difficulties and intense frustration of everyday life as well as the illusion (and later delusion) about life in the West.

Bibliografic Details
German	English Translation
Hardcover: Not available anymore.	Hardcover: Not available yet.
Paperback: Brussig, Thomas: Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee. S. Fischer, Frankfurt, 7. Aufl 2005 ISBN 3-596-14847-2 EUR 7,95	Paperback: Not available yet.
Audio-CD: Brussig, Thomas: Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee. Steinbach Sprechende Bücher, Schwäbisch Hall, 2000 ISBN 3-88698-507-5 EUR 19,90	Audio-CD: Not available yet.
DVD: Sonnenallee : ein Farbfilm / ein Leander Haußmann Film. Nach dem Roman von Thomas Brussig EUR 8,95	DVD: Not available yet.