A Guide to Berlin by Gail Jones has been on my TBR for a while, and it’s just been nominated for yet another award (the Voss Literary Award), so I’ve decided to put together some combined reviews until I get time to read it. Opinion seems a bit divided, so read more than one.
Starting with the print media, in order I found them via Google:
- Jessa Crispin at The Guardian
- Susan Wyndham at the SMH
- Cassie Davies at the UK Telegraph
- Brenda Walker at The Monthly
- Sam Kitchener at the UK Independent
And from Online sites and bloggers
- Tanya Dalziell at the Sydney Review of Books
- Cassie Hamer at Book Birdy
- Susan Lever at Inside Story
- Kim Forrester at Reading Matters
- Jonathan Shaw at Me Fail, I Fly
Author: Gail Jones
Title: A Guide to Berlin
Publisher: Random House, 2015
ISBN: 9780857988157, pbk., 272 pages
Source: Personal library
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
This is a novel I failed to engage with sufficiently to finish it. Here’s why https://bookertalk.com/2016/04/13/a-guide-to-berlin-by-gail-jones-a-curates-egg-of-a-novel/
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By: BookerTalk on October 26, 2016
at 7:20 pm
LOL I *knew* I’d seen another review of it somewhere! – I’d even commented on it!
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By: Lisa Hill on October 26, 2016
at 11:35 pm
I did finish read this novel but it wasn’t a good read for me.
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By: Meg on October 31, 2016
at 4:07 pm
Why was that, Meg? I find it interesting that critical opinion is so divided on it….
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By: Lisa Hill on October 31, 2016
at 5:41 pm
Like BookerTalk, I didn’t connect with any of the characters. A cold book without any depth. Cass’s comparison or her connection with Nabokov was never there in writing or style.
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By: Meg on October 31, 2016
at 7:37 pm
Do you think it’s a book that you need to know your Nabokov to appreciate it? Because the only Nabokov I’ve read is Lolita and that was decades ago…
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By: Lisa Hill on October 31, 2016
at 8:28 pm
I think it doesn’t help to know Nabokov writing, because if you did, like me you would be disappointed in A Guide to Berlin. Nabokov was a great writer, his prose and style was his alone, no comparisons can be made to his writings. I have read both Lolita and Pale Fire a couple of times.
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By: Meg on October 31, 2016
at 8:48 pm
Ah well, I’ll bear that in mind. Thanks!
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By: Lisa Hill on October 31, 2016
at 9:41 pm
[…] Gail Jones, The House of Breathing, not an author reviewed on the blog except for Combined Reviews of A Guide to Berlin but I’ve read Sixty Lights and Dreams of […]
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By: Troppo, by Madelaine Dickie | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on December 6, 2019
at 8:07 pm
[…] Gail Jones, A Guide to Berlin, still on my TBR – in the meantime, see Combined Reviews […]
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By: 2016 Voss Literary Prize shortlist | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on November 30, 2020
at 1:57 pm
[…] Gail Jones, The House of Breathing, not an author reviewed on the blog except for Combined Reviews of A Guide to Berlin but I’ve read Sixty Lights and Dreams of […]
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By: Troppo, by Madelaine Dickie (Winner of the 2014 Hungerford Award) | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on October 11, 2021
at 9:09 pm