Ordinary writing. Very short linked stories.

Really liking this novel a lot. I'm about halfway through; one can start and stop anywhere and then pick it up again. Vignettes, pieces of a Berliner's life, stories told to Dear Visitor, our narrator.

This is a quote from the LA Review of Books (which is a journal I like and peruse): " . . . Here in Berlin is an impeccable linguistic exercise in narratology and a brilliant exploration of the various identities we adhere to in metropolitan environments. García successfully rehumanizes a German postwar trauma of a populace that for so long coped with the making anonymous of people through genocide, the deadening speed of its capitalist structures, and the oppressive world of East Berlin. . . " (10/17 edition online)

I love the premise, the narrator listening and the storytellers having significant and meaningful tales to tell. I lived in a lot of countries in the 90s and 00s teaching ESL and I heard stories, oh did I hear stories.

P.S. a few days later: be forewarned--there are some horrible cruelty stories in this novel.