Review: "WTF Berlin" by Jacinta Nandi

WTF Berlin by Jacinta Nandi
Published 2022 via Satyr Verlag
★★★

I'll keep it short: This was entertaining and at times even informative, but I tired pretty quickly of the format (Berlin by the ABCs, basically) and what felt at times like overwhelming negativity. That is: you don't have to love everything about the place you're living! Perfectly reasonable to criticize! Criticize away! But...when anything you might like about that place gets completely lost in the sarcasm and jadedness...at what point does one say, gently, 'Is this still the right place for you?'

My s.o. also read this and thought this was like a subgenre a friend was grousing about recently—twentysomething expats writing heavily autobiographical fiction about their exploits, written to appeal primarily to other expats. But I think this is more...what those twentysomething expats writing heavily autobiographical fiction write twenty years later.

This is largely compiled from a column Nandi wrote (writes?), as I understand it, and maybe I'd prefer it in column form, where one is only getting small doses at a time. Glad I read it, but if it falls off the shelves into a 'donate' pile, I'll shrug and hope it goes to a more appreciative home.