I seldom read modern, present day, relation dramas. This is part of my 'Borrow and Read' bookclub, and it was a really nice to read Daniela Krien's latest book, Love in Five Acts (Die Liebe in Ernstfall) a German author.
"Bookseller Paula has lost a child, and a husband. Where will she find her happiness? Fiercely independent Judith thinks more of horses than men, but that doesn't stop her looking for love online. Brida is a writer with no time to write, until she faces a choice between her work and her family. Abandoned by the "perfect" man, Malika struggles for recognition from her parents. Her sister Jorinde, an actor, is pregnant for a third time, but how can she provide for her family alone?
Love in Five Acts explores what is left to five women when they have fulfilled their roles as wives, mothers, friends, lovers, sisters and daughters. As teenagers they experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall, but freedom brings with it another form of pressure: the pressure of choice.
Punchy and entirely of the moment, Love in Five Acts engages head-on with what it is to be a woman in the twenty-first century."
We follow five women and how they handle their every day life. They are all looking for something, not really knowing what they are looking for. For several of them a happy life is torn to pieces when the partner finalises the relationship. As we follow one by one, we realise that there is a common factor between them. Relationship, boy friends, lovers and friends.
I found this novel fascinating. Maybe because I don't often read these kind of relation dramas. It gives a good picture on what it is to be a woman today. The pressure of making a career, having men in your life, children and when should they come? How do you find a good partner? On-line dating? And what happens if you don't find the partner you want to be the father of your child? What happens if you find him, but he goes on to another woman.
A clear cut take on the problems for modern women. Well told, lots of recognition in the different relationships. The different views of men and women. All in all, I really liked this novel and its stories. A rather short book, divided into five chapters, one for each woman. Is there a solution at the end? You just have to read it and see.
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