![]() ![]() This is just the start of a rollercoaster ride for our artificial silk girl as she does her best to pass herself off as the real deal, hoping to find a man willing to pay her way. The artful young woman decides that this is where she needs to be, and she begins work on making a name for herself, scouting out all the best places to be seen and to find men to care for her and her needs. Still, despite being slightly closer to her dreams of riches and fame, the acting life doesn’t quite work out either, and after a couple of unfortunate incidents, she’s compelled to make a quick exit, eventually landing in Berlin. She’s an ambitious soul, if slightly lazy, and it isn’t long before she throws in her job, next finding herself as an extra in a stage production. Irmgard Keun’s Das kunstseidene Mädchen (The Artificial Silk Girl) is the story of Doris, an eighteen-year-old secretary living somewhere in Germany in 1931. Let’s take a trip to Berlin, then, to meet a young woman hoping to strike it lucky in the big city – and prepared to do almost anything to do so. Next time out, I’ll be returning to an old favourite, but today I’m trying a new (old) writer – although I suspect that for once, many of my readers will have got there well before me. ![]() The first few weeks of this year’s German Literature Month have been dominated by male writers, but fortunately I did get around to buying a couple of books by women a while back, and they’ll be the focus this week. ![]()
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