Look at Me
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15
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Katharina’s husband isn’t coming home for the weekend—again—so she’s on her own. When their chaotic daughter Helli has a nosebleed, Kat has to dash off to school to pick her up. Then their son, Alex, announces he’s bringing his new girlfriend home for the first time. Kat’s best friend from college is coming around tonight too, and she’s wondering if she should try to seduce him—but first she needs to do the shopping, the vacuuming and the laundry, deal with an exploding clothes-dryer, find their neighbour’s severed thumb in the front yard and catch a couple of escaped rodents. When she’s got all that sorted, perhaps she’ll have time to think about the thing she’s been trying not to think about—the lump she’s just found in her breast. Because you can’t just die and leave a huge mess for someone else to clean up...can you? And wasn’t there supposed to be more to life than this? Mareike Krügel lives in Schleswig-Holstein with her husband and their two children. She has received numerous literary awards, including the Friedrich Hebbel Prize. Look at Me is her fourth novel, and the first to be translated into English. ‘Funny, moving and thought-provoking.’ BookMooch ‘Kat and her family are deeply flawed but likeable characters; you want to cheer them on...A good read, suitable for long, dark evenings.’ Otago Daily Times ‘A quirky ride that masterfully blends a sardonic sense of humour with a deeply embedded fear of mortality.’ Readings ‘For all the chaos of Katharina’s life and for all the humour of her narrative voice, this well-written and surprisingly complex novel has an unexpected gravitas.’ Age ‘Definitely one of those “read in one sitting”, “hard to put down” books.’ Nudge Books ‘An enjoyable and thought provoking read.’ MindFood 'With a heroine so well-realised she feels like a friend, and piercingly true ruminations on the strange courses that life can take, Look At Me is a wildly impressive English-language debut.’ Culturefly ‘Full of whimsical inner monologues and snappy one liners.’ Booklist ‘Krügel knows her way around both the salty and sweet of marriage and motherhood.’ Kirkus Reviews
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This book was provided to me by NetGalley for free in exchange for an honest review.
I really disliked this book. The main character was absolutely spineless. She was constantly putting other people first. Now don't get me wrong, with family I do that too, but some neighbours that come over to my house and won't leave? I have every right to tell them to leave. If they take it personally then that is their problem. So the daughter has ADHD. That's definitely rough, I can't imagine, but she was just so defeated and in what I assume was denial about the whole thing. Only when her 11 year old daughter asks for the medicine does she seriously consider it. She things terrible things about her daughter, like how her 11 (11!!!!) year old daughter is a fat ball of dough and how happy she is that no one will probably kidnap and rape her because shes just a fat blob. Obviously parents worry about their children and their health, but that is just horribly judgmental. I don't know if maybe the character herself had some undiagnosed mental illness and the further I read the more I thought so, though it is never addressed. She was obsessed with writing lists and would lash out almost aggressively when someone tried/did read one.
She was obviously going through a very hard time. but I still cannot understand how she could so easily just dismiss everything. She was an absolute doormat and she let everyone walk all over her which is why her daughter had no respect for her. She kept thinking of all these things of what a good parents or responsible parent would do yet she did not do any of it. Was she depressed? Does she have a mental illness? None of the story went into any of that so I am just left wondering what happened and why read this book in the first place.
