Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

We Would Have Told Each Other Everything is a strange one, part biography, part on-writing the story comprises three parts, delving into the author’s life around key peoples in their life. The exploration ranges from heartfelt and vulnerable to almost embarrassingly awkward – while the lines between the authors life and their stories aren’t always straight its definitely a fascinating read to see how the related things to fiction, particularly the relationship between real people and her characters. I will say this is probably going to be more high impact if you know the author and their stories already, I didn’t and still enjoyed the read (and it made sense) but I have a feeling that it would all be much higher impact if you have that background.

«When I read a book I take on its secret, I adopt it. And I keep it to myself.»

At the start of this books i wasn't completely sure of it. I found the incipit a little bit difficult, as it sounds as a narration i should already in part know, but then I really liked it.
I found it a beautiful meditation on writing and reading, about what could really be beyond litterature, the secret soul of a writer.
I also liked the reflection on family, friends and relationships in general. The capacity of Judith Hermann to reinvented herself is something i really envy. Maybe she talks a little too much of her other books, but it's not a real big deal (and in effect it even made me wanted to read something else by her).
Thanks Netgalley!!!

Based on the Frankfurt Poetics Lectures Hermann was invited to give and here presented in an edited form, the book consists of three interconnecting meditations on memory, silence, trauma, remembering and forgetting, and to transform it all into literature. The fragility of human connection is at the heart of the work, and the author explores how personal experience is translated into narrative. This sort of auto-fiction doesn’t sit easily with me. I find it too self-analytical and self-indulgent, especially as it presupposes that the author’s experience is as interesting to his or her reader as it is to the writer. I didn’t find it so in this instance. The most engaging of the three parts was the second where Hermann looks back on her childhood in East Germany, but even here the discursive nature of the writing didn’t pull me in. I can see the literary merit of the writing itself, but I nevertheless couldn’t relate to the book.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me with an advanced copy of
We Would Have Told Each Other Everything by Judith Hermann.

I’ll start by saying that this memoir won’t be for everyone. While that’s the case with every book it’s important to explain my reasoning for starting a review with what could be seen as a warning. It’s not a warning, folks. Don’t worry. I just want to help identify the audience this book will best speak to and that is individuals who enjoy reflecting on the past and exploring the idea of memory and the way our minds can warp memories over time.

While that may sound like things almost everyone is interested in, the book is complicated by its structure, or lack thereof, and the sometimes wandering prose. Darn you, prose, can’t you just stay in a straight line?? The wandering feels somewhat earned however, in that the way we think is often lacks direction. So in that way it feels true to life.

If you can get past the structural difficulties there is a good book here and it’s short enough that in those moments when you have to bite down on your mouthpiece to get through a passage will not take up a lot of your time. It’s also fun as an American man to get to see life through the lense of a foreign woman in order to continue my exploration and understanding of the human experience.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me with an advanced copy of the English Translation of We Would Have Told Each Other Everything by Judith Hermann.

This fictionalized memoir is not for everyone. I think it will resonate most with people who enjoy reflecting on how past experiences (or more precisely, our warped memories of those past experiences) impact who we are in the present. The three long chapters that make up this book do not feel very structured, and the prose seems to ramble and branch off in ways that don't seem to amount to anything. But it feels very real. This is how we think. The prose demonstrates how everything we've been ties together to form one present state of being.

What stood out to me the most is the silence. Hermann's memories feature very little dialogue, instead they focus on the silences in-between. She paints the picture and sets the stage, but we are rarely given the words spoken in the scene. Again, I feel this is very true to life. In my own memories, I rarely hold on the specifics of conversations. I may remember generalized topics, or one specific sentence, but what remains with me is how I felt in the moment.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for Goodreads. The lack of a plot will likely deter some readers, but the short length makes it accessible to those wanting to try something different. My personal enjoyment stemmed from my own time in therapy and reflections on my past, as well as from musings the author shared that I personally could relate to. I also enjoyed getting a peak into life as a woman in another country. However there were times where I was lost (likely from having zero familiarity with the author's novels) and just "powered through" paragraphs that seemed to ramble. I think each individual reader's enjoyment will depend on their own relationship with their memories and their own self-awareness. As someone whose brain is not great with imagery, the descriptive parts didn't mean as much to me as I suspect they would to readers with more vivid mental pictures.

Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publisher and Netgalley for the advanced readers copy!

Judith, an award winning German author, ran into her psychoanalyst one night and triggered her memories and traumas to come back. This literary piece is a collection of how Judith came to be.

If I remember correctly, this is my first German read. It was not as easy to imagine how life in the said country was, but Judith made it a slow journey to let me take my time and vanish on her own journey.

We Would Have Told Each Other Everything is a slow-paced, reminiscing and deep thought out work. Her prose was not for everybody, and it did take me a while to submerge into her ocean. On the other hand, she has a charisma when it comes to words that just made me not want to look away, somewhat close to hypnotizing. The mile long paragraphs can be intimidating, that I found myself struggle to start one whenever the other ends. Fortunately, her words sing. As if I could hear the hymn in the author's head as she lose herself in nostalgia. In a way, I feel like I know her, yet I don't. I myself struggle to be as descriptive as I can, but the closest thing I can compare her writing style is to compare her work to the literary book of Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.

Subtle spoiler coming:
Towards the end, Judith ponders whether she has to share her stories to others, all the while confusingly deciding whether it was or was not a past she encountered or it was a dream. I suffer from memory loss of my experiences and mistakenly combine reality and dream. As a reader, the way she ended her book was a bliss. It made me doubt, if she did share enough of her own or just a tinge to make us satisfied, to not crave more than what she wanted to share. I felt like I was Jon, watching through a glass waiting and yet contented.

Rating: 8/10
Ease of reading: 3/10
Can't get enough of: 4/10

Overall: Recommended but for a certain audience