The Brothel in Rosenstrasse

[fungi from Yuggoth]

'The Brothel in Rosenstrasse' by Michael Moorcock (1982)

Was wondering if anyone has read this book and recommends it. Looks very interesting. Both amazon.com and amazon.co.uk give it glowing reviews (many claiming it's MM's best work), and from the sounds of it, it seems like a story that I'd enjoy. Still, it would be nice to hear from anyone on here.

[Foxbat]

I read this one many years ago and, to be honest, I found it a bit slow. It's worth a read but I wouldn't say it's one of his best. I prefer stuff like his Cornelius stories, but I would say my favourite of his is probably Behold The Man.

[fungi from Yuggoth]

Thanks foxbat. I'm still just venturing into Moorcock and I've found his stuff (that which I have read) to be wildly variable. Elric I have mixed feelings about, Jerry Cornelius I thought was interesting, though somewhat baffling. I'm aiming to pick up a copy of 'Wizardry and Wild Romance' sometime in the near future.

[Foxbat]

Yes, he stuff can be quite varied in quality. The Cornelius books were written in a time when Psychadelia was at its height and this probably accounts for much of its oddness. There is also a Cornelius movie The Final Program which is extremely odd but with its tongue firmly in its cheek. a bit hard to come by but interesting nonetheless.

Amongst my favourite Moorcock is The Dancers At The End Of Time trilogy (available as part of the SF Masterworks series). you might want to check it out.

[j. d. worthington]

May as well give this one a bump. The Brothel in Rosenstrasse is actually one of the von Bek books, though its more of a contemporary novel than a fantasy or sf piece. The narrator, Rickhart von Bek, is one of the most disreputable of the family -- a family which seems to excel in producing fringe types to begin with -- and yet the themes in the novel are very much those running throughout Moorcock's other work; only here he plays it out with a slightly different approach. Here the sexual escapades in the brothel echo the state of Moravia's health as a political unit; and as the sexual fantasies become increasingly bizarre and distanced from the realities, so the chaos in the state increases, until finally both collapse in a brutal and cruel fashion. The theme here seems to be that when we try to not only create fantasies and use them to enrich our lives, but to make them our lives, then we distort the reality around us until we lose our own humanity in the process. That, at least, is one of the major themes (there are others, as there usually are in Moorcock's better work).

And yes, I'd claim this is certainly one of his better works; the maturity and deftness of his craftsmanship here is quiet, understated, and very carefully orchestrated rather than given to the pyrotechnic writing of much of his fantasy and even the Cornelius books (which spanned much more than the psychedelic era: the first was written ca. 1965, the most recent in 2001; Jerry, like Elric, has grown with Mike's career). It's by no means for everyone, but it shows his ability to handle very difficult themes without becoming sensationalist, and his characters are richly textured, as is the writing itself. It's a difficult book in some ways. Moorcock doesn't stand still or write the same thing (even within a series, the approach and the writing varies widely depending on what he intends with the book), but his themes are large and sprawling because he's dealing with life in all its variety; I think that's a good thing for any writer to aspire to. If you're looking for obvious fantasy, then this is not the book for you; if you're looking to see a great craftsman at work in a different vein, give this one a try.

[stinking_dylan]

For what it's worth, this is one of my favourite Moorcock books, though your taste is obviously different from my own.

You will probably enjoy this if you liked Gloriana, Warhound and the Worlds Pain and Byzantium Endures, etc. If you didn't enjoy these then you will probably not like Brothel either.