The Wall Jumper

My thoughts after reading this book was utter confusion.  While reading the narrator tends to ramble and jump from subject to subject quickly without notice for the reader to follow along, but after consideration of Berlin's history, this approach seems to make sense for the time period he is trying to portray.  The short novel, The Wall Jumper, takes place in post WWII Berlin, Germany.  It's during a time where Germany is divided in two different governmental and economical positions, capitalistic and communistic.  Berlin is the central focus of this shot novel.  At this particular point in time Berlin is not only divided by different governments but also also literally by a wall, The Berlin Wall.  The Wall Jumper was intentionally written to communicate the understanding of this time period, fragmented, incoherent, and confusion.

As Scheinder intentions becomes apparent as he jumps around from story to story of personal  accounts of this era, much in the same way a documentary is presented.  The Wall is the central metaphor of the novel, providing a semiotic system of disjunction and junction. The S-Bahn and the telephone are images of interconnection, whereas the Wall with its watchtowers and border guards represents disconnection or separation. All other images are subject to this binary system of division and flow.  It's about the relationship between man, city, and history. The narrator realizes that, like history, the city of Berlin is a text to be read, a text which he can read but not comprehend.