I felt pretty neutral about this book. It was good but I didn’t love it. I thought it worked as a kind of portrait of a certain era of Berlin, and I’m sure there’s n audience for that, but I don’t think that audience is me.

Eric Schnall’s debut novel, “I Make Envy on Your Disco,” invites readers into the vibrant heart of Berlin — a city pulsating with history, art, and possibility. The book follows Sam Singer, a mid-30s art advisor who flees the monotony of his New York City life to attend a gallery opening in Berlin. What unfolds is a captivating exploration of identity, connection, and the transformative power of place.

Schnall creates a tapestry of emotions that envelop the reader, masterfully weaving together past and present. As Sam immerses himself in Berlin’s graffiti-stained streets, candlelit cafés, and techno clubs, we witness his personal evolution. The plot unfolds with deliberate pacing, allowing us to savor each moment — the flirtation with an East Berlin artist, the budding relationship with the enigmatic hotel manager, and the introspective moments that bridge Sam’s past and future. Schnall’s ability to balance tension and reflection keeps the reader engaged and eager to see what happens next.

The city of Berlin itself becomes a character. Schnall’s prose is evocative, painting vivid scenes that transport us to the city’s heart. Whether it’s the pulsing beat of a nightclub or quiet contemplation by the Spree River, the narrative style captures Berlin’s essence. The city’s dichotomy mirrors Sam’s own journey. The writing is both poetic and grounded, inviting readers to feel as if they have been physically transported to Berlin.

Sam Singer is a relatable protagonist. This is a man at the crossroads of midlife, seeking meaning and connection. His interactions with the other characters reveal layers of vulnerability, desire, and self-discovery. As relationships unfold, we feel Sam's aching and yearning. Schnall’s characters resonate long after the final page, leaving us pondering our own paths and the transformative encounters that shape us.

“I Make Envy on Your Disco” invites readers to face their own desires, embrace the unexpected, and find beauty in the spaces between. This novel is a celebration of Berlin’s soul and a testament to the power of storytelling.

I think this could very quickly become some people's favorite book of the year. If you are a reader who really wants to feel as though they are living someone else's life, I think this is the perfect quick read. While reading, you feel every second of Sam's spontaneous trip to Berlin, both when it drags and when it seems hours go by in an instant. The author does a fantastic job of connecting with the reader by playing with the realities of everyday life - disconnection in long-term relationships, loneliness in a new city, mundane moments leading to life-altering epiphanies.

For the reader who's looking for that sort of "slice of life" style, this will be a homerun. I prefer a bit more escapism personally, so this wasn't my favorite; that said, I was still eager to keep reading and would definitely be interested in picking up Schnall's next work.

Thank you to University of Nebraska Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Sam's got a problem. He doesn't like his life much, right now at least, in no small part because his husband's got an itchy zipper, his career's reached the same-ol' same-ol' stage, and he's nudging forty...gay man's death. What better idea could a man in these dire straits have than to run away from home?

"Home" in New York City; he runs to Berlin on the rather flimsy pretext of an art opening...has this yutz heard of climate change and carbon footprints?!...in search of a path to the future. This reminded me of a very common trope in fiction, middlescence I call it in tribute to my old friend Juanice. She took the old-fashioned view that her husband was going to stray because he was reliving his adolescent horniness stage one last time, this time knowing what he was doing. Sam's a classic example of that middlescent man.

So was Less in the eponymous novel. I really disliked that novel.

The idea that one should run away from problems that absolutely won't fix themselves is an evergreen for novelists because it makes the narrative structure obvious and the stakes unambiguous. Your fish is out of water, your side characters write themselves. And the metaphorical journey/quest will never run out of steam. Okay, then there's the debut novel bit: Wise novelists spring from the acorns of the successful tropes past topiaried to order for their garden of prose.

This iteration of all the above uses the material to do what we hope for when we buy a relationship novel. It convinces the reader to invest in the characters, it affords us room to look at the ways and means Sam uses to escape as markers of solution, resolution, completion. Interestingly to me, this novel eschews the easy answers and instead makes us live in a real-life space of ambiguity.

Things end. Sometimes cleanly, without edges that could be kintsugi'd together. Mostly not, though. Mostly the Sam Singers and Lesses of the world do not get clean, fresh starts because that is exceedingly rare in life. There's a lot of charm in the kind of ending that spawns new beginnings. This book's stuffed full of those...though in my experience the new beginnings learned from travel are, of themselves, ephemeral. Their main value in my life has been to prove to me that new beginnings are possible. The intensity of Sam's connections to Jeremy the straight poet and Magda the stuck concierge bid fair to be short-lived; Kaspar the love interest, though, might be different. Might be.

The irony of seeking one's way forward in Berlin, that city resolutely planted in its pasts, isn't commented on in some arch or knowing way. That facet of the story's quietly acknowledged by Sam's attendance at the art opening that has as its topic what Germans now call "Östalgie", or nostalgia for the dear, dead days of two Berlins, two Germanys. The switch to capitalism was not smooth, and is not smoother now it seems. Culturally anyway that all collides hardest in the place that was defined by The Wall. My one and only trip to Berlin was pre-Wall fall, so I actually kind of get it. Nostalgia for how things were definitely communicates itself to those who were NOT there. Humans are weird and define "coolness" in very exlusionary ways. Sam, whose career is in the arts, gets this in his bones, since it's part and parcel of that world to exclude all but the wealthiest and most sophisticated. Those are overlapping but not identical groups; they are each quite exclusive, in every sense of the word, though not of each other.

So that's why I don't give the book five stars. I enjoyed the read. I like the characters. I really like the ambiguous ending. I don't care for the run-away-from-home trope. I ended up, mostly, not resonating with the way Sam drifted through Berlin "Östalgie" with what felt to me like very little curiosity. When an adult travels, but doesn't question the place and its history, I don't see why the author set the travel destination where they did. Author Schnall gave me a decent day's reading. That's great.

I would've liked to have been given an awakening of curiosity about Berlin, akin to the effect of <I>The Sheltering Sky</I> or even <I>Death in Venice</I>. Not, I hasten to assure you, a fault of craft on Schnall's part. More a lacuna between my expectation of a novel about a traveler to a place and what I got about the place.

I hope you'll try this debut novel out.

What a beautiful snapshot of a specific place (Berlin) at a specific time (autumn of 2002, possibly 2003), and a specific moment in the narrator's life. Art dealer and lifelong New Yorker Sam Singer, amid some relationship trouble and possibly the beginning of a midlife crisis, absconds to Berlin for a week. Ostensibly he is there to see one specific art show and then fill the rest of his time with seeing other art and meeting artists whose work he can sell to his wealthy clients back home. Instead, Sam wanders the city, making connections with German strangers and the American expat nephew of a client, experiencing a taste of what a different life might be like as he ponders the life he's put on pause and wonders if he really wants to return to it.

It took me several days to finish this book because I was so enjoying the time I got to spend in Sam's head with him, eavesdropping on his thoughts and enjoying his Berlin adventures. I wanted to savor each sentence, and days after finishing the book I'm still thinking about where Sam was when I left him and what he might go on to do next. I love that as the reader we leave Sam on the precipice of some major choices; it felt like one of those times in real life when you meet someone, share a brief but intense or profound experience with them, and then never see them again. For the rest of my life I'll always wonder about Sam and what he's doing now the same way I wonder about those memorable people I've met in passing.

What an unexpected treasure of a book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read it and then beg everyone I know to read it too.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: May 1, 2024

Reeled in by the title and stuck around for the quirk. A bit of a love letter to travel, solo travel, Berlin—I felt like I was in an early-aughts fever dream at times. Really enjoyed the ride this took me on!

This book felt like a gray day in Berlin, in the most complimentary way. It challenges you to think about aging, comparisons, your purpose and the unfolding future.

Sam's journey through Berlin was dotted with strangers that quickly become his whole life in a foreign city. The prose was beautifully written and melancholic, and the characters all felt real to me. We know that kid whose family had money and personally had no direction that moved to some farflung place. We know that person who tempts us and makes us do some reevaluating. I really enjoyed this snapshot of Sam's life during a week in Berin.

3.75/5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley, University of Nebraska Press and Eric Schnall for the ARC!

My best guess at the translation of "I Make Envy on Your Disco" is "I'm jealous of your party"... but it took a long time to get there. The title intrigued me enough to read it though.

I found this book engaging at times but overall the plot dragged and Sam is a bit melancholy throughout. An art dealer and lifelong New Yorker who can't figure out his life and goes to Berlin for a gallery/exhibition opening. He mostly blows off work, which is where it gets interesting. Three stars for the lack of resolution on anything by the end.

While I greatly admired the descriptive writing and the opportunity to feel the atmosphere of Berlin, I simply couldn't get into the story or characters at all. That's just me. Your mileage may differ.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. There are readers who will absolutely love it.

This book captured Berlin at the beginning of the 21st century perfectly - I felt like I was back on the streets and in the cafes and clubs. Some of the plot twists were pretty improbable and I had a hard time believing in the main character as a successful art advisor b/c he seemed so hapless much of the time. But the world building was just fantastic! Also, LOVE the title.

I enjoyed this book. The writing really immersed me in the story which I loved! The details of the environment featured in the book really make me want to go back to Berlin.

Although there were points where I felt disconnected from the characters, probably due to being in drastically different life situations, I enjoyed learning about the characters lives and following Sam through Berlin.

This was an enjoyable read and I’m sure folks who enjoy literary fiction will enjoy reading!

Thanks to NetGalley and University of Nebraska Press for the ARC!

This was a no for me. I ended up DNF’ing this book fairly quickly. I found myself not engaged with the characters at all. I also found the authors penchant to have foreign language in the text without translation to be very annoying. I felt like this book was going to continue down this road and instead of put myself through the angst of plodding through a book that I was not enjoying, I decided to cut my loses and stop.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this novel, in exchange for my honest review!

This is really beautiful, a lot of gorgeous quotes, and is the perfect book for anyone in a long term relationship, loves traveling alone and meeting new people, and ultimately wants a cozy read about life and it’s ups and downs.

This was unique and entertaining, I would recommend it, I didn’t personally connect to the characters on a deep level because I am a homebody who hasn’t experienced life the same way, but still appreciate this all the same!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this gifted eARC!

I truly enjoyed the prose in this book, but I just could not connect to the character and I wasn’t finding myself engaged in his story. It had a very Holden Caulfield quality, which just isn’t for me. However, I can see many people enjoying this book, and it is beautifully written.

4 stars unique, interesting and kinda weird at points in the best way. Thanks for the ARC and my gosh I would recommend