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language: German
country: Germany
year: 2020
form: novel
genre(s): erotica
dates read: 10.2.23-12.2.23
there are two main problems with Max Wildrath’s Der Möbelpacker. the main character, Roland (who definitely has a last name), is a mover who’s just — ironically — moved to a city in Bavaria for a new job; the novel follows him as he settles in, hooks up with his new gay coworkers, his landlord’s university student son, a local pizza delivery guy, a Good Cop, and some others. he also narrates his earliest sexual experiences — good and (mostly) bad — to his gay coworkers. the narration of his gay life to date was, I thought, the most interesting thing about the book, not least because one of them was an experience of sexual violence that the book mostly treated as such — that is, it unequivocally treated it as sexual assault and Roland clearly regarded it negatively; although it’s also still written as a sex scene, honestly that negativity is surprising for this kind of book.
the first problem is the copaganda: on the one hand, when Roland is sexually assaulted by an on-duty cop who’s stopped him for a cargo inspection (he drives a truck), the narrative again actually treats it as assault; on the other hand, the plot-line that follows is about the cop’s partner (who was present and did nothing to stop it) being a Good Cop™ and helping get the Bad Cop™ fired — thereby affirming the justice and goodness of the police as an institution. he also gives Roland an old uniform for sexy roleplay purposes. hm.
the second is, simply, that Wildrath and all the characters are really into rimming and I am really not. also lederhosen lmao.
oh, also the reveal two thirds of the way through that Roland was in the army. yikes!!!
the writing was pretty solid, notwithstanding the use of five million euphemisms for “dick”, and the sex scenes were fine, notwithstanding the rimming. they got less interesting as the book went on. it did feel, I would say, inconclusive; insofar as there was an overarching narrative (barely), I would have liked to have, like, a chapter — even just a little three- or four-page thing — that sums up Roland’s experiences in his new home. instead there’s a final sex scene and that’s kind of it. okay.
moods: adventurous, horny