Perfection

I distinctly remember the environment I was reading ths book in. It was a Saturday and I decided to embrace the performative male side of me and go to a cafe to read this book. I went to Ossington Avenue, got a coffee and started reading… and felt extremely called out about my entire value system and ideals within an hour.

Perfection describes a couple from southern Europe who move to Berlin. The book describes their apartment and their life, Instagram perfect with pretty plants and fancy project meals, but underneath they never form any long lasting connections with people in their environment. Not much happens in the novel. There are no huge dramas, no moral dilemmas, no cliffhangers. Instead, the novel is a slow burn that gets under your skin and makes you question your own life choices and your environment.

The novel also touches on other major topics like performative activism and gentrification. The couple in the novel are very socially conscious, but their energy is not matched by people around them for any long period of time, resulting in them also not engaging with these issues after a period of time. Additionally, they slowly watch their neighborhood gentrify around them to cater to expats like them, but ironically this process of gentrification removes the charm of the neighborhood that they initially fell in love with.

As someone who moved to a new city after undergrad, I found myself relating to the characters’ struggles with loneliness and the pressure to present a perfect life on social media. I literally had to pause the book, put it down, and just stare at my now empty cup for a few minutes.