Customer Reviews

Life Is Like a Chicken Coop Ladder: A Study of German National Character Through Folklore

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first saw this book while living in southwest Germany five years ago. Its less about German folklore than it is about colloquial German. As a linguist, this is a fantastic volume. German language, when compared to English, is remarkably limited in its ability to throw out four-letter words. So the Germanic peoples developed some pretty entertaining idioms over time. If you speak any German, this is a must for understanding colloquial speech and command of the only original swear word in the language. Its insightful but certainly not 'folklore' in the American sense.

Some humor like Larry the cable guy,but not the basics of Germanism. author with an agenda? Naw, but this is not schoalarship

I got this book because I am interested in folklore and expected this to be a general book about German Folklore. If you expect this then you will be disappointed.

What the book is about is German folklore in relationship to manure, defaecating, toilet habits, etcetera, all along those lines. If that's what you are after then it is actually a good read. I gave it three stars because I was annoyed at its misleading subtitle but if faeces is your interest then it gets five stars as it is well written, well researched and given the subject matter surprisingly interesting.