"Losers and Squeaky Mice" is an equally entertaining and provocative response to loveless times. Through various episodes from the life of his fictional hero Lars, lawyer Dr. Olaf Jansen depicts the repression and erotic deprivation of post-war Germany, as well as the terrible and shrill consequences of its rigid and repressive educational methods. For those who are taught from childhood that everything erotic and sexual is sinful, growing up becomes a slippery slope driven by unattainable desires and hindered by apocalyptic guilt. However, one learns, at best, to confront the harshness—rather than the hardening—of thoughts regarding inter-gender reality, thus acquiring an ironically cynical armor behind which the liberal moralist can be easily recognized. At its core, the book expresses hope.