"I mean, normal is a type of madness, isn't it? I think it's just that the only madness society allows is called normal" - this quote from the title-g"I mean, normal is a type of madness, isn't it? I think it's just that the only madness society allows is called normal" - this quote from the title-giving story is more or less Sayaka Murata's poetological standpoint in a nutshell. The author does not only question society's taboos, customs and standards, but when she offers different viewpoints, she proceeds to challenge them as well, thus refraining from offering simple solutions, or rather; any solutions at all. The problem at hand is that the world is absurd, and there's no remedy, a fact that is horrifying, sad, but also quite funny, all at once. The unsettling ambiguity Sayaka Murata evokes is what makes her novels Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings so strong, and the same goes for this short story collection.
This is the first collection of Murata's short stories translated into English, featuring twelve texts set in the present, future, and in alternate worlds, focusing on topics like: - using human remains like skin and bones as material to craft furniture, jewellery, etc.; - food as an example for cultural acceptance and the concept of normalcy; - a 75-year-old virgin with two kids being friends with a senior nymphomaniac; - a city in which no one sleeps; - a man with burn-out being kept as a pet by schoolgirls; - ritualistic cannibalism; - a side story to Earthlings; - a curtain as a narrator; - a woman who identifies way too strongly with concrete buildings; - a woman who tries to transform the city around her with, let's say: herbal remedies; - aaaaand: a woman who has no personality.
Per usual in short story collections, some texts are stronger than others, but this one truly displays some gems like the title-giving "Life Ceremony" (cannibalism! sex! morality!), and the ones discussing the relativity of what counts as repulsive ("A Magnificient Spread") or, ähem, respectful, maybe ("A First-Rate Material" about, you know, making curtains out of human skin etc.). And how can you not love a story written from the perspective of a curtain?! Plus: Even the really, really short fragments absolutely deserve to be in there. I found the last three entries to be a little weaker, but hey, overall, this is great stuff.
Sayaka Murata is a prolific writer, which means: There are many more texts to be translated. I can't wait to read them. ...more
This was a weird one: I can't deny that I enjoyed listening to the audiobook, but frankly, this isn't a particularly smart or nuanced work. Our unreliThis was a weird one: I can't deny that I enjoyed listening to the audiobook, but frankly, this isn't a particularly smart or nuanced work. Our unreliable narrator is 25-year-old Anna, a rural working-class kid who comes to the big city to study opera. She enters an affair with Max, a 40-ish London banker, and from the very first scene when they meet in a bar where Anna jobs as a jazz singer, the dynamic between them is established: Max intentionally makes the younger woman feel insecure, and she consciously tries to please him, fully aware that she generally tends to adjust her behavior according to what the people around her want her to be. Max makes it clear from the beginning that he doesn't want a serious relationship, but here we encounter another trait of Anna's: Throughout the book, people tell her who they are, but she refuses to believe it, and gets carried away with projections. This also interfers with her career, as she tries to hide away from issues, until she can't anymore. You could argue that Anna is young and there is an uneven power dynamic in many relationships depicted throughout the book, and you would be 100 % correct, but you can't argue that this means that Anna bears no responsibility for her actions - and this crux is central to the novel's intrigue.
So yes, the book does ponder class: Dreamy small town girl Anna is always broke and doesn't know the ropes around the opera world, while older, worldlier, tougher Max is a pragmatic, upperclass guy. Crimp makes this combination less clichéd than it sounds now; I have to give it to the book that it is quite a pageturner. The core feature is that Anna is unreliable, and crucial information is left out - she is clearly not the innocent "very nice girl", and it becomes clear that Anna has a hard time taking responsibility for her actions; in how far that is true for Max intentionally remains foggy: He might go way too far.
The rights for this debut were sold in a bidding auction, and now it's marketed with the two magic words when it comes to new young female writers: Sally Rooney. But Imogen Crimp is no Sally Rooney, and she doesn't have to be -leave this poor woman and her talent alone, because she clearly can write and should have the space to find her own topics and her own voice without being marketed as "the new XYZ". Besides, the dramatic angle of the opera world is something that Rooney wouldn't choose; Rooney's tone is more somber, and while Crimp adresses woke politics in an often mocking, ironic way, Rooney is dead serious. These women are not comparable, if you take a closer look. Let them live and write, for Christ's sake.
But mentioning the opera world, Crimp makes an effort to connect the operas Crimp performs in with the story she tells, but she doesn't elaborate enough on this angle, although it could have been fascinating. As a Künstlerroman talking about an artist coming into herself, it's only partly successful, mainly because the things that happen are obvious and flashy to the max (haha, Max, sorry).
So all in all, Imogen Crimp is a promising writer, but this work does not live up to its promise, it's not nuanced and intricate enough. Still, I would like to read Crimp's next effort, because I feel like there is a lot more to her talent than this first attempt....more
I can't believe Theweleit used this kind of language in a scientific book in 1977/78: While dissecting the psychotic masculinity in which white terrorI can't believe Theweleit used this kind of language in a scientific book in 1977/78: While dissecting the psychotic masculinity in which white terror is rooted, his language does not refrain from underlining the pathetic aspects of it, so we hear a lot about, you know, the obsession of German soldiers with the wish to have the biggest, hardest dicks (yes, Theweleit writes "Schwänze", dicks) and incest, about female sexuality as a threat, and homosexuality as power-play. As Theweleit once again draws from different scientific disciplines to ponder the roots of male fascism and gives lots of examples from different historic events, novels, and images, it's pretty easy to read, and it doesn't get tedious despite its extreme length.
This is an important text when it comes to the study of toxic masculinity and how it rules and destroys not only female, but also male bodies in its dehumanizing strife to turn men into efficient machines. And btw: Again and again, I see people discussing Ernst Jünger as the prototypical, badass soldier (which is already a widely contested view in Germany) - Theweleit quotes his works quite frequently and makes it clear why Jünger, the person, was a sad case wrapped up in a worldview that made him deny himself to be an actual person, instead of just a body armor.
Although some of his claims are certainly overreaching and the Freudian analysis is partly outdated, Klaus Theweleit, himself the son of a Nazi, is the actual badass here: He aims to break the cycle....more
Wow, Julian Barnes: This edgy, challenging, formally experimental novel doesn't exactly aim to be a crowd pleaser, and I respect that. Told as a retroWow, Julian Barnes: This edgy, challenging, formally experimental novel doesn't exactly aim to be a crowd pleaser, and I respect that. Told as a retrospective, our narrator Neil depicts how he, when he was in his-mid-thirties, attended a class on "Culture and Civilization" that was specifically aimed at grown-ups. His rigorous teacher was the title-giving Elizabeth Finch, with whom he developed an unusual friendship. After her death, Neil inherits her notes, and starts writing...her biography? His autobiography? The biography of Julian the Apostate?
Elizabeth Finch, as Neil describes her, took a Socratic approach to teaching, involving her students in debates, and she deeply believed that Greek and Roman history and culture still influence people living today. Neil calls the distant, composed, discrete teacher whom he then proceeded to meet for regular lunch dates for more than 20 years, a "Romantic Stoic"; much about her life has remained unknown to him, so he sets out to investigate with the help of the notebooks she left behind, her brother Christopher and some other of her former students.
Now that description might make it seem as if Barnes straight up tells us a story, but that would be way too easy and, furthermore, it wouldn't illustrate the point he is trying to make. So Barnes gives us a semi-structured narrative from an, as Neil himself professes, unreliable narrator, intersects it with many, many notes quoted from Elizabeth's notebooks, and then tops it off by turning the whole middle section of the book, a substantive chunk of the novel, into a paper on Julian the Apostate which Neil writes because he had failed to do so back in Finch's class. While Barnes' latest effort, the fantastic The Man in the Red Coat, was a history-heavy ode to past scientific and cultural exchanges between the UK and continental Europe, "Elizabeth Finch" ponders the relationship between ancient history and average people, and how we can learn to think about and grasp the world by trying to understand the people we have lost, be it the famous Julian or the infamous Elizabeth.
"The Man..." required a decent amount of focus to process its content, but "Elizabeth Finch" really pushes the envelope in that area, and I applaud Barnes for that: This celebrated author could just relax and serve some easygoing Klara and the Sun-type of stuff, but no, Julian the literary Apostate Barnes attacks us with philosophy, history, and extravagant structural choices. Elizabeth saw truth in artifice, Neil is a trained actor, and Barnes also knows a thing or two about aesthetics. While Neil's life seems to be mentioned only at the side, there is a sub-story running through the text in which he reflects himself in Elizabeth and emperor Julian, pondering his career, divorces and children. Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome, the man whose death Elizabeth describes as "the moment history went wrong", becomes a foil for both of them. But did the lives of the three of them go wrong? Who is the judge of that?
At the same time, Neil contradicts any easy conclusions his intellectual efforts might suggest: For him "life, much as we would like it to be, does ot amount to a narrative - or not a narrative such as we understand and expect." This is why his book has no clear text form, and the connections between Elizabeth, the historic figure and him are not fully resolved or brought to a conclusion: "Perhaps the fact is that I 'know' and 'understand' Elizabeth Finch no better - if in a different way - than I 'know' and 'understand' the emperor Julian."
Yup, that's complex, but there is also an accessible theme that's easier to grasp, but (as in real life) cannot be fully unpacked: Neil has loved Elizabeth in a multi-faceted manner. Barnes frequently investigates different forms of love, and how he deals with the topic in this novel, also relating to other characters Neil meets or has met, is particularly interesting.
This is a book to be discussed, re-read and dissected, an ambitious work of art that challenges those who dare to pick it up. While I have to admit that I, too, struggled with some sestions, I see what Barnes aims to do here. This 75-year-old literary superstar still surprises readers, there is zero complacency in his texts. I'm already curious what he will come up with next....more
The possible meanings, the receptions of a text are not solely constituted by the text itself - and Genette offers a theoretical framework to investigThe possible meanings, the receptions of a text are not solely constituted by the text itself - and Genette offers a theoretical framework to investigate paratextual information, from peritexts like book design, foreword, dedication, title and table of contents, to epitexts that exist outside the actual physical artefact, like interviews or ads for the book. This is just great stuff when trying to ponder the self-presentation of an author, and what influences the interpretation of writing and persona. Per usual, Genette has tons of examples to illustrate what his theoretical framework is supposed to achieve....more
French: Anéantir; English: "Annihilate" Houellebecq loves to cause scandals, and for this book, he came up with a real shocker: He is now a romantic! YFrench: Anéantir; English: "Annihilate" Houellebecq loves to cause scandals, and for this book, he came up with a real shocker: He is now a romantic! Yes! Still an existentialist romantic, but „Anéantir“ is a political thriller, a roman à clef, a family novel and a love story that makes references to all of the great master’s fictional work – and in the end, the author, 65 years old, hints at quitting his profession, after only eight novels. Non, Michel, ne quitte pas!!
„Anéantir“ is set in 2027, Emmanuel Macron is approaching the end of his second five-year term. Our protagonist Paul Raison is the personal adviser to the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Juge (Houellebecq is a good friend of the real minister, Bruno Le Maire, who, before the book’s publication, helped spark rumors about the content). While seeking a new Presidential candidate and preparing for the election, international terror attacks shake France and other nations. Who are the terrorists, and what are their aims? The secret service investigates.
This plotline becomes less and less important as the story progresses though. Paul’s marriage to Prudence (yup, a Beatles reference!) is in decline, but, in what in the context of Houellebecq can only be read as a surprising plot twist, the two try to revive it in the face of tragedy: Paul’s father, a former secret service agent, suffered a stroke. His partner, a simple, but dedicated and loving woman named Madeleine, cares for him, the family fights again a n anonymous, commercialized health care system. Paul’s unhappily married younger brother Aurélien falls in love with a nurse from Mali, his older, deeply religious sister Cécile tries to stand by her unemployed husband, a notary with connections to right-wing Catholic circles.
This family story about, believe it or not, the power and tragedy of love, is the heart of the novel. From there, he investigates a plethora of themes, from tech to terrrorism, from sex to spirituality, from politics to literature. Houellebecq completists (like me) will find references to all of his novels in this book. I was particularly impressed by the way he incorporates Philippe Lançon's Le Lambeau into his book, a book about the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack, probably the most traumatic experience in Houellebecq’s life.
His sparse, sober style works well with this story, focusing on the intricate plot and, per usual, refraining from a lyrical language: Houellebecq stays true to his matter-fact-tone. The story culimates in personal sadness and the possibility of happiness, both at the same time, while the political threat rages on. It will be interesting how the book will be discussed in the context of the upcoming French election, and it will be great fun to search for and investigate the connection to the other seven novels.
Published in a lux edition in France, because “Le livre, c’est un de mes objets préférés dans la vie” (same, Michel, saaame!) – the design makes a reference to the Beatles‘ „White Album“, which also plays a role in the novel. The Beatles made some important albums after this, and Houellebecq’s statements aren’t always the most reliable, so let’s see what happens....more
This major scientific work dives into the sexual, psychological and sociopolitical foundation of National Socialism as it was manifested in the WeimarThis major scientific work dives into the sexual, psychological and sociopolitical foundation of National Socialism as it was manifested in the Weimar Republic, arguing that fascism is not a political or economic phenomenon, but a method to manufacture a specific reality. The book is based on Theweleit's dissertation on literature about Freikorps, volunteer / paramilitary units in the Weimar Republic - so yes, this author started out as a literary scientist, then ventured into sociology which he taught at Freiburg University before becoming a professor for art and theory in Karlsruhe. This kaleidoscopic approach that creates a multi-facted image that incorporates different forms of cultural production and artefacts is at the core of the appeal of "Male Fantasies": Theweleit looks at texts, images, history, sociology, political science, and, probably most importantly, psychology to decode what is now called toxic masculinity. This book is a founding document of Men's Studies.
In the first part of this first volume, Theweleit researches the relationship between men and women in the Freikorps scene, the ideal of the soldier and his sexuality, and women as the other, as threats to male ideals and representatives of the red scare. Then, he investigates the mythological background to images of floods and water which are often used to describe the female and the political enemy, the attempt to police, control, and possess female bodies, and the female body as an object of content.
Contrary to popular opinion, this text is pretty easy to read and understand, except those chapters that ponder the intricacies of Freudian psychology and how it applies or doesn't apply to the phenomena discussed here, as well as how it relates to Wilhelm Reich, Félix Guattari, and Gilles Deleuze - this is some rather tricky stuff and intricately argued (watch out: this book was first published in 1977, so it's not the latest info when it comes to these passages). Otherwise, the book very accessible and highly fascinating, but also very long - this first part has around 600 pages (in German).
Great research, still way too relevant. Let's tackle part 2....more
English: Grand Hotel Female writers from the time of the Weimar Republic are currently getting rediscovered, and I'm here for it! Baum was a Jewish autEnglish: Grand Hotel Female writers from the time of the Weimar Republic are currently getting rediscovered, and I'm here for it! Baum was a Jewish author born in Vienna in 1888, she trained as a concert harpist at the conservatory, got divorced, married a conductor and became a writer. In the 1920's, she rose to fame and became one of the major representatives of the Neue Sachlichkeit, a form of literary realism that conveyed social and political awareness in a matter-of-fact tone, while her work was also perceived as entertainment literature. Until 1932, Baum sold more than 500.000 copies in Germany alone; she fled the Nazis and supported the resistance to Hitler from her new home in Los Angeles, where she lived close to Thomas Mann. Baum's international breakthrough novel "Grand Hotel", first published in 1929, was turned into a Broadway production and into a movie starring Greta Garbo that won Best Picture at the Acadamy Awards in 1932.
As the (German) title bluntly states, the text revolves around people in a hotel: There is the aging ballerina Grusinskaja who struggles with the approaching end of her career; there is lonely veteran Dr. Otternschlag who is contemplating suicide; there is a young Baron whose family has lost its fortune and who now works as a thief; there is lowly white-collar worker Kringelein, who is terminally ill and came to the city and the grand hotel to experience the beautiful life; and there is Kringelein's boss Preysing, a businessman under pressure. As to be expected, their lives intersect at the hotel.
All these characters stand for typical societal phenomena, and Baum paints them with a great eye for small details, but alas, I think Rilke ruined me for a book like "Grand Hotel". The novel reads like an introduction to the city novel, a genre that lies at the heart of European literary modernity with stellar entries like Berlin Alexanderplatz, Ulysses, and, my favorite, Rilke's The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Baum's book has all the classic ingredients, topics like speed, alienation, media, loneliness, work as exploitation, the city as a promise and a moloch, the critical observation of contemporary society. These themes prompted the Nazis to accuse Baum (like Döblin, Brecht and Kästner) of crafting Asphaltliteratur, i.e. rootless big city literature (of course it was Goebbels who came up with this crap). While other city novels take an experimental approach though, Baum makes sure to remain highly accessible (a goal Rilke couldn't care less about) by refraining form formal experimentation. While the classic city novel frequently works with fragments, ellipses, and different text forms to aesthetically reflect the fragmentation of the modern person, Baum sticks to more conservative narrative strategies, which, make no mistake, she does well, it's just not all too innovative.
There is no classic flaneur in the vein of Charles Baudelaire here, no character who roams the city; rather, the lives of the literary personnel culminate in the hotel, where strangers meet without really getting to know each other. Baum negotiates the themes of the city novel in a house that almost seems haunted: The grim city cannot be kept outside, the grand hotel is neither a safe space nor a glamourous haven for escapism. This house is part of the machine that is Berlin, and as we know from Döblin: This city feasts on its inhabitants. There is no fleeing from modernity, especially not in 1929 Germany, with the golden 20's coming to an end and the economic crisis already on the horizon. This falling world will fully collapse in 1933.
There is a melancholic beauty in Baum's text, even a fairy tale-like aspect as some twists appear unlikely, but make for a satisfying turn of events from a dramatic perspective (I'm obviously talking about German fairy tales, not Disney stuff). And to be fair: Baum herself stated that she is a first-rate writer of second-rate literature, meaning that she wanted to please the masses, that she wanted to write popular stories - and when it comes to entertainment literature, this is indeed top notch. Erich Kästner, Rainer Maria Rilke, or Alfred Döblin this is not, and it doesn't aim to be.
Btw: Baum's novels are currently re-issued in German, and the artwork is great....more
Don't be fooled by the title: Theweleit's groundbreaking work was one of the first scientific books in the field of men's studies, investigating fasciDon't be fooled by the title: Theweleit's groundbreaking work was one of the first scientific books in the field of men's studies, investigating fascist ideas of masculinity and the soldier ideal - first published in 1977, when the term toxic masculinity didn't even exist. This major work dives into the sexual, psychological and sociopolitical foundation of National Socialism as it was manifested in the Weimar Republic, arguing that fascism is not a political or economic phenomenon, but a method to manufacture a specific reality. The book is based on Theweleit's dissertation on literature about Freikorps, volunteer / paramilitary units in the Weimar Republic - so yes, this author started out as a literary scientist, then ventured into sociology which he taught at Freiburg University before becoming a professor for art and theory in Karlsruhe. This kaleidoscopic approach that creates a multi-facted image that incorporates different forms of cultural production and artefacts is at the core of the appeal of "Male Fantasies": Theweleit looks at texts, images, history, sociology, political science, and, probably most importantly, psychology to decode what is now called toxic masculinity. This book is a founding document of Men's Studies.
In the first part of this first volume, Theweleit researches the relationship between men and women in the Freikorps scene, the ideal of the soldier and his sexuality, and women as the other, as threats to male ideals and representatives of the red scare. Then, he investigates the mythological background to images of floods and water which are often used to describe the female and the political enemy, the attempt to police, control, and possess female bodies, and the female body as an object of content. Contrary to popular opinion, this text is pretty easy to read and understand, except those chapters that ponder the intricacies of Freudian psychology and how it applies or doesn't apply to the phenomena discussed here, as well as how it relates to Wilhelm Reich, Félix Guattari, and Gilles Deleuze.
The second part of the book then really goes where it hurts, and I can't believe Theweleit used this kind of language in a scientific book in 1977/78: While dissecting the psychotic masculinity in which white terror is rooted, his language does not refrain from underlining the pathetic aspects of it, so we hear a lot about, you know, the obsession of German soldiers with the wish to have the biggest, hardest dicks (yes, Theweleit writes "Schwänze", dicks) and incest, about female sexuality as a threat, and homosexuality as power-play. As Theweleit once again draws from different scientific disciplines to ponder the roots of male fascism and gives lots of examples from different historic events, novels, and images, it's pretty easy to read, and it doesn't get tedious despite its extreme length.
This is an important text when it comes to the study of toxic masculinity and how it rules and destroys not only female, but also male bodies in its dehumanizing strife to turn men into efficient machines. And btw: Again and again, I see people discussing Ernst Jünger as the prototypical, badass soldier (which is already a widely contested view in Germany) - Theweleit quotes his works quite frequently and makes it clear why Jünger, the person, was a sad case wrapped up in a worldview that made him deny himself to be an actual person, instead of just a body armor.
Although some of his claims are certainly overreaching and the Freudian analysis is partly outdated, Klaus Theweleit, himself the son of a Nazi, is the actual badass here: He aims to break the cycle.
Waters has written his first novel, and it's marketed as "a perfectly perverted feel-bad romance" - I can't disagree with that! You certainly have to Waters has written his first novel, and it's marketed as "a perfectly perverted feel-bad romance" - I can't disagree with that! You certainly have to either know what you're up to with Waters or be open to edgy, absurd and offensive humor to enjoy this, as this is transgressive writing and, as such, not for everybody. In the text, we meet 40-year-old professional suitcase thief and germaphobic con artist Marsha, who has promised her chauffeur and collaborator Daryl to have sex with him once if he supports her operation for one year and free of charge - when it's pay day, the partners in crime are exposed at an airport luggage carousel and flee, each one in a different direction. Now a crazy chase begins: Daryl hunts Marsha to get the sex he was promised, and he seeks and finds help with her daughter (a bouncy outlaw trampoline radical with jumpy friends) and her mother (who performs illegal plastic surgery on rich dogs). Both women have their own reasons to hate the runaway relative...
This campy romp indulges in orgies of surreal crime, sex, and overall bizarre settings, dialogues, and plotlines. I'm really looking forward to some reviews by the uninitiated who will bemoan coarse language, explicit perversions, general filth, implausible developments and unsympathetic characters ("I just couldn't identify with the woman who was a professional trampolinist adamant to kill her mother" or something along those lines) - you got to applaud Waters for that alone. This gay icon isn't called the "Pope of Trash" for nothing, kids.
So those four stars do not mean that this is great literature, here to win the Nobel - no, this is great for what it wants to be: Hautes bêtises, top-tier campy pulp, over-the-top glorious trash, a whole lot of fun in its absurdity.
If you don't know who John Waters is, check out this clip in which he chats with Stephen Colbert....more
English: "Kids Run the Show"; German: Die Kinder sind Könige This roman à thèse (thesis novel) indulges in a didactic "o tempora, o mores" tone in ordeEnglish: "Kids Run the Show"; German: Die Kinder sind Könige This roman à thèse (thesis novel) indulges in a didactic "o tempora, o mores" tone in order to spell out the dangers of social media for children, particularly those who, without being able to consent, are exposed on so-called family channels: Kids who are exploited by their parents for financial gain, abused as emotional outlets by their audience, instrumentalized as vehicles of self-aggrandizement by various parties, and finally traumatized for life. Are these real problems that exist in the real world? Yes. But are these insights somehow new to anyone who knows how to turn on a computer? Nope. And don't get me wrong: Literature does not have to serve new sociopolitical insights, but at least it has to do something interesting with common knowledge that goes beyond stressing the obvious. de Vigan writes as if she is offering cutting edge thoughts, which she isn't, but she still rolls out her positions in uneccessary expositions and descriptive passages without end, and then adds some stock characters to keep it together. Who is this novel aimed at? Boomers without Wifi?
The text revolves around a case of child abduction: In 2019, six-year-old Kimmy Diore, star of a YouTube family channel that earns millions with product placement, disappears. The mother, a simple woman without any particular talents who has always dreamt of being a famous reality TV star, is devastated. The investigator is shocked: She had no idea that people shared their lives on social media for money! It's unbelievable, who would have thought! This woman is declared to be a 33-year-old police investigator in the year 2019. How am I supposed to take this novel seriously? de Vigan uses the case of Kimmy and the initial ignorance of the investigator to explain how social media and reality TV are connected, and how monetarization on social networks plays out, and frankly, it's an insult to the reader's intelligence. There's also a projection into the future that is supposed to illustrate the effects on the family, and this part is equally unneccessary.
The characters who roam through the descriptions and oponion pieces are mere stock characters: The mother wants to live in a pink dream world and is looking for validation; the policewoman is so offensively clichéd that the author felt the need to mention the fact that she appears like a cliché, which doesn't render her portrayal redeemable (the plain looking, lonely, childless woman - can she even investigate a case that involves children, as she isn't a mother?! This absurd, sexist question is really raised at several points in the text, and whether her male colleagues are fathers or not is of course never even mentioned); female bodies are scrutinized, while male bodies are not; the husband of the YouTube family is an agreeable teddybear who obeys the evil woman; and you know it's getting serious when the grown-up daughter puts on Doc Martens instead of, you know, volants *I'm running out of facepalms here*.
So while the problems at the core of the text are highly relevant, especially the role of the audience that enables the parents (a factor that is hardly mentioned by de Vigan), bringing up an urgent issue is not enough to write a good literary novel. This text is a mess, and how a female author can write a female investigator like that in the year 2021 is beyond me. The novel is a missed chance to find a literary form to add to an important societal discussion....more
Rocko Schamoni has not only written a homage to underground artist Heino Jaeger, but also a comedy of manners of the seedy underbelly of Hamburg in thRocko Schamoni has not only written a homage to underground artist Heino Jaeger, but also a comedy of manners of the seedy underbelly of Hamburg in the 60's and 70's, a scene that featured cultural icons like beat poet and queer pioneer Hubert Fichte, boxer / actor Wilhelm von Homburg, infamous sex worker and hippie Wolli Köhler (the star of Schamoni's Große Freiheit), and many other fascinating rebels and outcasts. The author evokes the atmopshere and the spirit of this particular time and place, and while I thought that the first part of the trilogy tended to glorify the lifestyle too much, I found this rawer approach to be more honest and, overall, impressive.
Jaeger, the difficult, enigmatic painter and humorist, is the star of the book, he is the factor that keeps the many scenes together - and the way the author has crafted those scenes shows how much Schamoni (himself a multi-faceted artist) has grown as a fiction writer: The set-up and dialogue in the "Palais d'amour" (this establishment is exactly what you think it is), the boxing match, and, as a grand finale, the tremendously written posh party our anti-heroes visit with powerful cultural critic Fritz J. Raddatz and where they witness the leftist cultural elite act like the worst of the bourgeoisie, all these chapters are so smart and absolutely hilarious - you will never think the same of Rudolf Augstein, Marcel Reich-Ranicki and Ernst Bloch after hearing these vignettes! Also, the friendship between Jaeger and his co-worker at the museum, Pintschovius, is so touching and full of suspense, it's just a pleasure to read. The examples for Jaeger's work as humorist and as a comedic performer exude the same vibe as the early audioplays by Schamoni's friend Heinz Strunk, and it's apparent how the odd humor of their project "Studio Braun" relates to Jaeger.
The most touching part though is how Schamoni starts and ends his book: The novel is based on true events of course, he carefully researched people, places, and stories. How he came to do so, and why he is interested in outsider art in the first place, is revealed right at the beginning, when Schamoni talks about the death of his father, about their relationship and what he found out after his dad passed. The writing here is stellar, and it all comes together perfectly. Also, the way Schamoni inserts himself, the interviewer, in the text, is highly effective and devoid of any vanity.
Apparently, there is a movie project in development that is supposed to star Olli Dietrich as Heino Jaeger, with a screenplay by Rocko Schamoni - I hope it gets made, I want to see it. Which leads us to what's lacking in the book: We get many descriptions of Jaeger's drawings and paintings, but, unfortnately, no images, which is a shame. Still, I can't wait to read part 3 of this saga.
You can listen to my radio piece (feat. Karl-Heinz Schmieding, who advanced Jaeger's career and features in the novel as a character) here....more
When GoodReads crashed yesterday, it took my whole review down with it. WTF, GR, why so instable - again? Adding more nonsense features and ads or whaWhen GoodReads crashed yesterday, it took my whole review down with it. WTF, GR, why so instable - again? Adding more nonsense features and ads or what? ...more
German: Grenzgänge Pajtim Statovci, born in 1990, immigrated from Kosovo to Finland with his Albanian parents at just two years old. With the English tGerman: Grenzgänge Pajtim Statovci, born in 1990, immigrated from Kosovo to Finland with his Albanian parents at just two years old. With the English translation of "Heart of Tirana" (the literal title in Finnish) by David Hackston, entitled "Crossing", he was a National Book Award Finalist for Translated Literature in 2019, and the German translation also sticks to the surprisingly much better title of the English edition, calling the book "Grenzgänge" (Borderwalks). Starting with a suicide attempt in Rome, the book then jumps back to Albania where we first meet our protagonists: It's 1990, some years after the death of Enver Hoxha, and the friends / lovers Bujar and Agim live through the tumultous transformation years in the Balkans. When Bujar's father dies from cancer, his family falls apart, while Agim's father punishes him for trying on his mother's clothes. The two boys, 15 and 16 years old (watch out for the Doppelgänger-Motif!), decide to run away...
Bujar, born to a Muslim father from Kosovo and a Christian mother from Albania, is at the center of the novel. The folktales and myths his father told him feature heavily throughout the text, and he turns himself into a mythical shapeshifter during his passage through Tirana, Rom, Berlin, Madrid, New York and Helsinki. In each city, he re-invents himself, his gender identity, sexual orientation, origins, religion, family, and occupation. He crosses borders by performing identities, but his movement, his fluidity doesn't set him free.
As an unreliable narrator, a trickster, we cannot know how much of what Bujar says is true. He instrumentalizes his assumed identities to his own advantage, he is victim and perpetrator, reporter and inventor. Is this the true Albania he talks about? Are these his true feelings, is this his inner core? And: Does he even know the answers to these questions himself? The more people he becomes, the bigger his alienation grows. The labels that might put him in a box suddenly seem like they could also be an anchor: If you're everything, you're nothing. If you can't commit to a version of yourself, you can't commit to another person.
As Bujars identities collapse one after the other, Statovci builds a complex tale about selfhood, home and belonging, one that doesn't problematize queerness, but the loss of identity. Bujar flees, but he doesn't arrive elsewhere. He accuses the apathy of the rich, but can't connect to those who sincerely aim to help him, to accept him.
This ambiguity that runs through the two narrative strands, jumping between places and timelines, is the strength of the text. And at the end, there is a fantastic twist. Statovci is a fascinating author, and I need to read his other novels....more
"Wherever You Are" tells the story of 30-year-old German-Vietnamese journalist Kiều who, after the death of her grandmother, travels to California wit"Wherever You Are" tells the story of 30-year-old German-Vietnamese journalist Kiều who, after the death of her grandmother, travels to California with her parents in order to visit their estranged family. During the Vietnam war, Kiều's father, a doctor, was a student in Germany, while his brother fled to the United States - until today, the family is conflicted about the role of the Americans and the Communists in the war. And this is actually the most interesting part of the book: How the brothers, due to their different experiences in different parts of the world at the same time in history, became wildly different people. Sure, the starting ramp for the book is Kiều and the quest for her identities, but she's in fact the least interesting character in the novel.
But that doesn't matter, because the other family members and their experiences are intriguing. What's less intriguing is the writing though: Granted, Kiều is a journalist and she is the narrator, but is this a sufficient reason to craft the novel in such a journalistic style? The whole thing is just not particularly literary. Journalist Khuê Pham said in an interview that she first intended to write non-fiction about her own family, and that the parts about the father and and the uncle are almost completely factual - she really should have written a memoir. As it is, this novel has no meta-level, no poetic ideas, no lyrical language, it's written in a straight, direct tone, it has no literary tricks up its sleeve. The structure that alternates between the story of Kiều and the respective pasts of her father and uncle is very well done, but doesn't necessarily require the novel form either.
Mind you, that's not bad per se, but the novel form is simply not ideal for this story, as the author does not use the potential the form offers, and the parts that are rooted in real-life are the most interesting anyways. The story itself is highly relevant, easy to read and captivating. It would simply have been better if we accompanied the real Khuê Pham on her journey to discover the real destiny of her family - then, the language would have been perfectly appropriate. We need more texts that ponder hybrid identities and immigration....more
Updated with a new foreword and a new last chapter, Ginsburg's dive into the world of right-wing extremists, the Reich movement (which claims that theUpdated with a new foreword and a new last chapter, Ginsburg's dive into the world of right-wing extremists, the Reich movement (which claims that the German state after '45 isn't legitimate), and conspiracy theorists makes painful points regarding the connex between holocaust deniers and covid deniers. Ginsburg, a Jewish journalist, infiltrates these dangerous circles under a different name and manages to meet key figures. As he reflects what's going on behind closed doors, he also ponders what the constant confrontation with all this hate, stupidity, and hysteria does to him.
Many Germans, including me, thought that what's happening in the States regarding Trumpists and alternative facts nutjobs isn't possible here. Covid taught me differently, and Ginsburg manages to connect the dots between the classic Nazis in the 30's who were also close to esoteric ideas and claimed there was a connection between their ideology and nature / the natural order, and the modern-day Nazis who team up with people who think vaccines will kill us etc. to build a Querfront, a Third Position - or sometimes, the Covid deniers are just plain Nazis. What Ginsburg experiences is plain terrifying, and although I live in a bubble with a zero tolerance policy for extremists, the voices of the crazy have become so loud in the context of covid that they reach just everybody.
As Germany is highly troubled because way too many people decide to not get vaccinated, which causes everybody else to be held hostage in the x-th round of Covid restrictions, to read this book is a tough feat, but it's also enlightening. And of course I appreciate the author closing the book by thanking the Illuminati and Soros for their support! :-)
This is feminist social criticism packaged as a thriller: Pochoda writes about a serial killer who mainly murders non-white sex workers, and as all hiThis is feminist social criticism packaged as a thriller: Pochoda writes about a serial killer who mainly murders non-white sex workers, and as all his victims belong to marginalized groups, "these women" have no lobby - their deaths aren't exactly the top priority for the LAPD. 15 years after the inital killing spree, the serial murderer is at it agin, but this time, quirky Detective Perry, herself an outsider, is adamant to let justice win.
Pochoda has put her text together as a reflection of a multitude of voices, and her focus is, unusual for a thriller, on the victims and their families. We also hear from a survivor, from Detective Perry and, at the very end, from a relative of the killer, while the killer is deprived of a voice, deprived of the chance be presented as mysterious, glamorous, a non-human (and thus fascinating) monster. The killer is just a killer, not a projection surface, and that's a great narrative move.
This is a pretty good read, but there are some cliches and overly descriptive passages in there - granted, Pochoda intends to evoke a noir flair, and noir has its tropes, but the author sometimes doesn't quite go there, and in other passages, she goes overboard - it's slightly uneven. The text is here for all the grittiness, but it sometimes feels contrived.
But even me, who is not exactly a fan of thrillers, could appreciate this text as a smart murder mystery, so that should count for something!...more
What a witty romp: 37-year-old Lola, our narrator, is about to get married, but she doubts whether Boots is really the man she wants to spend her lifeWhat a witty romp: 37-year-old Lola, our narrator, is about to get married, but she doubts whether Boots is really the man she wants to spend her life with - from this romantic trope, Crosley extrapolates an over-the-top fantastical story in which our protagonist keeps on bumping into former boyfriends. Witnessing the insanity are Lola's former co-workers from "Modern Psychology", a prestigious periodical (so Lola claims; the articles she later mentions seem to have been less-than-reputable) that, amidst the crisis in print journalism, had to be shut down. While Lola is now working for Radio New York, a website compiling arts and culture news and a pet project of a venture capitalist (media criticism! after all, Crosely is a print journalist), her former boss Clive has become some kind of rich alternative psychology guru - does he have anything to do with Lola suddenly meeting a whole string of former lovers?
While the backstory that details the mystery of what's behind our protagonist's maybe-not-ro-random sightings of exes is clearly not meant to be believable and only mildly interesting (although it does dish out some points about The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power and new age hysteria reminiscent of the alternative facts hype gang), the real star of the book are the numerous vignettes in which Lola interacts with her exes and ponders relationships. Lola has dated quite a lot of very different guys, and the backstories, often told in a funny tone (even if they're not funny in themselves) are just a pleasure to read. Lola is an unrealiable narrator, but she is open about her human flaws, which makes her quips and misadventures entertaining.
"Romance may be the world's oldest cult." - the novel states at some point, and yes, Crosley works with familiar ideas, but twists them. "Love leaves a neurological footprint. A search history of the soul." - and this is the more serious core of the text: What does our relationship history say about us in the course of time, and what does it accumulate to?
I had lots of fun reading this book, and I want to see it nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction....more
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