Jens Sparschuh has achieved a funny and refreshing post-Wende novel of an East German's every day struggle to find his place after the re-unification in a new world of Western capitalism.
The Wende has left the unlikely hero of this novel Hinrich Lobek, a former GDR official for the Communal Housing Administration, unemployed, heimatlos and disillusioned. Whereas his wife Julia has successfully integrated into her new life in the West, Lobek's isolated existence from the new world has transformed his thought processes and speech so that he has become unable to communicate with anyone, even with his wife. It is only through his Protokollbuch, a combination of a diary and a Stasi report, that we gain an insight of his often paranoid and delusional mind. These delusions, often very comical, continue when he finally finds work as a salesman for interior fountains for a West German company. It is only through an accident with one his interior fountains that transforms Lobek into a very successful salesman.
In the fashion of the Wenderoman Jens Sparschuh deliberately chose two stereotypical characters to expose the West and East Germans attitudes towards each other. On the one hand we see in the form of Strüver and his colleagues the West with their ridiculous salesman techniques and on the other hand we see the stereotypical crushed East Germans who seem to find the only comfort in nostalgic objects like "Spreewalder Senfgurken" or "FDJ-Hemden". However funny and amusing the conflict appears at first glance, it also highlight a more serious problem of prejudice and lack of respect towards each other.
Even today, nearly twenty years after the German unification, many Eastern Germans still not feel integrated, thus making this novel as contemporary as in 1995 when it was first published.
Readers familiar with Wenderomane such as Helden wie wir will find pleasure in the satirical descriptions of every day life in post-unified Germany. Many will know the historical facts surrounding the wall but the literary treatment reveals another more human side to the difficulties of unifying such contrasting cultures.
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Der Zimmerspringbrunnen: Roman: Ein Heimatroman 3442720702
Jens Sparschuh
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Der Zimmerspringbrunnen: Roman: Ein Heimatroman
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Der Zimmerspringbrunnen
Der Zimmerspringbrunnen, Jens Sparschuh
Jens Sparschuh has achieved a funny and refreshing post-Wende novel of an East German's every day struggle to find his place after the re-unification in a new world of Western capitalism.
The Wende has left the unlikely hero of this novel Hinrich Lobek, a former GDR official for the Communal Housing Administration, unemployed, heimatlos and disillusioned. Whereas his wife Julia has successfully integrated into her new life in the West, Lobek's isolated existence from the new world has transformed his thought processes and speech so that he has become unable to communicate with anyone, even with his wife. It is only through his Protokollbuch, a combination of a diary and a Stasi report, that we gain an insight of his often paranoid and delusional mind. These delusions, often very comical, continue when he finally finds work as a salesman for interior fountains for a West German company. It is only through an accident with one his interior fountains that transforms Lobek into a very successful salesman.
In the fashion of the Wenderoman Jens Sparschuh deliberately chose two stereotypical characters to expose the West and East Germans attitudes towards each other. On the one hand we see in the form of Strüver and his colleagues the West with their ridiculous salesman techniques and on the other hand we see the stereotypical crushed East Germans who seem to find the only comfort in nostalgic objects like "Spreewalder Senfgurken" or "FDJ-Hemden". However funny and amusing the conflict appears at first glance, it also highlight a more serious problem of prejudice and lack of respect towards each other.
Even today, nearly twenty years after the German unification, many Eastern Germans still not feel integrated, thus making this novel as contemporary as in 1995 when it was first published.
Readers familiar with Wenderomane such as Helden wie wir will find pleasure in the satirical descriptions of every day life in post-unified Germany. Many will know the historical facts surrounding the wall but the literary treatment reveals another more human side to the difficulties of unifying such contrasting cultures. Jule
14. Mai 2008
Insgesamt: 5
Insgesamt: 5
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