It's not a coincidence

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It's not a coincidence. Short Stories is a collection of short, mainly autobiographical stories by Elke Heidenreich , published by Hanser in 2016 .

content

The collection consists of 189 texts, which are arranged alphabetically except for the introductory text ("Friss, Vogel") and the title-giving final text, from A for "Alone" to Z for "Chance". It is, so to speak, a slip of paper made up of pictures, reminiscences and reflections. In the introductory text Heidenreich talks about her mother, who did not allow memories, had no sense of sentimentality and therefore consequently threw away everything that no longer mattered, the wedding ring after the separation from her husband as well as the children's toys of the 13-year-old daughter:

"Your daughter became one who hoarded everything - photos, pictures, letters, souvenirs, memories, everything was kept in boxes and boxes, and when she was old she sank into them, mumbling and reading and rummaging and looking."

Heidenreich drew an extract of memories from this hoard and collected it in the form of texts that were sometimes a little longer, and occasionally only a few lines of short. As an example of the text titled "Letters":

"When my mother wrote letters, she wrote as sparingly as she liked to shop at Aldi:
" Lb. Elke,
haven't heard for a long time. Write x. Question wg. Christmas: are you coming? + if, when? Herzl. M. «"

reception

Britta Heidemann first stated in the WAZ : "[...] whoever expects the great autobiography under this title will be disappointed", but then: "And maybe this is a great biography after all - detoxified by the boring parts, focused on the essentials: the formative moments of childhood in the district. The love affairs of a "quickly flammable" woman. The ups and downs of friendly connections. "

Klaus Zeyringer, on the other hand, sees the texts in the Standard as "sentimentalization bites from their [Heidenreichs] celebrity kitchen" and says the book is typical of a "media society [...] that sells the poses and poses of its celebrities as art".

About the audio book version recorded by Heidenreich himself, Axel Weidemann notes in the FAZ : "The audio book wins especially in the figure drawing of the speaker, in which you can hear her cabaret figure 'Else Stratmann'."

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. Britta Heidemann: The memories of Elke Heidenreich: "Everything is not a coincidence". In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of March 1, 2010.
  2. Klaus Zeyringer: Elke Heidenreich's “It's not a coincidence”: Our dog is a jolly pug. In: Der Standard from June 5, 2016.
  3. Axel Weidemann: Thursdays only on the left side of the street! In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 20, 2016.