Please don't die

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Please don't die is a novel by Gabriele Wohmann that was published by Piper in Munich in 1993 . Benoît Pivert in an interview with the author on the occasion of her 70th birthday: "The novel is very autobiographical."

Elly Schippers translated the text into Dutch in 1996 : Niet sterven alsjeblieft .

content

The action takes place in a town in southern Hesse at the foot of the Melibokus . The childless 60-year-old narrator, a filmmaker, is writing a book about her mother. Its working title is: Please don't die . Her mother, the 91-year-old evangelical pastor's widow Louisa, mostly lives with her two sisters - 89-year-old Marie Rosa Lietzmann and 70-year-old former religion teacher Bertine. Marie Rosa and Bertine are professional musicians. Bertine, “an excellent pianist”, was an organist and church choir director for twenty years . Louisa had worked as a young girl after graduating from high school and then, as a younger woman, had excelled in front of her husband's congregation with her trained soprano voice. The narrator is actually the only one of Louisa's four children who takes care of the mother. That seems quite natural because she lives nearby with her husband Rupert Friedhelm, who is the same age. The violinist and violist Edith, the sister of the narrator, lives in Switzerland, which is not too far away, and often sends food packages, but her short visits are rather rare occurrences. In addition, Edith's escape movement can be observed throughout the novel. When climbing the career ladder, this daughter - after retiring as a librarian - moves to Maine . The narrator's brothers must be judged accordingly. Both are absent. The younger brother is really indispensable as a nurse in the Zurich canton hospital. The narrator's older brother, who is married, is in correspondence with his mother. Towards the end of the novel, it seems as if the days or weeks of the bedridden and seriously ill Louisa are numbered.

The novel is not about whether Louisa will die. It's not about when and how it happens, but rather the theme of the novel: How does the narrator take care of her aging mother? The answers are unusually refreshing. Again and again the narrator and her Rupert Friedhelm, a former dramaturge at the municipal theater, visit the mother and her two aunts. The narrator invents a board game for five to cheer up the old ladies. This serves not only ostensibly to collect material for the eponymous novel, but also cheers up the three visitors: “We don't want to go into the book. We don't want to be photographed - if so, at most from behind, ”they say on the one day of their visit and the opposite they say the next. Marie Rosa takes the death she is facing with fun; wishes him the others because of the "funeral quarrels". Rupert Friedhelm plays along. The two aunts Marie Rosa and Bertine handwritten work for the narrator for her book project Please don't die too. The narrator quotes the explanations and thus throws several spotlights on the time of National Socialism in Germany.

Quotes

  • The narrator about her book project
    • "Writing is exaggerating."
    • "A considerate writer is no good."
  • Marie Rosa jokes: "I want my miserable pension in my obituary ..."
  • Karl Barth to a student who shows fear of death: "But then the curtain only really opens."

Autobiographical

In addition to the above assumption about the location of the action, Benoît Pivert's assertion cited in the head of the article is added. There are a few more facts and similarities as "textual evidence". Marie Rosa Lietzmann wrote a letter to the 60-year-old author of the book Don't Die on July 11, 1992. 1932 is the year Gabriele Wohmann was born. The narrator's deceased father is called Paul by his first name, as is Gabriele Wohmann's father, who died in 1974. In the book the narrator has three siblings; a sister and two brothers; one older and one younger - like Gabriele Wohmann.

With Louisa, the protagonist in the book, Gabriele Wohmann's mother Luise could be meant. Gabriele Wohmann's sister Doris, born in 1930, could be the Edith in the book. Her younger brother Alert, born in 1946, could be the Andi in the book.

The house in H. that the narrator's grandfather bought as a retirement home is mentioned several times. Gabriele Wohmann's paternal grandfather died in Heppenheim (Bergstrasse) .

shape

The book can almost be recommended as relaxing reading - except for little things. At some point everyone is called by name - only the narrator keeps her name to herself. Some phrases seem to be sought: "Marie Rosa's laughter sounds shipwrecked".

The three sisters read, for example, Frances Hodgson Burnett and Ottilie Wildermuth .

reception

Used edition

  • Please don't die. Novel. Piper, Munich 1993 (first edition), 362 pages, ISBN 3-492-03690-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ May 18, 2002, Benoît Pivert in the Berliner Zeitung : Gabriele Wohmann is tempted to write bad books
  2. ↑ Dutch Elly Schippers
  3. ↑ Edition used p. 57, 9. Zvu
  4. ↑ Edition used pp. 59, 19. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used p. 138, 14. Zvo
  6. ↑ Edition used p. 357, 9. Zvu
  7. ↑ Edition used, p. 118, 7. Zvo
  8. ↑ Guyot, Paul Daniel. Hessian biography. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 79 above and p. 352, 7. Zvo
  10. ↑ Guyot, Johannes. Hessian biography. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

Remarks

  1. ↑ Since Frankenstein Castle is mentioned in the same breath , it could be Gabriele Wohmann's place of birth and death in Darmstadt .
  2. ↑ The narrator is 18 years older (used edition, p. 92, 13. Zvo) than her 42-year-old (used edition, p. 111, 15. Zvo) friend Nelly, the “professor for recorder ”.
  3. ↑ There are exceptions (edition used, p. 43, 21. Zvo), but the same applies to friends of the family. Nobody has more than two hours. (Edition used, p. 26, 6. Zvo)
  4. ↑ Not only Louisa, but also her sister Marie Rosa is seriously ill. (Edition used, p. 9, 7th Zvu and p. 15, 8th Zvu)