Cherryman chases Mister White
Cherryman chases Mister White is a novel by Jakob Arjouni . It is about the 18-year-old Rick who lives in Storlitz, a fictional suburb of Berlin . With a job as a gardener, he is seduced into doing things for homeland security that no one would voluntarily do.
action
The book is structured as a long letter to a Dr. Layton, doctor and appraiser in a clinic where the main character Rick is. Rick faces a horrific deed in court, and Dr. Layton, the forensic psychologist, should investigate the background to this act.
Rick lives with his aunt Bambusch in the fictional village of Storlitz after he lost his parents as a child. He doesn't have an apprenticeship yet, likes to garden and dreams of becoming a gardener and a friend. Rick happens to meet former classmates who offer him an apprenticeship at the Dirksen nursery in Berlin. Rick accepts. He learns that there is a task associated with the apprenticeship. He is supposed to watch a Jewish kindergarten while working in the park for a "Heimatschutz" and document the events very precisely.
Rick travels to Berlin. On the train he meets Marilyn and falls in love with her. After a four-week trial period in the nursery, he was hired as an apprentice gardener. On the first day of work in the park, Rick sees the Jewish kindergarten, which he is supposed to observe, for the first time. He decides to only report irrelevant information about the kindergarten to the Heimatschutz. On the very first day he made friends with the kindergarten child Ninu. When Marilyn visits Rick in the park, she befriends Ninu too.
Rick meets Pascal, a friend of Mario. Pascal instructs him to put a bag that supposedly contains flyers in the Jewish kindergarten without being noticed. Rick hesitates, however. He is later threatened and given the said bag. He opens it with his rose tongs and finds a cell phone wired to a bomb. Then he does not put the bag in the kindergarten, but in a garden shed and detonates the bomb. Then Rick goes back to Dirksen's office. He picks up the chainsaw and uses it to murder Dirksen. When he comes home, Mario, Vladimir, Heiko and Robert are waiting for him. Rick entices the gang into the old apiary, where he kills all four men with a chainsaw, and turns himself in to the police. With a final reflection on his guilt, Rick finishes his report to Dr. Layton.
In a personal, no longer official letter, Rick tells Dr. Layton about how Ninu's parents and their young son visit him in prison and thank him for saving the kindergarten and all the children from the bomb. Rick also tells the psychologist that he has written letters and a comic book love story for Marilyn and is expecting her to visit.
characters
- Rick
Rick Fischer is the main character of the book and has lived with "Aunt Bambusch" since his parents' fatal car accident. He is very caring towards her and takes care of her garden, for example. Rick loves drawing comics and tries to use it to deal with his problems in real life. He's more of an outsider and likes to withdraw. He is also easy to intimidate and repeatedly falls victim to the gang. Towards the end of the book he unfolds, becomes bolder and shows a whole new side of himself.
- Marilyn
Marilyn is an open, happy person. She is often dressed in bright colors and is the same age as Rick. Now and then she visits Rick at work in the park and plays with Ninu.
- Aunt bamboo
Aunt Bambusch is 87 years old and Austrian. She's not actually Rick's aunt, just the best friend of his father's mother. When his parents died, she took responsibility for Rick and raised him. She goes to the Canasta appointment once a week for a game of cards.
- Ninu
Ninu is a 2 year old boy from kindergarten. His parents are French Jews. He's a little introverted and shy at first, but later becomes friends with Rick. Ninu reminds Rick of the time before his parents died. Ninu and his parents end up visiting Rick in prison.
- Dr. Layton
Dr. Layton is the criminal psychologist Rick writes his letters to during the investigation phase. He has lived in Berlin for many years, his family lives in the USA. Rick describes him as a kind and polite gentleman.
- Charly
Charly (actually Charlotte) is the director of the Jewish kindergarten. Charly is responsible for the Jewish children and is initially skeptical of Rick. But when she realizes that Ninu has found a friend in Rick, she begins to trust him.
- Robert
Robert is unemployed and lives on Hartz IV . He is unscrupulous, violent and is therefore easy to get excited about right-wing extremist ideas. Besides, he's not the smartest and often drunk. Robert has no specific goals and is dissatisfied with himself.
- Mario
Mario is an active member of the “Heimatschutz Berlin”. He's the only one in the gang smart enough to keep track of things. Mario is short and thin and has blonde hair.
- Vladimir
Vladimir is the leader of the gang alongside Mario. He's more the sneaky one and always fools others. Vladimir is on “Heimatschutz” in order to feel special, although he lacks any talent.
- Heiko
Heiko is the dumbest of the gang and actually always drunk.
- Pascal Wiechmann
Member of the "Heimatschutz". Does Rick offer an apprenticeship in Dirksen's nursery. Use the gang to put pressure on Rick. He is Mister White, the jellyfish person who is hunted by Cherryman in Rick's comic book story. Cherryman is actually the cherry tree in Aunt Bambusch's garden that was destroyed with rusty nails by Mario and his gang.
- Dirksen
Owner of the nursery. Member of the "Heimatschutz". His gardening serves as a cover for his activities.
Form, language
The youth novel depicts the manipulative nature of right-wing extremists and their racial hatred. It shows Rick's tricky position and how quickly you can get into such a situation.
The story is told from the perspective of the main character Rick. The personal first-person narrator is in the middle of the action and tells the story from his or her subjective perspective.
The work has a framework and an internal plot. In the framework story, the protagonist is in prison, where he looks back on his criminal past. The internal act consists of letters to the psychologist Dr. Layton. That is why the fictional village of Storlitz and Berlin are the starting points for the youth novel.
Arjouni describes and characterizes the characters as Rick experienced them, whereby they are mainly represented in a typified manner.
The language is kept simple and predominantly characterized by main and subordinate clauses. The author often uses juvenile expressions that reflect the language of the main characters.
Reviews, criticism
The novel “Cherryman chases Mr. White” has almost exclusively received positive feedback from German critics and readers.
"Arjouni's novel is fast, elegant, light-footed - humorous from the first to the last line."
"With his colloquial writing style, he confidently introduces the reader to the sensitive topics of National Socialism, unemployment and the lack of prospects for young people."
“These problems are presented by the antagonists of the novel, although they correspond very much to the common stereotype. In contrast, it convinces with the successful connection of the story with the comic world. "
"Until the end, the work remains an idiosyncratic mixture of problem and colossal novels, criminal and psychological outsider stories, exciting."
"Above all, the skillful play with closeness and distance, real and surreal, make Arjouni's novel worth reading."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Andreas Fanizadeh, Merciless Before All Village Eyes . In Die Tageszeitung March 17, 2011. Accessed March 4, 2015.
- ↑ Quoted from Martin Gaiser: How everyday political life becomes literature . In: literaturkritik.de , May 5, 2011. Accessed March 4, 2015.
- ↑ Manfred Papst, Pact with the Devil . In Bücher am Sonntag - NZZ am Sonntag No. 2, February 27, 2013. Retrieved on March 4, 2015.
- ↑ a b c Jessica Bräu, fiction chases reality ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In Lesebar , 2011. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
