The bubbling of happiness
The bubbling of happiness (original title: My Life as an Alphabet , in the USA The Categorical Universe of Candice Phee ) is a children's book by the Australian author Barry Jonsberg . It was published in 2013 and has been translated into several languages. The German translation by Ursula Höfker was published in 2014. A film adaptation with the title H is for Happiness was published in 2019.
Structure and narrative style
The book is structured according to the letters of the alphabet. There is a chapter for each letter, from “A as in essay” to “Z as in times of change”. The main character and first-person narrator Candice explains that in her English class she was given the task of depicting her life as an alphabet: for each letter she is asked to write a paragraph about herself. Candice takes the task very seriously and writes a long chapter for each letter. They take turns with letters that Candice writes to her pen pal. The narrative style is similar to a diary and letter novel .
action
Candice Phee is 12 years old and lives with her parents in Albright, a sleepy town in Queensland . Her family consists of her mother, her father and her "Rich Uncle Brian", abbreviated ROB. The two brothers have been falling out for years - only Candice is still in contact with her rich Uncle Brian. Her mother has suffered from severe depression since the death of her youngest daughter, who died as a baby, and after developing breast cancer, and rarely leaves her bedroom. Candice, on the other hand, does not want to spend her life in mourning, but wants to remember her sister's life with joy and live her own life. Candice's father is overwhelmed by these conflicts and retreats into his shed where he writes computer programs. He dreams of being successful as a programmer, but he lacks the time and start-up capital.
Candice is a model student and attaches great importance to order. Her favorite book is a dictionary, which she reads every day. She therefore speaks with an unusually large vocabulary for her age, but sometimes finds it difficult to communicate with others. She prefers to communicate in writing to less familiar people, which is why she always has a notepad with her. She is ruthlessly honest, which often irritates others. Candice is marginalized at school. She is called by the nickname "I.Le.", an abbreviation for "individual learning support". Candice does not take this as an insult and only remarks that every person is ultimately an individual and should be encouraged. When asked if she is autistic , she replies: "I am me."
Candice writes detailed letters to her pen friend Denille from New York , in which she discusses everything that concerns her - such as how to find happiness or whether her goldfish thinks she is a god - although Denille never replies. Candice's only friend and admirer is Douglas, whom she consistently calls "Douglas Benson from another dimension". Since Douglas sustained a head injury in a fall from a tree, he has believed he came from another dimension. He is convinced that there are an infinite number of universes whose only certain common feature is gravity. From this he concludes that only one more jump from a tree can bring him back into his own dimension. According to his calculations, this must happen at exactly six thirty. Candice accepts Douglas and his idiosyncrasies, but watches with concern that he is looking to jump heights. She gets used to making sure Douglas doesn't get injured at 6:30 a.m.
Candice suffers from a stressful family life and makes plans to bring her family back together. In doing so, she takes unusual measures. For example, in the presence of her father and her wealthy uncle Brian, she jumps into the sea in the hope that a joint rescue operation will reconcile the two brothers. However, the two are clumsy, injure each other and have to be rescued for their part. They blame each other for it and are more divided than ever. Inspired by the film My Sister's Life , Candice decides to sue her parents to move in with foster parents - but only to scare her parents and get them to rethink.
Towards the end of the book, the tide turns and Candice's efforts finally work: her mother decides to take antidepressants and is now able to cope with her depression for the first time and begin to come to terms with her daughter's death. Meanwhile, Candice's father is inspired by Douglas' theories about life in parallel dimensions. He came up with the idea of developing a social network in which every person can interact with different versions of himself in hypothetical parallel universes. Candice tells her wealthy Uncle Brian about the idea and forces him and her father to meet. The uncle suggests that his brother invest in his project and enable him to do his job. Candice's father reluctantly accepts the offer. The relationship between the brothers improves again through their collaboration on their heart project.
At school, Candice has to do a group assignment with her classmate Jen Marshall, one of those people who constantly tease Candice. Still, Candice is confident that she will become friends with Jen once they get to know each other, and she is right: Jen tells Candice about her difficulties with her parents, who neglect her and give her no confidence, which is compounded by her poor academic performance becomes. Candice offers Jen to help her with her homework - secretly so that Jens' friends don't find out that she is dealing with the unpopular Candice. Jen accepts the offer.
Douglas believes that he has calculated the ideal time for his return to his original dimension, and to do so he jumps into a ravine. When he has recovered from his injuries, he tells Candice that he has been in his dimension for a few days but has returned to be with her. Perhaps one day they would travel different dimensions together.
In the end, Candice finally gets an answer from her pen pal. Candice's letters had not arrived because of an incorrect house number, but Denille promises to answer all letters from now on. With that, Candice ends her alphabetical report. Since she doesn't like things to come to an end, she plans to start another run of the alphabet right away.
background
Barry Jonsberg, an English teacher, said he got the idea for the book while doing homework. The task of writing a short autobiographical text for each letter was a lot of fun in his class. While reading the reports he thought of the character Candice.
expenditure
The first edition with the English title My Life as an Alphabet was published in 2013 by Allen & Unwin ( ISBN 978-1-7433-1097-7 ). In the US, the book is known as The Categorical Universe of Candice Phee and was published by Chronicle Books in 2014 .
A German translation by Ursula Höfker was published by cbt- Verlag in 2014 ( ISBN 978-3-570-16286-6 ). In the same year the Hörverlag brought out an abbreviated audio book version, read by Laura Maire ( ISBN 978-3-8445-1577-0 ).
reception
Reviews in German-speaking countries emphasized the idiosyncratic characterizations and the original language and also praised the translator in this context. Hartmut El Kurdi wrote about Das Blubbern von Glück in Die ZEIT : “Barry Jonsberg lets Candice tell in a wonderfully precocious and yet sympathetic girl's tone, elegantly translated by Ursula Höfker, who also uses the British irony (Jonsberg is an emigrated Englishman) in the Germans never lose. Of course, in reality there is no twelve year old girl who talks and acts like Candice. But wouldn't it be great if there was one? ” Dietmar Dath wrote in the FAZ :“ Sad, crazy, damaged people, 'wounded people who can walk' (Kurt Vonnegut) are the staff in 'Das Blubbern von Glück', but Barry Jonsberg [...] does not look at them through the cheap glasses of outsider admiration, which expects deeper truths from broken people than from average beings, but rather as what has long been normal. ”He concluded:“ The crisp sobriety of this reporting gesture has a thorny kind of poetry - Ursula Höfker's translation almost always lives up to this tone: neither cranky nor banal, but permeated with the art of escaping both. With the help of hope, love and brains. ”Elisabeth Dietz wrote in the BÜCHERmagazin that the bubbling of happiness is“ full of funny ideas and clever thoughts, which Candice presents in an apt, original language ”. She also praised Laura Maire's audio book reading .
Awards
In Australia, The Blubber of Happiness was nominated for numerous literary awards. Of these, it won the Children's Peace Literature Award in 2013 in the “older readers” category and the Inky Award , in 2014 the Territory Read Awards in the children's and youth literature category, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for youth literature and the Wheeler's award for best youth book Center . At the “Book of the Year” award from the Children's Book Council of Australia , it came second in the “Younger Readers” category.
The German version won the LovelyBooks Readers Award 2014 in the “Children's Book” category and, in October 2014, the Youth Literature Award Lynx of the Month .
filming
The film based on the book H is for Happiness by John Sheedy celebrated its world premiere on August 11, 2019 at the Melbourne International Film Festival. It was released in Australian cinemas on February 6, 2020. The film celebrated its international premiere in February 2020 at the 70th Berlinale , where it opened the Generation Kplus section .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2014: My Life as an Alphabet , accessed March 7, 2020.
- ↑ Hartmut El Kurdi : C stands for chaos. In: DIE ZEIT No. 42/2014. October 9, 2014, accessed March 7, 2020 .
- ↑ Dietmar Dath : Brains, love, hope. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . October 4, 2014, accessed March 7, 2020 .
- ^ Elisabeth Dietz: Bubbling with happiness. In: BOOKS magazine. Retrieved March 7, 2020 .
- ↑ My Life As an Alphabet on the Allen & Unwin website, accessed March 7, 2020.
- ↑ Children's Peace Literature Award , accessed on March 7, 2020.
- ↑ The Inky Awards Blog - 2013 Winners , accessed March 7, 2020.
- ^ The Chief Minister's NT Book Awards - A History . , Northern Territories Writers' Center, accessed March 7, 2020.
- ↑ The Book of the Year: Younger Readers 2014 Honors - My Life as an Alphabet , accessed March 7, 2020.
- ↑ The Readers' Award - The Best Books 2014 , accessed on March 7, 2020.
- ↑ LUCHS Prize October for Barry Jonsberg: "The Blubbern von Glück". In: Radio Bremen . October 9, 2014, accessed March 7, 2020 .
- ↑ H is for Happiness. In: imdb.com. Retrieved March 9, 2020 .
- ^ H Is for Happiness. The bubbling of happiness. In: berlinale.de. Retrieved March 9, 2020 .
- ↑ generation. In: berlinale.de. Retrieved March 9, 2020 .