The blue bidet (Roman)

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The blue bidet or The Real Life is a novel first published in 1978 by the Franco-German writer Joseph Breitbach .

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The main character of the humorous novel is the button manufacturer Jean Barbe, who decides to sell all his possessions and henceforth to lead what he himself calls "real life", ie an existence without social obligations and without the burden of property. While the first chapters of the novel are written from Barbe's point of view (initially even as a first-person narrator), the narrative perspective later changes to the student Ferdinand Mehlis, who tells the reader about his acquaintance with Barbe, the shared experiences and the further fate of Barbe after the Reported at the end of a joint trip.

At the beginning of the novel, Barbe made the decision to sell his thriving button factory and other possessions and from then on only lived on his fortune. The main reason he cites the anger at restrictions on his entrepreneurial freedom by the state and the trade unions, but he also wants to escape the compulsion to participate in social events and run a large household to which he is subject in his position as an entrepreneur. Since he is a widower and has no children, this decision is easy to achieve.

However, Barbe soon realizes that he cannot do without the usual comfort, especially his sometimes quirky needs, which are presented with great vehemence: He is completely beside himself as the bathroom in an upscale hotel " incomplete ", ie does not have a bidet . He is therefore forced to purchase a portable bidet, even though he actually wanted to travel light. He soon realizes that other items are absolutely necessary for him, for example cloths to darken the hotel windows, certain teacups, a large supply of medicines, etc. Therefore, he hires the student Ferdinand as a chauffeur and assistant for a trip to southern Europe, because his Luggage soon grew so much that he could no longer travel alone. The journey together finally takes the two of them to Messina , where they split up - Barbe travels on on his own while Ferdinand returns to his university. There he later learns that Barbe apparently had a relationship with an underage girl. Together with Barbe's asset manager he travels to Tunisia , where he witnesses Barbe's murder by his young lover.

Despite the tragic ending, the novel has a decidedly humorous character, especially in the depiction of the behavior of its main character, which can be seen as an ironic self-portrait of the author. But serious issues such as the opposition between capitalism and socialism , sexual morality and religion are also dealt with.

expenditure

  • The blue bidet or the real life. (= Mainz series. New series. Volume 12). Edited by Alexandra Plettenberg-Serban and Wolfgang Mettmann. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8353-1218-0 .