the return home

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The Homecoming is a novel by Bernhard Schlink from 2006 .

The novel is about the search of an illegitimate boy for his unknown father. In the attic he discovers a manuscript with the Odyssey theme, which finally leads him on the trail of the lost father.

Themes of the odyssey, the hero's wanderings, a long absence of husband and father, a return that Homer is happy to see, in contrast to the homecoming in Schlink's book, is the film on which Schlink his book, which is also a novel of development - with interspersed reflections on ethical and moral issues -, romance and homecoming novel is developed.

shape

The novel, told in the first person, is divided into five parts. The first deals with the childhood and adolescence of the protagonist Peter Debauer, the second his first love Barbara, the third part is about the twists and turns of his love stories and the fourth part again about his relationship with Barbara, which is strained when he finds out who his birth father is. The fifth and last part is about the encounter with the father.

Each part is divided into around 16 chapters, in which the scene of the events remains the same; if the location changes, a new chapter begins. The novel, which is largely set in the 1980s, is not told in chronological order throughout.

people

The relationships between the people, which remain unexplained at the beginning of the novel, only become clear as the book progresses.

The very well-read and educated grandparents in Switzerland, with whom the protagonist spends his holidays, write booklet novels for a living, which they correct at night while they devote themselves to their grandchildren during the day. The alleged "death" - the disappearance of their only son - gives them a lot of trouble. On excursions, they awaken their grandson's love for nature. For the child, they embody the good, the security, the tranquility and the beauty of Switzerland.

The boy's father, Johann Debauer, is a man of many names - John de Baur, Scholler, Vonlanden - which he changes depending on the circumstances. He leads an unsteady life with changing relationships with women. He is a teacher by profession and not only easily wins the sympathy of students, but is also admired by his son against his will.

The mother, young and cheerful, has to face the difficult situation of an unmarried mother. She works a lot to offer the child everything material, love and tenderness fall by the wayside. She too lives lonely and without love relationships. She has big plans for her son, he should have a career. She is silent about the past and especially about the boy's father.

Peter, the protagonist of the plot, is fascinated by the discovery of the manuscript; the search for the author of the homecoming story has kept him under its spell for years. On his unsteady and restless path in life, he also meets people with whose lives he is closely connected without being aware of it.

Barbara, who becomes his partner, is his anchor point and firm hold in life. He finds familiarity, entrepreneurship and love of life in her, even if he repeatedly strains her love through his restlessness and unreliability. She is understanding towards him and tries to awaken his fighting spirit.

Places of action

The main plot is set in post-war Germany, with secondary scenes in Switzerland and the USA.

Switzerland

The grandfather lived in his childhood in a village that was hit by a landslide. As their parents' house was destroyed in the process, they moved to America for 5 years and then lived in Switzerland again.
At a considerable age, the grandparents live in a small, contemplative house. The location of this house is to be settled near Lake Zurich in a rural area near a large city. Excursions take her with her grandson Peter to Ufenau or to Rapperswil Castle . For Schlink, Switzerland is a metaphor for the purity of nature and all its consequences throughout the book, which include humility, freedom, contentment and justice. Especially at the beginning of the book there are strong connections to Rousseau's “retour à la nature”. This is reflected in the gardens, the children's opportunities to play, the self-sufficiency from their own garden and the many walks that connect the hiker with nature and the animals living in it. One only reads magazines that also contain an energetic statement that is morally good.

Germany

Germany, which was separated by the wall for a long time, is often characterized by the small differences that we like to refer to as black and white painting. These are the contrasts between rich and poor, but also between progressive thinking and the old-fashioned ideas of the lower class of the population, who could not escape the working class and hardly had access to education. In contrast to Switzerland, Germany is never described as a relaxing place where people can relax and get excited.

There are three locations that mainly contribute to the plot. Wroclaw is the city where his parents met. Here begins the odyssey, an odyssey and search for the disappearance of its creator. Doubts and questions surround this city like narrow streets. Even the houses, with their unwelcoming character, seem to harbor something threatening. The unfriendly is reinforced by passers-by and people living in the city who are no longer looking for the bright and friendly. The contrast is the city in which Peter finally settles. It harbors peace and home. The gardens look familiar with their trees, which a little brings back memories of the grandparents' garden. Peter can feel comfortable in it together with his lover and enjoy the end of his search. Many roads lead out of this city to ever new shared experiences, but they also always lead home to the home where rituals are maintained that convey a sense of security. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Berlin , and with it the rest of the East, will be explored in more detail. Peter Debauer lectures at Humboldt University for one semester. The backward East triggers a false sense of home in Debauer, which is mainly due to awakening memories. The East is and will remain a place of work for him; one chooses more contemplative places for loving and being loved. Houses as well as people appear sleepy and gray to him, and the mentality by no means holds up when he claims that the city is losing its plastering. The description is fascinating compared to the melancholy one feels in this waiting room of history.

Siberia

Siberia, the country with its wide rivers to swim through, its forests and wastelands, is the place where the father's "homecoming story" takes place. Despite all the hardships and dangers, Siberia becomes the place where the father finds peace and happiness in love for a woman for a while.

United States

New York is the epitome of Peter's former desires and emotions. It is the city in which one realizes unbound and timeless without a past. It is his father's residence, his past doesn't seem to matter either, here everyone is who others would like to think of him as. Here the question of reality and interpretation is raised. Studying is made easy and nobody asks for the real name; you are who you say you are. It is the place of socializing for invitations to meals and sporting gatherings. The narrowness of the houses is never criticized; Anyone looking for relaxation will find green spaces with a certain width everywhere. Even family life is characterized by an idyll based on security and understanding. Due to the urgent need to find out his father and the end of the story, he forgets in between who he really is and who he loves because of his already lived life and experiences. The whole of America also stands for a glittering world in which wishes can be realized. However, there is a lack of research into the needs of people who are trapped in their social network and who have reached their limits, reflect on their instinct for self-preservation and react accordingly. The ideal world of unlimited possibilities relegates each individual to his or her place in the world of thought, which can also be destructive in America.

The theme of love

Love is - as the author himself puts it - “… no feeling, it's a matter of will.” The ideal case for love is the relationship between Johann and his American family. What connects Peter and Barbara, on the other hand, is the search for common ground, in which one accepts oneself in the vicinity of the other and would like to discover new things from this wellbeing. But the protagonist has to learn that he has to fight for love. The love for Barbara is at the heart of the action. Peter, who is looking for his story, is also looking for the origin of the love withheld from him. His parents' unexperienced love for him and the lack of loving words about the father, which the mother never uttered to the son, are the basis for his failed relationships with women. His mother's lack of affection leads the boy to flee into the world of books, where he can act out his fantasies. He only experiences real love from his grandparents. In search of his father, for his affection and tenderness, Peter moves away from the love that Barbara shows him.

reception

Schlink's novel has consistently provoked negative reactions in the press, which occasionally go as far as being completely torn. The poor literary quality, the constructed plot and the pale characters, who have been degraded to pure "idea carriers", are unanimously criticized.

According to the criticism of Münchner Merkur, "this pocket-sized Odysseus Schlinks [...] is just a synthetic product, more plastic than art ..." Alexander Leopold from the TAZ calls the novel an "attempt at a big hit", and in one attempt unfortunately it stayed, with Schlink's staff appearing like a gathering of 'cardboard comrades' and the reader standing "in the middle of a dreary, lazily twilight novel". Gustav Seibt from the Süddeutsche Zeitung welcomes Schlink's idea of having adapted the fate of Paul de Man , a Belgian literary scholar who wrote anti-Semitic articles during World War II and later made a career as a university professor in the USA, for his novel the rest of the novel for “'narrative styrofoam' and 'intellectual ornament'”.

expenditure

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NZZ of April 22, 2006.
  2. ↑ Sabine Dultz: Odysseus out of the vest pocket. Münchner Merkur, April 5, 2006 ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 2, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lyrikwelt.de
  3. ↑ Die Tageszeitung, March 4, 2006.
  4. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 4, 2006.