Purgatory (Sofi Oksanen, Roman)

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Purgatory (original title: Puhdistus , 2008) is the third novel by the Finnish-Estonian author Sofi Oksanen . It has received several national and international literary prizes and has so far been translated into 38 languages. Based on her play of the same name (premiered in Helsinki 2007), the novel is set in a village in West Estonia in 1992 and depicts the extraordinary encounter between two women, through which the painful history of their family - interwoven with that of the whole country - is gradually revealed .

action

Present Action (1)

Aliide Truu, an elderly woman living alone, spotted a man-sized bundle in the courtyard of her house one morning. It turns out to be a completely unknown girl - filthy, ragged and unkempt . Caution is advised, especially at this time, as the new freedom - one year after Estonia regained independence - means for Aliide above all that threats against them are increasing every day: swear words on their door, stones against their house, their sauna burned down, Dog and chickens dead. The girl could be a thief, more likely a decoy. Nevertheless, Aliide gives in step by step: talks to her, gives her something to drink and eat, lets her inside, bathe, dress, and even spend the night. The certainty that the girl - Zara - needs help is stronger than her mistrust, which is fueled not least by the fact that she is apparently lying, revealing the truth only partially. But Aliide also has something to hide; this becomes clear at the latest when Zara confronts her with a photo of her sister in her youth and Aliide spontaneously denies having a sister at all ... - In flashbacks that take up ever larger space, the stories of both women gradually take shape.

Zara's history

Coming from Vladivostok , about a year earlier, Zara was encouraged by a visit from an ex-girlfriend to want to earn a lot of money quickly in the western world. Zara has ideals: she wants to use them to finance her medical studies and improve the living conditions of her family. In Berlin, however, she falls into the clutches of a Russian pimp duo who mercilessly exploited their greatest asset at the time - their Eastern origins - and who succeeded in doing it by the usual means - violence, extortionate threats, vague hopes, false accusations, damage to their self-esteem To make Zara compliant. However, it retains a remnant of resilience and the will to freedom. He is nourished or brought to life by what turns out to be her grandmother's “dowry”: it is the Estonian language that she - with her love for this country - passed on to her granddaughter; and when she decides to go to Germany, the grandmother also gives her that youth photo with a dedication to her younger sister and a detailed description of the place and house they come from. When Zara hears that the two pimps are planning a trip to Estonia, she offers herself as a companion. In fact, she manages to escape there (although not without an act of violence: the murder of a suitor), and in fact she reaches the place her grandmother described, where Aliide then finds her.

Alides prehistory

Their prehistory is naturally more extensive, but on the other hand also more stringent, as it is that of a woman who feels that she has always missed out, as a fateful loser. She attaches this to a tiny moment in her youth: The moment she sees the "man of her life", he becomes aware of her sister - her older sister Ingel, who is already favored by nature in every respect and who does everything seems to be able to do better. She remains fixated on this man - Hans Pekk, Ingel's future husband - and makes decisions which, under the influence of historical upheavals ( World War II and changing occupying powers), ultimately lead to a family tragedy. Aliide initially lives with her sister's family in her parents' house, without wanting to disconnect, and only looks for a man to herself after she has to twice experience the horrors of an interrogation by the MGB (forerunner of the KGB ), who after the The whereabouts of Hans, who is in the resistance, is researching (the sisters keep him hidden in the house and have officially declared him dead). Marked by the shock of the rapes and humiliations suffered - which do not even stop in front of her niece, the only 7-year-old Linda - Aliide is consequently looking for a man with whom she will feel protected from them in the future thanks to his position of power. She finds him in the agitator Martin. The fact that she is basically disgusted with him hardly affects her; what hurts them is the loss of the house associated with marriage and moving out and - even more - the closeness to Hans. It is therefore only logical that she should not miss the opportunity to regain both, even if she incurs serious guilt: Martin makes her a confidante of the planned deportation of Ingel and Linda; Aliide has several weeks to consider and warn her, but knows that this will not save her with certainty and will practically hand herself over; shortly before the execution, Martin even had them sign statements that were so incriminating that a return of the two can practically be ruled out; for Hans, on the other hand, his hiding place becomes a prison, as a wife and child are fetched. - Living under one roof with two men, Aliide has been playing a highly risky game for several years. She endures her husband in order to win over her brother-in-law. Until she gives up on herself, she vies for his favor - in vain. When this finally becomes clear to her, when her last illusion is shattered (she wants to let Hans go into hiding in Tallinn with a stolen passport, so that she can then meet him there from time to time), she sees to it that he perishes in his hiding place . - Little is told about the 40 years of her “life” that followed, with which she practically ended from then on: Aliide had a daughter with whom she had hardly anything in common and who moved to Finland in the 1980s; Martin dies immediately after (and through?) Chernobyl .

Present Action (2)

While the flashbacks gradually reveal the story to the reader, the most important moment of tension remains the question of whether the pimp duo can track down Zara. In fact, the feared occurs after a few days. Hidden in Hans' former hiding place, Zara overhears how the two of them - very skillfully and legally not unjustifiably - burden her heavily; Like her grandfather, she is now at the mercy of Aliide; and Aliide is tempted to do the same with her as he did with him. Could Zara, if she's already Ingel's granddaughter, have come as her avenger? The decisive factor in their favor is possibly that Aliide believes she has discovered a resemblance to Hans. There is no open word between the two of them, nor are joint arrangements made so that Zara flees headlong when her tormentors reappear. But when she dares to approach the house again, she watches how Aliide shoots the two of them - with Hans' gun. Aliide ensures that Zara leaves the country as quickly as possible; In a letter, she encourages her sister to return and take over the land that belongs to her; at last she prepares for a fire to die with her own Hans in her own house .

Individual aspects

construction

The novel consists of five parts. Each is preceded by a quote from Paul-Eerik Rummo , a contemporary Estonian poet and politician, as a kind of motto . This is followed by a relatively short letter from Hans - written in hiding and always preceded by For a Free Estonia and signed by Hans Eerikssohn Pekk, Estonian farmer . The fifth part of the novel stands out clearly with its (fictional) secret service documents. The second part differs from the other three in that it only contains flashbacks and - in chronological order, although not completely - exclusively tells Alide's prehistory.

Comparison with the drama

Two changes stand out compared to Oksanen's own dramatic model: one in the prehistory, the other in the present story; both concern aliens.

The central scene that determines Alide's life in the drama is the one in the basement of the municipal administration ( everything changed the night we were all called in for interrogation [...] ) . In the novel, this scene remains indispensable, but becomes more important in theirs The consequences are described (including the return of fear) and their fateful significance is suppressed by another: that of the first meeting of both sisters with Hans. The novel therefore shifts the focus from the political to the private. This reinforces the impression that the drama already conveys: Basically Aliide has a very simple vision of life: She is looking for private, completely apolitical happiness. Information from the secret service documents gives that first encounter additional explosiveness. It provides information about the age difference between the sisters. When reading, one has the impression that Aliide is only marginally younger and could well have felt like a serious competitor in advertising for Hans. Now we learn that she was five years younger, i.e. not older than 13 at the time in question. This illuminates the degree of her delusion, which she apparently never recognized or wanted to recognize as such.

The most noticeable change in the current plot of the novel is that in the end Aliide clearly takes sides by shooting Zara's tormentor. In the drama, she remains the opportunist she has always been in the decisive moments until the end. Both options for your action seem conclusive; however, the novel makes her seem more sympathetic. In addition, the dramaturgy at this point is at least easier to understand, because the novel can do without some of the vehicles that the play needs here.

Stage versions of novels have often emerged in recent theater history. The conversion of a drama into a novel, on the other hand, is rather the exception. A desired effect can be that the chances of generating empathy in the reader increase. Even more, if the most important thing is realistically not said but thought, and all the more so if empathy is to apply to figures who are not just victims, but perpetrators - murderers. In the case of young Zara, the external circumstances naturally soften a lot, if not everything; it is not in acute emergency when it kills. The slightly older Aliide is different. Her lower motives - egoism - play a decisive role. The fact that she can be so heavily burdened and yet one does not break the baton is due on the one hand to the construction of the novel (her past failures are enclosed and softened by her decisions of the present), and on the other hand because it is meticulous and credible it describes what her inner drives and temptations are, which in the past led her to decide against others and for herself - and vice versa in the present.

The fact that the novel has retained the reference to the dramatic model can only be determined from the fact that it fulfills the majority of the essential characteristics of a novel , which is considered the "sister of the drama" ( Theodor Storm ). Among other things, the "unheard-of occurrence", the focus on a few main characters and a central conflict, the dramatic arc of tension in the current plot and the fact that this represents a kind of framework plot can be recognized. The novel also reveals its genre of origin in that it is built like an analytical drama in which the step-by-step revelation of a prehistory takes up a large space.

Narrative perspective

The narrative perspective used is not, as the statement Nothing happens in this novel without the authorial direction of the author might suggest, the authorial, but the personal. The respective changes in perspective are easy to understand. With the letters and documents this goes without saying, with the flashbacks, the information about place and time preceding the chapter headings makes it immediately clear whether they relate to Aliide or Zara, and in the present chapters the transitions are barely noticeable, but they become through a blank line indicates.

The personal perspective - with frequent use of experienced speech  - is an important means of letting the reader of this novel participate as suddenly and intensely as possible in what is going on inside the characters. This is all the more exciting when - as here - it does not coincide with what is expressed verbally or non-verbally. Both women are always busy with tactics. With good reason, even if not the same: Aliide does not want to open up, Zara “is not allowed” to. She must be careful not to impose too much on Aliide, otherwise she runs the risk of being thrown out again or even being handed over directly to her pursuers. The fact that both of them were thoroughly trained in tactics in their previous lives allows them to meet "at eye level", but has also led to the fact that they have long since lost what is actually essential for human interaction: the natural basic trust .

Title - metaphor - subject

The original title, the Finnish "puhdistus", means - like the Estonian "puhastus" - something like "purification", "purification". This is what it is about for both women, and first in the original sense. Aliide is introduced in her daily fight against a single fly - representing her fight to keep her house "clean", to shield it from the outside. Shortly afterwards, she loosens this barrier and helps the unknown girl to cleanse herself physically and restore herself. The process of internal cleansing then begins in both of them. At Zara, it's mostly about restoring her broken self-esteem. For Aliide, it's about nothing less than facing their life's lies. That she even does it is painful enough. Your “cleaning” is only just beginning; the two shots are nothing more than a confirmation that she is on the right path - they are not reparation or redemption, not even repentance. Until the end she insists on house and Hans as her "property". The “purgatory”, in which she is already in, she wants to bring to an end with the fire on her own and in this world. She sees her hurry justified by the fact that she wants to forestall arsonists.

The etymological connection between “purification” and “purgatory” is given in Estonian (“puhastus” / “puhastustuli”), in Finnish not (“puhdistus” / “kiirastuli”), in English it also exists (“purge” / “ purgatory "). "Purge" - the title of the English-language edition - also refers to the cynical use of the word in connection with political or ethnic "cleansing", for example those in the Stalinist Soviet Union, to which Alides sister and niece are also victims.

The cover of the German-language edition shows a fly - larger than life, just as it confronts Aliide and the reader in the very first sentences of the novel ( Aliide Truu stared at the fly, and the fly stared back. Her eyes protruded, and Aliide grew sick ). In addition to the title-giving metaphor , it is the most important metaphor of the novel, which appears as a leitmotif in almost every contemporary chapter and which is supplemented by an important aspect in the fifth part, the fictional secret documents: "Fly" was also Aliam's code name as an agent of the MGB. The parallels between the two women are obvious: how Aliide tries to keep the flies and thus her guilty past at bay, Zara experiences with the pimps. Some formulations (they only lay their eggs on meat ) underline this. The construction of the novel supports it additionally. What Aliide fails in the first chapter - killing the fly - she succeeds in the last of the fourth part with Zara's pursuers. As a result, the title of the first chapter, The Fly Always Wins , is - at least metaphorically - ostensibly confirmed, but then fundamentally called into question on the existential-metaphysical level by the planning of her suicide.

Thematically, Sofi Oksanen braces the important with the insignificant; the political with the private ; the history of a country with that of a family. She describes the contrasting times of upheaval in this country (first into foreign control, then leading to freedom) and how these lead to very similar unfortunate experiences of two women who, in their pursuit of a little happiness in exceptional historical situations, get caught up in destructive entanglements that suggest themselves appropriating the “male” violence to oneself. Nevertheless, the author trusts them to grow beyond themselves, to override the law of repression and terror and to heal the wounds , be it through self-sacrifice in favor of sister, niece and great-niece of Aliide, which is understood as atonement the potential for new life chances (medical studies) that has grown over from the Zara.

style

Sofi Oksanen's prose is sensual and strongly suggestive. Her sentences are mostly simple - paratactic -, as are her words. The intensity of the text results on the one hand from the use of the personal perspective, on the other hand from the linguistic density and precision with which it describes external and internal processes.

She yanked the door open and stepped on the threshold. All around was silence like twilight. The night grew thicker. Zara took a few steps and stopped in the yellow light of the courtyard lamp. The crickets chirped, the neighbour's dogs struck. It smelled of autumn. The white trunks of the birch trees shimmered in the semi-darkness. The gates were closed, the peaceful fields rested in the wire eyes of the chain link fence. She inhaled so deeply that her lungs ached. She was wrong. Her knees buckled in relief and she plopped onto the threshold. No pasha, no Lavrenti, no black car. […] She pushed the door further open and saw the girl on the stairs, returned to the kitchen and let the girl in. Relief fluttered into the room. The girl's back was straightened and her ears adjusted. She breathed calmly and deeply. Why had the girl been outside for so long when the man hadn't been there? The girl repeated that there was no one outside. Aliide poured the girl a cup of fresh Muckefuck and at the same time began to chat about the texture of tea, she decided to divert the girl's thoughts as far from stones and windows as possible.

Autobiography

Sofi Oksanen is familiar with Estonia through relatives and personal experiences. Born and raised in Finland, she is the daughter of a Finn and an Estonian. She got to know their homeland through visits to her grandmother at a time when Estonia was still part of the Soviet Union.

At a presentation of her book in Germany, on the one hand, she reported on her memories of the harassment before entering the country ; on the other hand, of endless weeks on the grandmother's farm. The pattern of the tablecloth, the hum of the flies. The scooping off of the foam during the awakening, the bubbling soap, the tub for washing hands. In the cupboard the jars with tomatoes and mushrooms, on the floor the herbs, spread out to dry .

Sofi Oksanen's early familiarity with this world, her intimate knowledge of the country and its people have flowed into the novel, make it authentic and are part of the effect and success.

reception

With the exception of the Süddeutsche Zeitung , the novel has been received just as positively in the German-language media as it has been in Northern Europe and the United States.

Sofi Oksanen achieved an impressive success with “Purgatory”. […] This is historiography from the perspective of those who suffer, which shows with its most brilliant possibilities what literature can achieve.

Body language was hardly spelled out more painfully than here.

The book tells the story of a battered region and a slave population, but that is not enough for the author: A double commitment is woven into this novel, one to the Estonian nation and one to the woman.

Sofi Oksanen's novel shines with its accurate drawing of the characters, the exciting plot and the description of the historical background. It shows us the fate of a neglected country and shows us infinitely more than could ever be gleaned from a textbook. Oksanen's German-language debut was a complete success.

Adaptations

An opera based on the novel by Estonian born Jüri Reinvere had its world premiere on April 20, 2012 at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki. The first reactions from Finnish and international critics can be compared with those caused by the play and the book.
The novel was also filmed by Finnish director Antti Jokinen with Laura Birn in the lead role. The feature film Puhdistus , released in 2012, was submitted to the 85th Academy Awards as a Finnish entry in the category of Best Foreign Language Film , but received nothing.

Awards

The following national and international literature prizes have been awarded to Oksanen for Purgatory :

So far, Purgatory is the only work that has been awarded both the Finlandia and Runeberg awards in Finland. Oksanen is also the youngest author to win either of these two awards. After all, she is also the first foreign writer to be awarded the Prix ​​du Roman fnac .

literature

  • Sofi Oksanen: Purgatory . Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-462-04234-4 .
  • Sofi Oksanen: Purgatory . schaefersphilippen, Cologne 2011.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Behrens: Fire and Water - the world nachtkritik.de
  2. ↑ a b c d Pia Reinacher: You old fly, when I get you . In: FAZ.net
  3. ^ A b Susanne Mayer: In the basement of history . In: Die Zeit , No. 40/2010
  4. ↑ Thomas Steinfeld. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 5, 2010
  5. ↑ Susan Bernofsky: The large Estonia book . Deutschlandfunk
  6. ↑ [1] Link from the author's homepage to a collection of critical voices; Retrieved August 20, 2012
  7. ↑ [2] Variety, September 19, 2012 (English)
  8. ^ Sofi Oksanen: Official website
  9. ↑ Schaefersphilippen: Publishing house that owns the rights to the drama "Purgatory".