Bumblebee dumb

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Hummeldumm is the fourth novel by Tommy Jaud and is about a group of nine who go on a fourteen-day tour of Namibia . The title means "stupid as a cattle" (after the southern German name (the) bumblebee for bull) .

The book was published on February 11, 2010. From the beginning of March to mid-May 2010, it topped the bestseller lists in the fiction category from Focus and Spiegel among others . In addition to a paperback edition , Scherz Verlag has also published an e-book and an audio book spoken by the author himself - in both normal and daisy editions .

action

The story is told from a first-person perspective by Matze Klein , who is going on a group tour through Namibia that she has booked with his girlfriend Sina, although he would have preferred to go on vacation with her alone. When it turns out in Windhoek that the group consists almost exclusively of people with whom Matze does not warm up or whom he even openly despises, he blames Sina for it: She should have found out about the group beforehand. He couldn't do that himself because he had bought the two of them new apartment. However, he found out on the first day that he had forgotten to transfer the reservation fee for it - if Sina found out about it, his allegations would be baseless. The next few days of the trip are shaped by how Matze tries to secretly make up for the transfer, while struggling with poor cell phone reception, chronically weak cell phone battery as well as an impatient real estate agent and an almost inaccessible bank advisor back home. Above all, however, his own power adapter does not fit into the Namibian sockets, so he has to rely on the adapters of other passengers to charge his cell phone. This repeatedly leads to bizarre situations. In his negative attitude he increasingly isolates himself from the group and no longer tries to make friends with anyone.

When Sina, disappointed by Matze, talks more and more often with the handsome Kevin, Matze becomes so jealous that he cancels the apartment reservation that he had just successfully made. The relationships between Max and Brenda and Käthe and Pepi also hit rock bottom in the desert. During a stopover in the city of Swakopmund , Matze, Breitling, Pepi and finally Bahee organize a boozy evening for men in order to suppress their relationship problems.

At the next lodge, Matze organized a reconciliation with Sina. They get back together, but now Matze has to make sure that the condominium that has just been canceled is reserved again. This in turn requires a completely bizarre measure with which he finally excludes himself from the group, and Sina no longer understands him at all. The fellow traveler Trixi, however, suffers a similar fate shortly afterwards: She accidentally kicks the popular meerkat “Carlos” to death. Matze at least speaks to Trixi.

Shortly before the end of the tour, Bahee leaves the group sitting in the desert without warning after receiving a call. During the involuntary driverless and vehicle-free overnight stay, a debate ensues in which travelers throw at each other everything that has accumulated in the last two weeks of resentment. Matze also finally explains the reasons for his quirks. After that, everyone is much more relaxed and the holiday mood takes hold. Sina and Matze are reconciled again and enjoy the night under the starry sky.

The next day the head of the tour operator picks up the group and explains that Bahee was blackened by Käthe, who couldn't stand him, at the tour operator and then dismissed without notice. The group is outraged and insists on ending the trip with Bahee. They find out his home address and visit him in his poor hut. Finally, Käthe also regrets her deviousness and persuades the organizer to hire Bahee again.

Before leaving, the group at the airport exchanges the business class tickets that the tour operator had booked for them as compensation for the night in the desert for economy class and gives the surprised Bahee the difference, which is half an annual income for him means.

characters

main characters

Bahee Mutima
Cheerful black Namibian from Otjosongombe , driver and guide of the group. He speaks strongly accented German with funny expressions.
Matze Klein
First-person narrator , IT sub-project manager from Cologne , works in Frankfurt am Main .
Sina
Matzes pretty friend has booked the trip for both of them. She works in marketing at the Douglas perfumery chain .
Max Breitling
Mid 50s, real estate agent from Düsseldorf , heavy smoker and drinker. Initially the arrogant rich white man who looks down on Africa with contempt, but in the course of history he develops great respect for Bahee and it also turns out that he is bankrupt .
Brenda Schiller
"The most annoying weather fairy from N24 " (Matze) and Breitling's much younger friend. She is simple, but confident and can ask terribly stupid questions.
Käthe “raisin face” Gruber
Grouchy elderly woman from Vienna . She doesn't like anything and especially Bahee "hummeldumm" because she supposedly doesn't understand his strange German.
Professor Pepi "Bacon Hat" Gruber
Käthe's husband, retired teacher of Latin and history. The exact opposite of his wife. He considers himself to be a gifted entertainer and incessantly produces knackle verses and puns on a simple level, which to Matzes horror actually put you in a good mood.
Kevin Schnabel
Handsome athlete from Apolda near Weimar with a rather calm character. Was once 1000th place in the Ironman triathlon in Hawaii, is a vegetarian and strictly abstinent from tobacco and alcohol, but gives up this attitude later.
Karl-Heinz "Franconian Tortoise" Seppelpeter
From Bamberg , brewery owner and head of marketing officer Peter “Pitschi” Greulich from the Jaud novel Resturlaub . He is the oldest of the group and annoys the others with his new video camera.
Trixi "Strawberry Hedgehog" Sipp
IKEA employee from near Zurich with a strikingly white face and bright red hair. She was sent on vacation by her colleagues because that is when she disrupts operations the least. She is also very clumsy on the trip and doesn't leave out any faux pas.

Minor characters

Bernhard Whitsun
Matzes customer advisor at Sparkasse Euskirchen , also an enthusiastic waffle baker and Wolfgang Petry imitator. Instead of him, however, Matze usually has Ms. Lauer on the phone, who does not know him personally and therefore cannot accept telephone transfers.
Heidrun Metzger
Employee of the brokerage company where Matze and Sina bought their new apartment. She is the main victim of Matzes communication problems.
Carlos
Meerkats and mascots of the White Lady Lodge.

review

Denis Scheck was not very enthusiastic in his comment for 'Hot off the press': Unlike the new Suter, the new Tommy Jaud: This story about a German holiday group in Namibia, told in a pesky comedy sound, is unbearable from the first page. "You don't drive through Africa with people like that," the first-person narrator thinks at the beginning. "With such a group you shoot a documentary soap for RTL2!" Unfortunately he is right.

literature

Tommy Jaud: Hummel stupid . Scherz, 2010 (for 16 weeks in 2010 at number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Denis Scheck - comments on the top ten ( Memento from April 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive )