In the land of the last things

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In the Land of Last Things is a dystopian letter novel by Paul Auster , published in 1989 by Rowohlt . The original was released in 1987 by Viking Penguin in New York under the title In the Country of Last Things .

The young woman Anna Blume was trapped in an unnamed city for several years. Anna tells an unnamed childhood friend of the monstrous experiences during her struggle for survival.

action

Death encounters the homeless Jewish letter writer Anna at every step in that great sinking city. Anna writes z. B. from the "racers". These are members of an association who from time to time run their way to death in a collective, well-prepared “death run” criss-crossing the streets of the city. Or Anna reports on the “Last Leap”, a “public ritual” of “dying in a flash”. The jumper puts an end to his life by throwing himself off the roof of a high-rise building and “flying down onto the street”. The dead often lie around on the streets of the city; especially during hard winters. City legislation follows the emergency. The dead are not allowed to be buried because the corpses are used as fuel for the city's energy supply. Another “energy source” is the faeces for methane production. Fecal collection is one of the main occupations of the ordinary citizen. There are also looters and material hunters among the townspeople. Anna prowls the streets as a hunter looking for all sorts of cannibalized materials. This is dangerous. The young girl could be robbed or even raped. Anna came to town from outside. At home she had been privileged to live "full of bourgeois splendor" and carefree. Well, in search of her missing older brother, the reporter William Blume, the homeless gropes in the dark. Williams boss had sent the able reporter Samuel Farr - called Sam - to look for the missing person. But Sam also has disappeared without a trace.

When a bunch of runners trampled the old material hunter Isabel to death on one of his death runs, Anna bravely throws herself into the crowd and saves the old woman's life. Isabel accepts Anna in her living room as thanks. Isabel lives with her husband Ferdinand. The couple had several children. Anna survives most of the severe winter in her new home. Every now and then the girl masturbates at night. Thereupon old Ferdinand, apparently pricked up, wants to have sex with Anna at night. The strong girl chokes the old man. The following morning the rejected man lies dead in his corner. Isabel and Anna drag the body onto the roof and fake a last jump. Isabel's health is going downhill. The old woman dies a painful death. At first she can no longer speak. Anna buys an expensive, large blue notebook. Finally, written communication no longer works either. Finally the patient's throat fails. The old woman can no longer swallow and suffocates on her own saliva. Predatory neighbors chase Anna out of the living room straight after her death into late winter.

On the run from the police, Anna escapes to the national library. In this refuge, religious groups and scientists reside behind thick walls. Anna reaches the Jewish community on her flight and the rabbi helps Anna find Sam. The journalist also lives in the building of the National Library and writes an extensive report about the incredible things going on in the city. Anna stays with the bachelor. The two begin a love affair and Anna eventually becomes pregnant. When the young woman wants to visit her patron, the rabbi, the ethnographer Henri Dujardin sits in his place. Dujardin has no time for the visitor. He examines the bones of anonymous corpses. The Jews were "removed" from the National Library. Curious: Anna helps Sam write his book and at the same time - in the fight against winter - systematically burns valuable holdings from the national library. Herodotus and Cyrano de Bergerac wander through the stove hole and go up in flames. Sam, the father-to-be, is very concerned about Anna's health. But the journalist Sam cannot get her a pair of waterproof shoes. But it seems that the "pedantic sneak" Dujardin can do that. Using the pretext of procuring new shoes, the ethnographer lures the young woman into a “human slaughterhouse”. Anna flees headlong from the slaughter. On this escape she lost consciousness after falling into a window. When Anna wakes up, she has lost her unborn child and is in Woburn House, another refuge in the middle of the dying city.

After her recovery Anna is employed by Victoria Woburn at Woburn House. In the vestibule of the Woburn House, young Anna conducts “job interviews” with potential patients who are crowding in from the street. Mr. Otto Frick, the good spirit of the house, keeps pushing applicants for a hospital bed at bay with a gun. Woburn House, this nonprofit hospital, is funded from the sale of its inventory. Victoria, the world-reforming manager of the house, cannot stop the "decline of things" and is heading for her own business ruin with the sales through the agent Boris Stepanovich. Victoria and the melancholy Anna discover something in common. Both have lost husband and children. Women find consolation in a lesbian relationship. When the meanwhile very shabby Sam asks for admission to the Woburn House after a year in an interview, the lovers Anna and Sam reunite. Victoria shows human greatness by picking up Sam and allowing them both space. After he recovers, Victoria has a good idea. Since her father has died, the hospital is without a doctor. Victoria devises a “masquerade”. Sam becomes the new doctor Dr. Farr dressed up. The journalist takes pleasure in the new “profession”. He learns about the most secret thoughts of his unsuspecting "patients".

The decline of the Woburn House is unstoppable. Then Mr. Frick dies too. Victoria starts the strictly forbidden burial of the dead in the garden of the Woburn House. Against all odds, Victoria continues to run Woburn House. Anna now has a new guard during the interviews. Mr. Frick's grandson Willie stands by her side with his rifle at the ready. Victoria is reported for the burial, but otherwise gets away with impunity after paying a sum of money. The corpse of Mr. Frick is exhumed and transported away for "recovery" (see above). Willie can't get over this and uses a machine gun to bloodbath the inmates of the Woburn House. The gunman is shot by Sam. Victoria is forced to close the Woburn House, and she hibernates in the house with Anna, Sam and Boris. The wooden inventory of the Woburn House falls victim to the winter cold. The four residents prepare to flee the city by automobile for the approaching spring. However, Anna could not find her brother William.

Quotes

Whatever you choose to do, you will regret it for the rest of your life .

Every time you think you know the answer to a question, you find that the question doesn't make sense.

shape

style

This long letter, i.e. the content of the present novel, is only written in the large blue notebook (see above) after the Woburn House has been closed to the public. The title of the novel indicates the ubiquitous end-time mood in the text. The reader with strong nerves is asked for the rather unsavory reading. For example, the reader must quell his disgust when Ferdinand's mouse hunt is described. The disgusting old man catches the rodents alive, roasts and eats them, spits out the knuckles and uses the bones as building material for his miniature ships.

Coincidences
  • Anna happens to get accommodation from Isabel.
  • A member of the Jewish community happened to know Samuel Farr and referred Anna to him in the national library.
  • By chance, Anna is picked up by Victoria's employees after her fall from a window.
  • Sam happens to show up in front of Anna's desk at Woburn House for an "interview", thus stimulating the action.
tenor

In spite of all horror, there is clearly a predominance of sentiment in the novel. This means the indestructibility of the protagonist Anna: Although the painting is not pink, everything turns out well for Anna. In the end Anna is still trapped in the big city, but the reader can hope that the well-organized motorized escape will succeed. It is true that Anna emerges from all temptations damaged, but purified. So at the end, having become wise through experience, she can give the addressee of her very long letter good advice: For God's sake stay outside! Never let yourself be lured into the big city!

reception

  • Paul Auster plays "with science fiction set pieces".
  • "Paul Auster has ... added a dimension to the world".
  • Wolfgang Pollanz : “The New York-based author Paul Auster has set the story of In The Country Of Last Things in a near future, but with his book he wants to tell us a lot more about today's conditions by showing some in urban centers in America and Consistently further thinks Europe's already existing developments, even if one cannot or does not want to imagine today 'that the decline of things would take on such an extent', as it says at one point. ”-“ But Auster's book also talks about the Power of love in the midst of destruction and from the last remnants of humanity. "

filming

Alejandro Chomski began filming the novel in 2008, but nothing is known about the current status of this project. Paul Auster wrote the script himself, with Eva Green playing the leading role.

literature

source

  • Paul Auster: In the land of the last things. Novel . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989 (12th edition October 2005, 199 pages), ISBN 3-499-13043-2

expenditure

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Source p. 122, 6th line vu
  2. Source p. 135, 15th line vu
  3. Source p. 147, 1st line from
  4. Source p. 63
  5. From: Süddeutsche Zeitung , quoted on the back cover of the source
  6. From: The Boston Globe , quoted in the source p. 2
  7. See Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): The Science Fiction Year 1991 , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag Munich, ISBN 3-453-04471-1 , pp. 644, 646.
  8. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3350042/
  9. film.the-fan
  10. https://movieweb.com/eva-green-is-in-the-country-of-last-things/