In plush thunderstorms
In Plüschgewittern is the debut novel by Wolfgang Herrndorf . It was published in 2002 by Verlag Zweiausendeins . The author has revised the novel for a new edition by Rowohlt Verlag . The title is an allusion to Ernst Jünger's book In Stahlgewittern and goes back to an idea by his friend Holm Friebe .
action
The 30-year-old narrator and protagonist has just separated from his girlfriend Erika and is moving away from Munich, where he studied with Erika. He first drives to his brother, who lives with his wife Marit in his parents' house near Hamburg. The first-person narrator sleeps in his old nursery and drives on to Süderbrarup the next day to visit his grandmother, who is suffering from cancer, one last time.
The next day he travels to Berlin and visits his old student friend Desmond. For the next few days he lives in the apartment across the street, which Desmond's friend Anthony gives him. In a pub that Desmond takes him to, he meets Ines Neisecke - the two get closer, he also falls in love for a short time, but the nature of their relationship remains unclear. He plans to look for an apartment and a job in Berlin, but pursues these plans only half-heartedly and leaves the city after a few days.
Individual perceptions trigger memories of episodes from the past, for example the experiences with his childhood friend Malte, his first girlfriend Anja or with Desmond in a Munich student residence.
The last chapter is told from the perspective of the brother who is sitting at the desk and writing a report or a character description of the protagonist. From this we learn that the grandmother died two days after the protagonist's visit, but that no one could notify him. He then turned up unexpectedly after a few days at his brother's and wanted to continue to Frankfurt, since, as he believed, Erika was moving there. However, she never got there, but had an accident with the moving van. The protagonist experiences this and despairs of his failed life.
Characterization of the protagonist
The protagonist describes his environment and his fellow human beings in a distant, low-emotion way. In his dismissive comments, a fundamental skepticism, even contempt for the world, but also for his own life, can be seen. The episodes from the past are portrayed with greater emotional warmth. However, the protagonist has to recognize that he cannot, or only in individual moments, can return to the feeling of that time. His presence, on the other hand, is characterized by nervousness, indecision and constant confusion - also due to alcohol. He usually behaves disrespectfully and egotistically towards his fellow human beings.
In the final chapter it is indicated - for example by the way in which the brother writes about him - that the protagonist has died; his psychological condition suggests suicide. An indication of this is that Marit mentions at the very end that she wants to name her first child, with whom she is already pregnant, after the protagonist.
credentials
The novel uses numerous allusions to the literary and cultural scene. Mention is made of Rainald Goetz's bloodied appearance at the Bachmann Competition in Klagenfurt in 1983. A character from a novel bears the name of the writer Joachim Lottmann . One character tells the first-person narrator about a certain Basenbrock who runs an "ironic furniture business". The name Basenbrock, under which the first-person narrator later introduces himself, alludes to the art theorist Bazon Brock . The furniture business alludes to the ventures of the concept and action artist Rafael Horzon , who founded the Moebel Horzon store in 1999 on Berlin's Torstrasse . The artist's café, Kaffee Burger, on the same street is also mentioned.
Reviews
“The Berlin novel, which the publisher is fashionably advertising, is in reality a steel storm of loneliness that this desperate romantic exposes himself to because there are none of his own kind. Of course, his brothers in spirit all date from the twentieth century and go by names like Holden Caulfield or Travis Bickle. "But for whatever reason, explanations make me unhappy" - the desire for wordless consent is plausibly motivated by disgust, above all chatter, and yet remains unfulfilled. "
"Hard to believe, and yet, with all the sadness and confusion that surrounds our man" around thirty ", Herrndorf's novel has a lively, cheerful lightness in many places."
literature
- Wolfgang Herrndorf: In plush thunderstorms . Reinbek: Rowohlt 2008 (new edition 2012, 11th edition 2015).
- Claas Morgenroth: Wolfgang Herrndorf: In plush thunderstorms . In: Annina Klappert (Ed.): Wolfgang Herrndorf, VDG, Weimar 2015, pp. 35–48.
- Johannes Franzen: late pop. Wolfgang Herrndorfs In Plüschgewittern and Christian Krachts Fiberland. A comparison as a contribution to the genre definition of the pop novel . In: Matthias N. Lorenz and Christine Riniker (eds.): Christian Kracht revisited - irritation and reception, Frank & Timme , Berlin 2018, pp. 229–262.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Finding a title | Holm Friebe. Accessed October 7, 2019 (German).
- ^ Review in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , November 5, 2002
- ↑ Review in Der Tagesspiegel March 14, 2008
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