Love escapes

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Liebesfluchten is a collection of stories by the German writer Bernhard Schlink , published in 2000 under the title Liebesfluchten. Stories was published by Diogenes Verlag in Zurich . Episodes from the lives of male educated citizens of different ages are told. All have present or past relationship problems to solve, which in no case succeeds in a satisfactory manner.

content

overview

A young man becomes emotionally paralyzed by his father's past crimes. A West German is instrumentalized by a GDR couple to save their relationship. After the death of his wife, a pensioner discovers her marital infidelity. An architect cannot choose any of the women with whom he has relationships at the same time. A German student feels branded a Krypto-Nazi by his Jewish US girlfriend . A ceasefire observer reproduces the disconnectedness to his son in death. An aging man does not know how to follow his dream when it threatens to become real.

stories

The girl with the lizard

The subject of a painting enchants a man from childhood more than any real relationship with the opposite sex. He always gives priority to the image, which ultimately makes later friends jealous. He finds out that it comes from Jewish conditions, which the father in the 3rd Reich probably exploited sexually because of the depicted attraction.

The author used the painting The Girl with the Lizard (1884) by Ernst Stückelberg as a template . In the narrative, however, it is attributed to a fictional painter named René Dalmann.

The affair

A Berlin social judge was suddenly seduced for him by the wife of an East German friend after she learned that her husband had given information about her to the state security in order to save the family. With the affair, she compensates for this betrayal, which otherwise would have endangered the continued existence of her family. The story is told from the perspective of the social judge.

The other

After the death of his wife, a senior official discovers that she was once in love with a bankrupt. In order to better spy on him, the officer even lends him financial support at the beginning. The wise man uses the money to hold a reception for the woman, and when he learns that she has died, a farewell dinner, in the course of which a series of failed existences do her great honor.

Sweet peas

Success in professional and private life comes to a 68er, but he cannot commit himself to anything. Even the wandering existence of an ascetic, which he suggests, creates no ground for him to be. After an accident, he returns to the middle of the three women in his life as a wheelchair case, who in the meantime, in order to get through, have unitedly made decisions for him, which at least seem to give him cause for some commitment - namely against it.

The circumcision

A German guest student in America suffers from his Jewish girlfriend's image of Germany, all the more since he agrees with her on a number of points. For her sake he finally lets himself be circumcised. But she does not even notice it or is not ready to appreciate what he leaves her.

The son

Instead of sending a peacekeeping force to the war-ravaged country, you only send a few observers as peace apostles. Probably the professor of international law is one of those who formulate such lazy compromises. He had worked for various international organizations, sat on committees, drafted reports and drafted agreements. At the end of his life he feels like a charlatan who does not face reality. He also feels guilty towards his son for not fighting for him. It's too late now. His "I love you, my boy" is just embarrassing for both of them. Because of this guilty feeling, he declares himself ready for the risky mission. But in doing so, he himself becomes the victim of a lazy compromise.

The woman at the gas station

The content of a dream that a man, now over 50 years old, has had over and over again since his youth: she goes up with him and they love each other. For the Silver Wedding, the man goes on a trip to America with his wife, whom he has grown tired of, during which they get closer again. Then he experiences something at a gas station that corresponds to the beginning of his dream, but does not have the courage to follow it through to the end. Angry about his own indecision, he spontaneously leaves his wife afterwards.

reception

Escape from love became a bestseller after its publication . On the bestseller list of the mirror for the year 2000 the book was placed in category Fiction Rank 5. The narrative The other was in 2008 under the same title in a slightly different form with Liam Neeson , Antonio Banderas and Laura Linney filmed. It was directed by Briton Richard Eyre .

In his review in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Andreas Nentwich came to an ambivalent conclusion about the book. When it comes to “the pros and cons in conflicts”, he sees Schlink's strengths, while he criticizes the “dregs of clichés” that he makes up in all the stories in the book. Kathrin Schmidt rated the weekly newspaper of the Freitag Schlinks collection of stories as “solid craftsmanship from the drawing board” and considers the texts to be “rather 'good' to read, too good and too simple for all the weight with which they want to feed themselves without really to be able to move from the spot ”.

expenditure

  • Love escapes. Stories. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-257-06230-3 .
  • Love escapes. Stories. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-257-23299-3 . (Diogenes paperback ; 23299)
  • Love escapes. Stories. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-257-05709-1 . ( Diogenes Library )
  • Love escapes. Stories. 1st edition. A. Springer, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-941711-20-4 . ( World Edition - 25 authors from 60 years ; 20; licensed edition by Diogenes Verlag)

Audio book

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Mein: Tales of the Present: from Judith Hermann to Bernhard Schlink. Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-486-00104-3 , p. 153, footnote 45.
  2. ↑ Annual bestseller 2000 . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 2000, pp. 206 ( online ).
  3. ↑ imdb entry
  4. ↑ See review note on Neue Zürcher Zeitung , March 27, 2000 at Perlentaucher . (Accessed January 3, 2011.)
  5. ↑ Kathrin Schmidt: Solid craftsmanship from the drawing board. To be released early . In: the Friday of March 24th, 2000. (Accessed on January 3rd, 2011.)