Lo and Lu

Lo und Lu is a work by the German writer and literature professor Hanns-Josef Ortheil with the subtitle "A father's novel".

The autobiographical novel was first published in 2001 by Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Munich, and then in 2003 as a paperback by btb.

content

Ortheil describes the everyday life of a freelance writer whose wife, known as "La Mamma", works for a Stuttgart publishing house. When the mother goes back to work after the baby break, the man takes over the childcare and upbringing, first of all for daughter "Lo", then also for the younger son "Lu". The novel depicts the father's joys and problems in a humorous and vivid way, as well as the developmental steps of the children up to school enrollment. For the father, his role becomes a passion that threatens to isolate him from friends and colleagues, but never a burden. The children become partly his subject of investigation, which enables him to question the standards of child psychology and pedagogy. Ortheil never gets lost in children's kitsch or in overly cute personality crush, but rather draws a fascinating study of family life around the year 2000, which refers from the individual to the social.

Ortheil repeatedly brings his own literary knowledge into play with the children. Whether he is quoting Rilke's poem "The Panther" in the zoo or reading from " Grimm's Fairy Tales " after lunch - literature for adults and children is put to the test and the point of view of Lo and Lu is decisive. So the two are never objectified, but it is they who open up a revision of his views for the father, whether on literature or other aspects of existence.

Reading sample

"The hour of fairy tales is at noon, shortly after dinner, because Lo and Lu don't want to sleep after dinner, of course, they want to stay up and experience something. They're a little tired, but they don't want to admit it, so they sit down sit on the big, wide sofa, drag the fairy tale books over to them and wait for me to read them. At this hour I wouldn't do anything better than rest, but it doesn't work. Lo and Lu find rest boring and something for old people , and since I don't want to be an old person, I pretend I didn't feel the midday tiredness in the least. (...) What do we start with today, I ask Lo and Lu. With a funny fairy tale, says Lo. And with which one, I ask. With that of Gretel, who eats everything up, Lo says and already starts to laugh a little. With the fairy tale of Gretel , who eats everything up, Lo means the fairy tale of the clever Gretel, to whom I am I have no memory of my childhood myself, of certain I now suspect that this fairy tale was withheld from me. It is a very strange and rare fairy tale in which you can lie, cheat and cheat boldly without being punished for it. In the blue ribbon with the " Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm " it is one of the very few immoral fairy tales, and I have asked myself several times why this fairy tale attracts Lo and Lu so much. (...) The fairy tale then goes on: The clever Gretel receives the order from her master to roast two chickens and goes straight to work. The two chickens are for the gentleman and a guest whom the gentleman has invited to dinner for the evening, but the chickens are not yet ready, nor are Gretel's chickens that she is brewing, plucking and sticking on the spit, man can very well imagine the care that Gretel puts into her work, yes you can now see her clearly, sweating a little, but still turning the tables in a good mood. The spot with the spit turning is another reason to laugh for Lo and Lu. Lu excites her so much that he is now imitating the turning movement, he turns the spit in a pantomime and rolls his eyes a little, indicating how much he and Gretel like this turning. When Lo or Lu participate in pantomime, a high point of fairy tale enjoyment is reached, because in pantomime Lo and Lu become characters of the fairy tale for a few moments. So I hesitate to read on, I let Gretel turn the tables, it is a moment of blissful standstill, and Lu's cheeks glow as red as if they were Gretel's cheeks. Most of the time, the pantomime has to do with small ecstasies, because when Gretel turns the spit, she of course not only turns the two chickens on the spot, but rather turns them slowly and enjoyably into her own stomach, which is briefly will open later to first devour one chicken and then the other. Lo and Lu love those fairy tales most, in which there are opportunities to laugh and therefore usually also to pantomime. "(Excerpt from" Lo and Lu "btb 2003, pp. 184–188)