Self-portrait with a hippo

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Self-portrait with a hippopotamus is a novel by Arno Geiger . It was published by Carl Hanser Verlag in 2015 . The coming-of-age story told in this book has received mixed responses from critics.

content

The Holden Caulfield of the 21st century is called Julian by Arno Geiger, comes from a rural family with many children, studies veterinary medicine in Vienna and is 22 years old in the summer of 2004, in which the story takes place. At this point he has just separated from his girlfriend Judith, with whom he had been living for over a year. We do not find out exactly why this separation occurred. Perhaps Judith was more straightforward and determined from the start than the late adolescent Julian, who is still waiting for the big city to unfold and transform him, or perhaps her development has simply progressed faster. Her favorite word seems to be “as clear as day”, which does not agree with Julian's worldview, who only has the vague idea that if necessary he can plant potatoes in a developing country.

The great freedom that Julian expected from the separation is in any case rather disappointing: uprooted and disoriented, the young man now lives in a shared apartment with the chaotic psychology student Nicki. The contact with his friend Tibor is only loose and leads to friction again and again, meetings with former schoolmates are disillusioning. Julian seems to feel most at home in the company of his sister Elli, who is apparently also studying in Vienna, but whom he rarely sees. A stay with his family in the country - there are two other siblings - which apparently temporarily relieves him of his search for the right role in life, has a relaxing effect. But in everyday life in Vienna, Julian feels unhappy and unhappy. In addition, there are money worries, because after Judith's father learned that Julian had lived in Judith's apartment for a long time, he asked for a share of the rental costs.

Resting pygmy hippopotamus

So comes Tibor's offer to take over his summer job, Julian just right: Tibor's task was far, one seized on an illegal transport pygmy hippo to care, the professor has taken Beham on his property on the outskirts of Vienna, until it in a zoo can be conveyed . Beham itself cannot take care of the animal because it suffers from a spinal cord tumor that will cost its life in the foreseeable future. Tibor has so far also supplied the professor with cannabis , which Julian does not continue; Beham only regularly fetches bottles of wine from the cellar. Still, the source for Beham's joints does not seem to have run dry.

On his first visit to the Behams house, Julian meets his daughter Aiko. This normally no longer lives in Vienna; she is five years older than Julian and mostly works as a journalist abroad . As a matter of principle, she only speaks French with her father, which he allegedly does not understand, although Aiko's recently deceased mother is said to have been French. Capricious and domineering, Aiko begins a short-term relationship with Julian, but repeatedly tells him that there is no hope of a future together. Finally she reveals to him that she is pregnant and leaves the house shortly afterwards. Julian neither knows whether he is the father of the child, nor whether she will bear it. The pygmy hippopotamus, a certain consolation for the young man who feels shaken by life in its apparent equanimity, is picked up in autumn and transported to Basel , where it has found accommodation in the local zoo , and the professor releases Julian again into his uncertain state Fate.

Ten years later, as you can already see in a prelude to the actual novel, Judith and Julian meet again. Julian, who apparently followed Aiko to Paris at the time and spent two years there, is now working as a vet in Vienna and Judith brings a dying eagle owl that she found in front of the house into the practice and stays with it while the animal is euthanized . A dialogue that tries to start spinning is interrupted by another emergency, and Julian can only sadly state that he will probably never find out how Judith's life went and will continue to develop.

background

In an interview with Lothar Schröder, Geiger explained how he came up with the topic: A childhood friend who recently died of a brain tumor told him a lot before he died: “As a child he was fat, thoughtful and on top of things inconspicuous person at first sight. This triggered a narrative trait in me, which then led to the pygmy hippopotamus in my novel. Julian, the hero of my novel, feels reminded of the fat child in the pygmy hippopotamus and that slowness has a decided advocate with him. This is aimed at our society, in which dynamism is a value in itself and in which slowness is a sign of weakness. I see a strength of character in the deliberate and hesitant. What sets Julian apart is his permanent curiosity. ”What also interested and moved him was the insecurity in society that young people are exposed to:“ Everything that is imperfect is now under pressure. And so, even with young adults, the imperfect is more likely to be seen than the special. However, this was positively brought into the focus of young people in the time of Goethe , for example . In our society today everything is possible and nothing is certain ”. In today's society, many felt overwhelmed. The positive counter figure to this overwhelmed is the pygmy hippo. However, this should not be seen as a metaphor : “It is a pygmy hippopotamus and nothing more; it's practically a pygmy hippopotamus in its own right. But the main character is reflected in it and envies it. "

reception

Several reviewers nevertheless tried to get more out of the hippopotamus than Geiger supposedly intended, and were bothered by it. While Oliver Schmidt said that Geiger could just as easily have chosen a tiger or a teal as the animal protagonist, Sigrid Löffler stated on Deutschlandradio Kultur : "The cattle are not suitable as symbols". Julian is a banal and mediocre existence, which tends to torment the reader, and the attempt to ascribe a symbolic meaning to the pygmy hippopotamus has failed: "It remains what it is - a bland pachyderm."

Löffler's conclusion to the book is: “Arno Geiger is once again about the banality of contemporary life in our society. Bringing the misery of this banality to language in a non-banal way is Geiger's literary problem; he works on this triviality dilemma. How do you write about boring existences in a non-boring way? You can't say that he managed to do that in a convincing way in this book. "

A review on shz.de, for which the dpa is responsible, draws a similar balance without portraying the hippopotamus quite as negatively as Löffler: “The ups and downs of emotions, Julian's self-talk and his insane insecurity create the reader's patience the rehearsal and quickly gets on the nerves of the initially likable young inexperienced adult. The secret main character of the novel, the dwarf, the female pygmy hippo that Julian looks after all day long, brings relaxation. It doesn't want to please, trots along calmly and calmly and is easy to look after. "Nevertheless:" For adult readers [...] it is amusing, but often tiring to watch Julian grow up over 280 pages ", is the final sentence of this criticism . Oliver Schmidt described the novel succinctly in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung as a failure.

Rainer Metzger found friendlier words in artmagazine : He found the story "a little intrusive garnished by the events surrounding the school massacre in Beslan and the inevitable dismay about it" - about the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 , which is referred to at least as often as He doesn't say a word about the events in Beslan - but then went on: “That is the weakest part of this otherwise masterfully formulated piece of casual literature. “ Phenomenology ” 250 years ago Herder called such an aesthetic of the self-evident, of evidence and profanity . What would be more suitable as a guide through this world of revolving around one's own frugality than a hippopotamus: hippopotamus, phenomenal, nameless, devoted to himself and his digestion, the companion for the year who populates the swimming pool of a professor of veterinary medicine. But because he's in a wheelchair, you need a carer, a student, who can review the whole thing. The very own mirror stage of a 22-year-old gets an animal companion. ”Rainer Metzger suspected an autobiographical part in this story, which also allows the adult male reader to feel included - perhaps in contrast to the mostly female adolescents, who are the main readership of the coming -of-age narratives by authors such as Wolfgang Herrndorf or John Green .

Daniela Strigl, who saw Anfortas in Professor Beham and Parzival in Julian , also emphasized the positive aspects of the novel in the Standard without unreservedly praising it in its entirety: “Something captivatingly casual, consciously artless and unfinished characterizes Geiger's language and action. If you accept that, the text reveals its discreet beauties. How, for example, the relationship between Julian and Hagestolz develops en passant. Because there is a fine line between carelessness and negligence, however, one or the other sentence fails.

The NDR included a reading of the entire novel by Adam Nümm in its program.

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Lothar Schröder, Deceleration is good for you , February 12, 2015 at www.rp-online.de
  2. ↑ a b Oliver Schmidt, "Self-portrait with Hippo": Arno Geiger fails with a new novel , February 1, 2015 on www.noz.de
  3. ↑ a b Sigrid Löffler, The cattle are not suitable as a symbol , January 30, 2015 on www.deutschlandradiokultur.de
  4. ↑ a b dpa, novel as a test of patience: "Self-portrait with Hippo" , February 10, 2015 on www.shz.de ( Memento from February 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Rainer Metzger, self-portrait with a hippopotamus , February 11, 2015 on www.artmagazine.cc
  6. ↑ Daniela Strigl, Green is the fuel of being young , February 7, 2015 on derstandard.at
  7. ↑ Broadcast dates of the reading by Adam Nümm on www.ndr.de ( Memento from February 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive )