Simple (novel)
Simpel (French: Simple ) is a book for young people by the French author Marie-Aude Murail from 2004. The novel is about a mentally disabled young man who moves into a shared apartment with his brother . The book was filmed in 2017 by Markus Goller under the same title .
action
Barnabé Maluri, called “Simpel” (“simple” in French), is 22 years old, but mentally at the level of a three-year-old. His mother died; his younger brother Colbert (French: Kléber) (17) promised her before her death that he would take care of Simpel and takes him in after his father has found a new partner and has put Simpel in a home where he is inadequate has been looked after. Colbert moves with Simpel to Paris , where he attends the final class of an elite high school and then wants to study. After a short stay with an old aunt, they find two rooms in a shared apartment that already includes four students: beautiful Aria, her 25-year-old friend Emmanuel, her brother Corentin and his childhood friend, Enzo. Enzo is depressed and not very enterprising because he is in love with Aria and sees no chance of winning her over; Corentin is dissatisfied with Enzo's capricious nature, which he blames for the fact that he cannot find any contact with girls, and Aria takes no notice of Enzo's suffering until Simpel discovers a novel manuscript that Enzo has been writing on a foray into the apartment and in which he treats his love for Aria with little encryption. Simply put it in Aria's room, who reads the text and suddenly looks at Enzo with different eyes. In general, Simpel, his stuffed animal, Monsieur Hasehase and Colbert, and his friends Béatrice and Zahra break through the well-established structures in the house. Colbert and Simpel gain an older gentleman who lives under the shared flat and who has hitherto only complained about their immoral way of life - he wrongly assumes that all the young men have a relationship with Aria - and the constant clogging of the garbage chute they attend mass on Sundays. Monsieur Gottlieb, as he will soon be called, saves Monsieur Hasehase several times from getting lost, which would be a disaster for Simpel, and gradually becomes Enzo's confidante, whose fight for Aria he seeks to support with all sorts of advice. An employee of the youth welfare office, who tries to bring Monsieur Maluris Simpel back into the home at the instigation, causes great confusion among the parents Arias and Corentin after she has been misled by Simpel and mistaken him for Corentin. Zahra finally triumphs over her rival Béatrice and Enzo gets his chance at Aria. Of course, this happy ending only occurs after all sorts of complications. At times Simpel is difficult to bear for both his brother and the roommates; the experiment of having him looked after in the institution during the week does not succeed, and Monsieur Maluri's attempt to put him there again at all ends with Simpel, disguised as his fantasy figure Monsieur Mutchbinguen, fleeing the institution and wandering through Paris without orientation . When he is finally picked up by two prostitutes who call Colbert, his relief is infinite, and it is now clear to him and his roommates - with the exception of Aria's former boyfriend - that he will not leave Simpel at his side again.
reception
Reviews
"The novel by Frenchwoman Marie-Aude Murail about a young person with a disability is a confusingly comical homage to otherness and love."
“What a warm-hearted book that approaches a current topic so differently than most! [...] The reader can hardly stop laughing, even if it sometimes gets stuck in your throat or if you actually prefer to shed a quiet tear. In this inimitably lively cheerful way, which the reader appreciates, Marie-Aude Murail also deals with topics of our contemporary society and forces her readers to take note of these problems and to deal with them in a much more targeted manner. She neither argues nor deals with the topic in any abstract or theoretical way. In fact, it is not even formulated as a problem - the action speaks for itself. "
Awards
- 2006: Prix des lycéens allemands
- 2008: German Youth Literature Prize (youth jury)
expenditure
- Simple . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-18596-2 (French, French edition).
- Simple . 1st edition. Klett Sprachen, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-12-592250-X (French, French edition).
- Simple . 14th edition. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-80649-2 (German edition).
Individual evidence
- ^ Marie-Aude Murail, Simpel, Roman - press reviews. In: fischerverlage.de. Retrieved May 31, 2011 .
- ↑ a b Marie-Aude Murail. In: alliteratus.com . Retrieved May 12, 2011 .
- ↑ Excellent: “Simpel” by Marie-Aude Murail. In: buch-rezensions.com. February 21, 2009, accessed May 31, 2011 .