Dream about rivers and seas

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dreams of Rivers and Seas is Tim Park's fourteenth novel, the original English version of which was published as Dreams of Rivers and Seas in 2008 and a German translation in 2009. Recurring themes in Park's novels are fragile relationships between people. Dreams of Rivers and Seas is his first novel set outside of Europe in India. The story revolves around the anthropologist Albert James, who died of cancer and who distrusts any systematization and categorization. The character is modeled on Gregory Bateson and deals with cybernetic models that are used to predict how different cultures absorb and transform the influences of Western ideas.

content

John, who is working on biochemistry research projects in England, learns of his father's death and takes the first flight to New Delhi. There he meets his distant mother Helen, a poor doctor who works on a voluntary basis. The journalist Paul Roberts who traveled from America wants to write a biography of the unorthodox scientist with interviews with the widow. The process of writing becomes a meta-experience through which the fragile biography gradually opens up to the reader. John returns to London and receives a letter from his father that was sent shortly before his death. In it he writes about three recurring dreams of rivers and seas. He reflects on life itself and looks back on the family of scientists from which he came. The letter breaks off in the middle of the sentence with "a figure I urgently need". Albert's communication was often coded, which is what made it so charming. Due to the crumbling relationship with his girlfriend Elaine and the interest to learn more about the death of his father, the half-orphan returns to Delhi and begins to deal with the circumstances of the death and the relationship of his parents. His mother Helen had an affair with a younger boy, but she still loves her husband. Albert didn't want to end the relationship because he didn't have much longer to live. Therefore, the rapid death was a suicide in which his wife assisted him with an injection. At the end of the book, Helen hugs a terminally ill boy, helps him to die with dignity and takes her own life by his side. John is again left with no answers and begins to write a biography of his father himself.

analysis

The novel is written in clear, unadorned, distant language from the perspective of the son, who perceives his father as a failed scientist, the mother who adores her husband, and the biographer. A contradicting image of Albert James is reconstructed from the three perspectives. There are three main themes in the novel. It's about the reconstruction of the main character through reflections and flashbacks and the clarification of his sudden death. The focus is on the morbid relationship between father and son and problems in marriage. The most abstract narrative level is not the story about a social anthropologist and his environment, but about social anthropology itself. The author Tim Parks encourages his reader to adopt a researcher's perspective on the novel. Like Albert James, the recipient looks behind the scenes of social coexistence and becomes entangled in the protagonists' relationship patterns . The communication network is also the subject that the late anthropologist dealt intensively with. The book follows a long tradition of English novels set in India.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Wandering Pain. In: The time. January 20, 2011, No. 04.
  2. ↑ Tim Parks: Dreams of Rivers and Seas . 2009, p. 36.
  3. ↑ Dreams Of Rivers And Seas, by Tim Parks: Patterns in the labyrinth of India, family and love. In: The Independent. August 22, 2008.
  4. ↑ Tim Park's new novel is extremely complex. on: berlinerliteraturkritik.de , September 28, 2009.
  5. ^ Double trouble in Delhi. In: The Guardian. August 9, 2008.

Web links