Who killed my father?
Who killed my father (French original title: Qui a tué mon père ) is an autobiographical essay by the French writer Édouard Louis . Central is the relationship between the author and his father, which develops from an initial mutual, silent contempt to a mutual understanding and a love that was admitted late. The work culminates in a sharp indictment of individual politicians and the political class in general, whose decisions, in the author's opinion, can mean a matter of life or death for the weakest in society. The essay builds on his novel The End of Eddy .
content
The essay tells in non-chronological episodes from the childhood and youth of the author, which were dominated by poor conditions and domestic violence . The author describes a by the machismo given the father's family lives in a village of Picardy . The relatives fluctuate between adapting to the meager living conditions and a paradoxical self-assertion that finds dignity and self-efficacy in outward appearances and thus ultimately in adaptation. The situations described from life in the lower class are characterized by helplessness, humiliation, shame and alcohol. Although it always seems possible to break out of this vicious circle, especially the father does not succeed. The author, the homosexual son, reports in many episodes how he and the macho and racist father finally get closer through insight into the other's way of life.
The father, who was at the mercy of the change in French social benefits after a serious accident at work, leads the author to equate the number of politicians responsible for the cuts with criminals: " Emmanuel Macron steals your food straight from your plate." Just like the title anticipating the death of your father shows, the disparate declaration of love to the father turns into a political campaign against conservatism , neoliberalism and a neoliberal socialist party.
Towards the end of the book, Louis moves the named heads of government and other, named, responsible ministers close to murderers "who escape shame thanks to anonymity or oblivion" and who he therefore wants to wrest from the anonymity of the system, which has repeatedly been claimed to be mystifying: "I would like to write their names in history, that is my revenge." The book closes with the words put in my father's mouth: "I believe what it takes is a proper revolution."
reception
“The new book is about the ruling class in his home country and the implications of politics for families. On the one hand it is a belated declaration of love to the father, on the other hand it is a declaration of war on a detached politics. Literature doesn't have to be anything. But the way Louis uses it as a weapon, one would like to wish it an effect: a rethink, more attention. "
“The son instrumentalizes the father's story in order to let his anger run free against the 'rulers'. He ... repeats episodes that we already know from his debut. ... a disturbing book. Because it's about social advancement and social permeability. About missed opportunities and entanglement in fatal thought patterns. "
“In the middle of the yellow vest fight , the successful young French author Édouard Louis presents a new book about himself and his family. It has become a vulgar sociological pamphlet. "
The largest Parisian tabloid Le Parisien rates the book as angry and moving (“rageur et poignant”). The French news magazine L'Express describes the book as being immediately touching ; regrets, however, that the 85-page work is thin to scanty (“maigre, voire étriqué”).
- Martin Hirsch: Comment j'ai tué son père: roman , Paris: Stock, 2019, ISBN 978-2-234-08651-7
Remarks
- ↑ Contrary to what the title suggests, the father's health is seriously affected, but not dead.
- ↑ The French version has 85 pages, the German 77.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Édouard Louis: Who killed my father. Translated from the French by Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel . S. Fischer, 2019, ISBN 978-3-10-397428-7 .
- ↑ Édouard Louis: Who killed my father . S. 15, 17, 29 f .
- ↑ Édouard Louis: Who killed my father . S. 17, 23, 30 f., 37 ff., 73 f .
- ↑ Édouard Louis: Who killed my father . S. 21, 26 f., 29 f., 36, 41, 64, 68, 76 .
- ↑ Édouard Louis: Who killed my father . S. 75 .
- ↑ Édouard Louis: Who killed my father . S. 74 .
- ↑ "And we protest against such a fate, although we do not know of anyone who could be blamed for it, or of any method by which such disappointments could be prevented." Friedrich August von Hayek , The Illusion of Social Justice. A new presentation of the liberal principles of justice and political economy, Verlag Moderne Industrie, Landsberg 1981, p. 95 f.
- ↑ Édouard Louis: Who killed my father . S. 74 .
- ↑ Édouard Louis: Who killed my father . S. 77 .
- ↑ Cornelia Geissler: Macron steals the food from the plate. In: Berliner Zeitung . January 27, 2019, Retrieved February 9, 2019 (review).
- ↑ Franziska Wolffheim: The factory eats its people. In: Spiegel Online . January 23, 2019, accessed February 9, 2019 (review).
- ↑ Iris Radisch : Macron steals my father. In: zeit.de . January 23, 2019, accessed February 9, 2019 (review).
- ^ Pierre Vavasseur: "Qui a tué mon père": le livre rageur et poignant d'Edouard Louis. In: leparisien.fr . May 4, 2018, accessed February 9, 2019 (French).
- ↑ Éric Libiot: Edouard Louis retrace une histoire d'hommes. In: lexpress.fr . June 15, 2018, accessed February 9, 2019 (French).