World's End (1987)
World's End is a novel by TC Boyle that appeared in the USA in 1987 and was published in German translation in 1989.
content
Walter Van Brunt hits a plaque for Cadwallader Crane and Jeremy Mohonk on his motorcycle, causing his foot to be amputated. Now the story is rolled out, with the author jumping back and forth chapter by chapter between the 17th century, 1949 and 1968. The individual chapters are told conventionally.
17th century : The Van Brunts immigrated from Holland in 1663 and have a farm in New Holland / North America which the Van Warts own and for which they have to pay rent. There they are also kept like serfs. In a wave of misfortune, the eldest son Jeremias has a foot amputated, the father dies, then the mother and the youngest son Wouter, and Katrinchee runs away with the Indian Mohonk.
Jeremias is taken in by the tenants of the neighboring farm Van Meulen. When Katrinchee returns with her son Jeremy, the two of them are again working their old farm. Katrinchee feels guilty for the misfortune of the family, becomes half insane and seeks death. Jeremias marries the daughter of the schouts (Schultheiss) Neeltje and has six children with her. When the tenants are supposed to build a road for Van Wart, Jeremias rebels, but then crawls when the lease is to be withdrawn from him. For his eldest son Wouter this is treason.
Years later - Jeremias is long dead and Wouter is running the farm - the Van Brunts and Cadwallader Crane's lease is terminated and Jeremy Mohonk and his family are supposed to leave the area as well. The three rebel, but Wouter betrays: in order to save his own life, he blames all the other two.
1929: Jeremy Mohonk, the last of the Kitchawanken tribe, descendant of Katrinchee and the Indian Mohonk, occupies the land on which the Van Brunts farm once stood, he has a right to it, it is Indian land. He is sentenced to prison. Due to financial difficulties, Rombout Van Wart has to sell the land to Pelethiah Crane, principal of the Van Wartville school.
1949: A concert is scheduled to take place on Peletiah Crane's Land. The left organizers and guests are beaten up by right-wing, racist thugs. It could come about because Walter's father Truman Van Brunt worked as a spy and betrayed his left-wing friends. Then Truman disappears.
1968: Although Truman Van Brunt's son Walter was raised by his father's left wing friends, he is a friend of Depeyester Van Wart. He, in turn, has a hippie daughter, Mardi, who is very relaxed about morals and class barriers. His wife Joanna takes care of Indians and eventually has a son from Jeremy Mohonk, whom she attributes to her husband as his son and who is now heir to the Van Warts.
Walter finds his father in the northernmost city of Alaska, where he atones for his betrayal. Walter now betrays his friend Tom Crane by untying his ship in port after seeing Tom with his wife Jessica, who was betrayed and abandoned by Walter. Shortly afterwards, Walter freezes to death in the snow (like Katrinchee Van Brunt once did). In order to pay for the repair of the ship, Tom Crane now has to sell the land back to the Van Warts, the land on which Van Brunts farm stood and where the concert took place.
The traitors line is now extinct, as is the Van Warts male line. They are replaced by the descendants of the Indian Jeremy Mohonk and Katrinchee Van Brunt.
criticism
The Guardian considered the novel in a 2012 review as one of the "Overlooked classics of American literature" . The characters and storylines would be "masterfully" put together in the book by Boyle (" he brings them all together masterfully ").
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Overlooked classics of American literature: World's End by TC Boyle . In: The Guardian, January 20, 2012. Retrieved October 1, 2013.