Do any of us really keep more than one basket these days?
Tag: Humour Page 3 of 4
Much as I enjoyed another Tommy Jaud book (Resturlaub: Das Zweitbuch), I found Vollidiot somewhat unrounded and altogether disappointing after finishing it. The story revolves around Simon Peters, a late-20s youngster in Cologne, who is fed up with his job, his friends, his being single–his life in general–and how he goes about trying to set things to rights. Essentially, of course, everything he tries to achieve goes wrong, and every action he takes has a punchline waiting around the corner.
There isn’t much by way of a story here – most of the action is punctuated by nights in the pub, and the best intentions trying to get a date, but Jaud has an eye for making even the most mundane humourous. Our antihero Simon’s cleaner, a Croatian by the name of Lala, adds a lot to the mix with her antics, setting him up on a blind date, accompanying him to a gig whilst he is on another date, as well as breaking things around the flat and apologising in her heavily accented German. Jaud could probably have enough material for another book just based on her day-to-day life.
Nevertheless, there simply isn’t enough here to tie the book together. Little happens of any consequence, and the humour factor ranges from sometimes inciteful, biting sarcasm, to simple cringe-inducing moments of mania on the part of the main character(s). It starts off strong, with some great descriptions of Ikea’s policy towards single people, or the gym Simon joins to get fit (which turns out to be a haven for homosexuals), but towards the end of the book I found there were fewer and fewer laughs to be had, and the ending is rather abrupt and feels somewhat rushed.
Still, like the previous reviewer, I can certainly recommend reading something like this to people interested in learning German. This is by no means a prize-winning piece of literature, but the language is very contemporary, and should be relatively easy to follow for learners. It would probably appeal to most men in the same age-range (particularly anyone who’s experienced that feeling of being fed up with everything), and no doubt to the many women who find themselves in a relationship with one of these Vollidioten!
Dieser Eintrag ist auch auf Deutsch verfügbar.
Ever wondered what it would be like to give in to your mid-life crisis, stick two fingers up to the world and start a fresh life? Well, Peter “Pitschi” Greulich does just that: shortly before he and his girlfriend and their other coupled friends are to depart for the umpteenth time for a holiday on Mallorca, he has a rash change of heart and perfidiously jets off instead to Buenos Aires armed with little more than the clothes on his back and his broken words of holiday Spanish.
There are plenty of laughs to be had in his ensuing adventures in the southern hemisphere, as Pitschi discovers that starting life afresh isn’t as easy as he’d imagined. Whilst the book is certainly more likely to appeal to men, as our anti-hero offs in pursuit of every man’s dream of unfettered freedom, chasing tail and drinking beer, no doubt women will also appreciate the way Jaud deals with man’s neuroses and lampoons his childishness. All of which is to say nothing of the nicely weaved events of this tragicomedy which build to a fine crescendo as Pitschi has to decide between his new world and the life he left behind. Despite its brevity, there are plenty of laughs to be had in this book’s 250 pages.
Just a word to non-German readers, this is a relatively easy book for an advanced German learner to read, aside from the fact that Tommy Jaud has many of his characters ‘speak’ Fränkisch. Anyone used to the idiosyncrasies of south German dialects shouldn’t have any problems, but learners unused to seeing anything beyond ‘High German’ might be made a little ‘stutzig’ by some of the conversations.
This post is also available in English.
Wundert man sich, wie das Leben wäre, wenn man sich seiner Midlifecrisis ergeben, der Welt den Stinkefinger zeigen und ein neues Leben anfangen würde? Genau das macht Peter „Pitschi“ Greulich: Kurz bevor er mit seiner Freundin und deren gepaarten Freunden in den üblichen Urlaub nach Mallorca fliegt, bekommt er plötzlich kalte Füße und in einem Sinneswandel düst stattdessen nach Buenos Aires davon, ausgestattet mit wenig mehr als seiner Kleidung und ein paar Brocken Urlaubsspanisch.
In seinen darauf folgenden Abenteuern auf der südlichen Erdhalbkugel sorgt Pitschi für viel Schmunzeln, als ihm langsam klar wird, dass ein neues Leben anzufangen doch gar nicht so einfach ist, wie er erwartet hätte. Auch wenn das Buch eher Männer anspricht, da unser Protagonist sein vorheriges Leben aufgibt und verschwindet, in der Hoffnung, eine entfesselte Freiheit zu entdecken, in der er sich der Schürzenjagd und dem Biertrinken zugleich widmen kann, werden auch Frauen die Art wertschätzen, wie Jaud die Zwangsneurosen eines jeden Mannes beschreibt, sowie sein kindisches Wesen persifliert. Ganz von der schönen Art zu schweigen, in der er die Ereignisse dieser Tragikomödie ineinander verwoben hat, die in einem Höhepunkt gipfeln, als Pitschi zwischen seiner neuen Welt und dem alten hinter ihm verlassenen Leben entscheiden muss. Trotz der Kürze bergen diese 250 Seiten jede Menge spaßige Momente.
Dieser Eintrag ist auch auf Deutsch verfügbar.
Despite the advancing years I had up until receiving this book for Christmas never read any Wodehouse, though I had been read excerpts in my younger years. Of course, the problem with Wodehouse is that being such a prolific author, it’s difficult to know where to start. And since most Wodehouse readers have their favourites, asking for advice on what to read is a bit like asking which football team you should support.
All of which is precisely why this compendium fits the bill nicely. There’s a little bit of everything here to give the newcomer a real taste of Wodehouse’s world, with stories from Jeeves, Blandings, Ukridge, Mr Mulliner, The Drones, Psmith and Uncle Fred. There’s also a section of golfing stories, and at the back, as a sort of appendix, a collection of letters and sundry other writings. As for the prose itself, well if you really need more convincing, you could always start by perusing the introduction by Stephen Fry.
The only other review of this book to date criticised the quality of the book, and to some extent I must agree. Whilst I found nothing lacking in the book’s manufacture, there were a surprising number of typographical errors to be seen, albeit only small niggly things. Nevertheless, for the price this volume is an absolute steal, a definite must for anyone looking for a glimpse into Wodehouse.
(And having read the lot, I can now say that my jersey is emblazoned with the Blandings crest.)