{"id":3403,"date":"2016-10-11T21:46:53","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T19:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=3403"},"modified":"2020-05-30T23:55:49","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T21:55:49","slug":"schnell-dein-leben-sylvie-schenk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2016\/10\/schnell-dein-leben-sylvie-schenk\/","title":{"rendered":"Schnell, dein Leben \u2022 Sylvie Schenk"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

As a book blogger, it happens from time to time that an unexpected book arrives \u2014 and if it\u2019s one from Hanser Verlag, and not particularly thick, I\u2019m easily tempted to give it a read. Even if it\u2019s not exactly what I\u2019d usually go for. I like to look beyond my literary comfort zone, and I\u2019ve rarely regretted reading something entirely different. Schnell, dein Leben<\/em> is such a book, and I\u2019d like to share some of my impressions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The title Schnell, dein Leben<\/em> really says it all. This short novel of just 160 pages tells the life story of Louise, who grows up in a small mountain village in the French Alps, moves to Lyon to study, and eventually falls in love with a German man and follows him to his homeland. Schenk describes Louise\u2019s thoughts, experiences, feelings, and impressions with a clear and precise language \u2014 quick, sharp, and evocative \u2014 managing to portray an entire life in just a few pages. That, to me, is an impressive artistic feat: to be so focused and at the same time give emotional depth to a life story, composing it as a coherent and linear portrait. Normally, a novel with this kind of subject matter would probably span around 400 pages. Yet I never felt anything was missing or insufficiently explored.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This precise clarity in Schenk\u2019s language also creates vivid imagery \u2014 of the mountain village, her parents, the little bar, or her first physical experiences. Everything passes before the reader\u2019s inner eye like scenes from a film. The scenes change quickly, and the book consists of many short chapters. Compared to the intricate, verbose style of the Romantics or the Realists, this book sits on the opposite end of the spectrum \u2014 it reads easily and swiftly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In the end, the story revolves around the fate of a young woman of the post-war generation who, under the lingering shadow of World War II, as a Frenchwoman, takes a daring step by binding herself to a German man \u2014 the former enemy, whose people committed countless atrocities during the occupation. This is undoubtedly the central theme of the book. Questions of guilt, reconciliation, and the clash of worldviews and ideologies appear throughout. This becomes evident early on, when Schenk depicts the patriarchal family model of Louise\u2019s parents \u2014 the mother receiving her household money daily from the authoritarian father \u2014 and how the children break free from this mold to live their lives according to a different spirit of the times. I found this very authentic, and it felt like Schenk captured well what both united and divided the generations. Naturally, the youthful search for identity \u2014 both Louise\u2019s and that of her student circle \u2014 also plays a part. Schenk uses beautiful and well-crafted metaphors throughout.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“Parents live inside their children and can make them heavy and sad. If you\u2019re lucky, they get smaller over time, like Russian matryoshka dolls, but they never disappear.” (p. 100)<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Anyone glancing at the author\u2019s biography on the jacket will notice the clear autobiographical elements of this book. Sylvie Schenk also grew up in a small town \u2014 Gap (Hautes-Alpes) in the French Alps \u2014 studied in Lyon, and likewise fell in love with a German chemistry student, moving with him to Germany. The thoughts, doubts, and desires she gives her protagonist are certainly not imagined; they feel authentic and grounded, and the way she describes cultural contrasts clearly draws from personal experience.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

However, there were a few aspects of the book that didn\u2019t appeal to me. One of them is the narrative perspective \u2014 the use of the second person singular, addressing the protagonist as \u201cyou.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“As a little girl in the 1950s, you know your inferiority and wish you were a boy.” (p. 7)<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This is how the novel begins, and the author maintains this form throughout. I found it somewhat disorienting \u2014 it creates a certain intimacy, more than an omniscient narrator would, yet less than the first-person perspective, which I would have preferred. It often felt as though someone was trying to impose thoughts on me that weren\u2019t my own. In any case, novels written in this form are quite rare \u2014 for good reason, perhaps.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Even though the author has French roots, this book feels distinctly German to me. The mood is fundamentally somber; everyone is struggling with something \u2014 depression, death, dissatisfaction \u2014 all wrapped up with Nazis, Hitler, the persecution of Jews, questions of guilt, and so on. The whole Second World War theme, with its endless retellings and reexaminations, feels worn out \u2014 the thousandth repetition that doesn\u2019t make it any better. Perhaps such stories broaden one\u2019s intellectual horizon, offering an air of sophistication. But at the same time, these kinds of narratives are gloomy, cloud the sky, and feed into the so-called \u201cGerman Angst.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"Quick,<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Conclusion:<\/strong> In just 160 pages, Sylvie Schenk portrays the life of a woman in clear and precise language, and it\u2019s exactly this compressed form that makes the book so special. To convey so many thoughts, feelings, desires, and doubts \u2014 along with the lingering effects of World War II on a woman of the post-war generation \u2014 in such limited space is a remarkable achievement. At the same time, however, the narrative perspective, the generally negative tone, and the theme itself didn\u2019t completely win me over. A book that is certainly worth reading \u2014 but one that needs to strike the right chord with the reader.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Book information:<\/strong> Schnell, dein Leben \u2022 Sylvie Schenk \u2022 Hanser Verlag \u2022 160 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783442486069<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a book blogger, it happens from time to time that an unexpected book arrives \u2014 and if it\u2019s one from Hanser Verlag, and not particularly thick, I\u2019m easily tempted to give it a read. Even if it\u2019s not exactly what I\u2019d usually go for. I like to look beyond my literary comfort zone, and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Schnell, dein Leben \u2022 Sylvie Schenk”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Schnell, dein Leben \u2022 Sylvie Schenk - lesestunden","description":"Als Buchblogger kommt es immer wieder vor, dass einmal ein Buch unerwartet eintrudelt und wenn es eines vom Hanser Verlag ist, dass zudem nicht sonderlich dick"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,20],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-3403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-sylvie-schenk"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/schnell_dein_leben_beitrag_2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}