Monika Maron

Monika Maron's first novel, published in the West in 1981 after the authorities in East Germany blocked its appearance there. It deals specifically with the topic of industrial pollution, but more generally with the sclerotic political culture of the DDR as it was experienced by the generation of people born in the 1940s, who found it difficult to accept their elders’ assurance that the revolution was complete and they were already living in the socialist paradise, so that any criticism would only play into the hands of the evil capitalist West.

The young journalist Josefa is sent to write a magazine article about the industrial town of B. (Bitterfeld). She soon discovers that the real story is not about heroic workers exceeding plan targets, or the new swimming pool in the workers’ leisure centre, but about an outdated power plant that endangers the people working in it, as well as belching out 180 tons of fly ash a year over the town, making it “the most polluted place in Europe”. Industrial injuries and lung disease are at appallingly high levels in the area. Management and workers all want the plant decommissioned and replaced, but central government is deaf to their worries. Josefa writes about the situation, with a “naive” sense of justice, but of course nervous editors won’t publish her article. Maron shows us how the fear of expressing criticism built into the system creates a completely unnecessary conflict between Josefa and her colleagues, and eventually damages her personal life and her mental health.

A powerful, strongly felt book, which perhaps goes some way towards explaining why Maron is still regularly getting into trouble for saying the wrong thing.… (más)

Reason Read: Reading 1001 July BOTM. This is a work of nonfiction in which the author Monika Maron looks into the life of her maternal grandparents. The grandfather was a Jew who had converted to Baptist before Hitler came to power and he married a Catholic girl who also converted to Baptist. They had 3 children, Hilla, Marta, Paul. Monika is the daughter of Hilla. Pavel is the grandfather and he was taken from his family and sent to a ghetto because he was Jewish and it did not matter that he was not a worshipping Jew, he still was Jewish. He was eventually killed but how is not known. Monika tries to discover her grandparents through letters and photographs. The three children became communist and lived in East Berlin. Monika eventually rejected communism so this is also the story of a family divided up by political idealism.

Highlights;
"..We often sense our ability to forget merely as an inability to remember."
"tend to think that coincidences and spontaneous decisions of the past have a meaning that is revealed only later,"
"Poverty is as relative a concept as illness: someone who wasn’t killed by it can find comfort in the fact that he is better off than the dead."
"know the feeling of helplessness when I try to explain to someone who didn’t go through this why we nevertheless didn’t go about with drooping shoulders, burdened by the outrage of our daily lives."
"those who imprisoned political opponents, oppressed Christians, banned books, walled in an entire people and unleashed the spies of a colossal secret service. What business did Pavel’s daughters, Hella and Marta, have among such people?"
"true to the faith in which he was raised. Pavel did not remain a Jew, Josefa did not remain a Catholic, Hella, Marta and Paul did not remain Baptists, and I, in my time, stopped believing in communism."

I liked her writing, it wasn't hard to read. I liked that it was set in East Germany (mostly) and that it examined WWII and Hitler from that perspective. I also liked how it questioned how someone could be a faithful communist under the same conditions of Hitler's Germany.… (más)

Die Autorin kam sich einsam vor nach dem Tod ihres Hundes Momo. Sie entschließt sich, Ausschau nach einem neuen Hund zu halten und hat auch bestimmte Vorstellungen. Auf der Internetseite eines Vereins, der Hunde aus dem Ausland holt, um ihnen ein gutes Zuhause zu verschaffen, wird sie fündig. Doch als der Hund namens Propeller nach einigen Schwierigkeiten ankommt, entspricht er so gar nicht ihren Vorstellungen und sie möchte ihn wieder loswerden. Ob Bonnie Propeller ihr Herz doch erweichen kann?
Dieses Buch umfasst nur wenige Seiten und ist schnell gelesen. Aber es hinterlässt einen bleibenden Eindruck. Es ist eine sehr ehrliche Geschichte, die Monika Maron erlebt und aufgeschrieben hat. Man sagt immer, dass es nicht auf das Äußere ankommt, und dennoch ist es das Aussehen, dass uns eine erste Meinung bilden lässt.
Propeller ist etwas unförmig, hat aber ein hübsches Gesicht. Doch Frau Maron kann sich nicht auf ihn einlassen, weil Erwartungen und Realität so unterschiedlich sind. Auch hat sie noch nicht so ganz Abschied genommen von dem Hund, der zuvor da war. Doch dann stellt sich heraus, dass Bonnie durchaus Kämpferfähigkeiten hat und eine treue Seele ist. Alles braucht seine Zeit, auch eine Beziehung, die aufgebaut werden soll.
Mir hat das Buch sehr gut gefallen.… (más)