Zwarte thee met drie klontjes suiker

by Renan Demirkan

Een jonge Turkse immigrante in Duitsland overdenkt haar leven, terwijl ze wacht op een medische ingreep.

Genres: Contemporary, German Literature, Fiction, Literature, Germany

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[geikew · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Het woord ‘vreemdeling’ had een droevige en tegelijk machteloze klank, niet alleen dat ze zich hier een vreemdeling voelde of als ‘alochtoon’ niet echt gerespecteerd werd door de autochtonen, ze bespeurde ook een toenemende vervreemding van haar vaderland.”

“Taal is ook een kooi. Die vormt je denken. Die maakt uit hoe en wat je denkt, hoe en wat je voelt, of je je thuis voelt.”

[CC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kurz aber gehaltvoll. Das Buch handelt von einer Frau kurz vor der Entbindung, die auf den Kaiserschnitt wartend ihr gesamtes Leben Revue passieren lässt. Vieles dreht sich dabei um die Immigration ihrer Familie aus Antalonien nach Deutschland. Die Probleme, die ihr und ihrer kleinen Schwester in der Schule, im Elternhaus und an diversen Wohnorten begegnen, fand ich sehr interessant zu lesen. Es fühlt sich auch ein wenig wie eine Zeitreise ein, denn die Geschichte spielt in den 60er, 70ern und 80er Jahren. Das von ihr beschrieben Deutschland fühlte sich auch für mich ziemlich fremd an. Das Buch hat mir (ungeplantermaßen) vor Augen geführt, wie viel sich seitdem verändert hat.

[Nekore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Renan ♥️

[Marion Jost · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book about a woman who has come to Germany from Turkey as a child. Even though I know a lot about the topic, this personal view was enriching. Some of the Turkish or Kurdish immigrants mentioned in the book found themselves in impossible situations, some quite shocking. I did not like the author’s writing style so much, and thought she was an actor who wrote about her own life but was not actually a writer, but I read up on her, and she is actually an actor and writer, and this book is classed as a novel rather than an autobiography which surprised me. She published an autobiography later. Maybe I have been spoiled by other books which I have read lately where I loved the author’s style, or maybe it’s just a question of personal preference. For the subject matter, I would recommend it.

[MauroMC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still remember when the book came out. I was living in the Ruhrgebiet then. There was a lot of talk about it because of its success, but I did not have the opportunity to read it. Today, so many years later, I have made up for it.
The themes it deals with are interesting, some of them very topical. Not only the subject of immigration and integration. The final part about cutting some parts of Shakespeare's play to make the text more usable for most people makes me think of the discussion going on today about the effects in AI writing.
Too bad the book is difficult to read. In my opinion, the stylistic choice of creating a continuum without pauses and chapters makes it not very fluent.
Good book in any case.

[Veronika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich fand es sehr flott und unterhaltsam erzählt, auch die zwischendurch sehr tragischen Stellen hat die Autorin sehr knapp und pragmatisch wiedergegeben. Es hat keine "Handlung" per se, aber es ist ein sehr gut geschriebener Stream of Consciousness, den ich mehr oder weniger in einer Sitzung weg gelesen habe. In das Leben der ersten türkischen Einwanderer in Deutschland und generell die deutsche Biederkeit und das liberale Hippieleben der 60er und 70er Jahre einzutauchen fand ich sehr spannend, weil es eigentlich gar nicht weit weg ist von meiner Realität und dann wieder doch.

[Muphyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars - Not bad but I'm just not a big fan of (re)viewing life through stream of consciousness.

[Eva Schroeter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Die Schriebart war nicht so meines. Es gab zu viele und schnellen Zeit wechsel.

[Josra · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Jimgosailing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, well, first off, I did not read this in German (even if I had blown the dust off my high school German i don’t think I would have gotten far); I read a English translation done by Eric Ohlrogge and Brent Peterson for a course Peterson was teaching that was addressing current immigration issues in Germany

Finished my (first?) reading of this and was…underwhelmed; I like immigrant stories. I think it’s quite remarkable - or maybe more likely that conditions are so unbearable - that parents would uproot their children and relocate to a foreign country: foreign language, foreign culture, foreign religions…

And this book was no different - showing how children began to assimilate into the new environment, learning the local customs and ways (I still think about, I believe it was McWhorter, who wrote about how we still have vestiges in our current English language that can be traced to Anglo-Saxon children (remember: they were the invaders) translating the language of the indigenous people to their parents)

My initial impression was that the structure of the book was lacking…but…as I give it some time and let it ruminate around the back of my head, maybe this isn’t the case; the birthing episodes clearly unify

“ her parents also had no friends. They had left them all behind. They had decided to dispose of all their belongings…. they had also left behind odors and aromas, the ones that streamed out of open windows, living rooms, and kitchens all day long and hung in the air inside overcrowded taxis or mini buses…. They left indescribable sunrises and sunsets, the intolerable midday sun (in which the shabbiest village was transformed into a golden palace), and the light of the teahouses, we’re old men would share their sorrows over Tavla and black tea with three sugar cubes. They left behind puns and gestures that were left about the entire evening long….” (P 8)

An Ethiopian woman, an economics student, raised her tomato juice in a smiling toast: “prison is good, but that doesn’t only refer to the legal system. Language is also a prison. It shapes your thoughts. It determines how and what you think. It’s home. ” (pp 25-26)

“ saw through the bars of the prison and make your own laws!” interrupted the fat Turkish lady. “ home (heimat) is like sorbet, as long as you lick it, it refreshes you, and perhaps you can even guess the flavor, but afterwards you get thirsty from the sweet mush!” (p 26)

“ unlike his wife, who had grown up in an extended family, he could seamlessly fit in with other cultures. Home. (Heimat) can also be a place that one must first find,” he said.

“ I don’t know what the word Home (heimat ) means. Perhaps some sort of crutch so that you don’t topple over.” (p 61)

“ her father, who had desperately tried to find a new home (heimat) frittered away his time more and more distractedly in his books.”

… many many multiple references to homemade food…

“and they drove them from one department to the next like a herd of cattle. Coal mines, the auto industry, and countless other factories relied on unskilled laborers from Turkey to meet the demand for their products, and their workers had to be healthy through and through.
Time and again broken down men were carried out, their diagnosis, unfit.
Unfit, even though they had sold all their possessions to start their journey to a new life” (p80)

[Julschaen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meine Meinung unter: http://juliasbuecherkiste.blogspot.co...

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Growing up Muslim and Turkish as the daughter of a guest worker who emigrated to West Germany in the 1960-70s. Probably not yet available in English.