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Ach Glück
Rare Book
224 pages, Gebunden
First published January 1, 2007
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About the author
Monika Maron
44 books64 followersMonika Maron is a German author, formerly of the German Democratic Republic. She moved in 1951 from West to East Berlin with her stepfather, Karl Maron, the GDR Minister of the Interior.
She studied theatre and spent time as a directing assistant and as a journalist. In the late 1970s, she began writing full-time in East Berlin. In her early novels written in East Berlin, her primary theme was life and loathing inside a totalitarian surveillance state. But despite Maron's criticism of the GDR regime, it turned out that she had worked as an informer for the Ministry of State Security, or Stasi — a fact that she addressed in her 1999 novel, Pawels Briefe (Pawel's Letters).
She left the GDR in 1988 with a three-year visa. After living in Hamburg, Germany, until 1992, she returned to a reunited Berlin, where she currently lives and writes.
Her works deal to a large degree with confrontation with the past and explore the threats posed both by memory and isolation. Her prose is sparse, bleak, and lonely, conveying the sensitivity and desperation of her narrators.
In 1992, she was distinguished with the renowned Kleist Prize, awarded annually to prominent German authors, and, in 2003, with the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize.
Her latest novel, Artur Lanz (2020), delves into the emasculation of men as "heroes," and the evolution of "cancel culture" in a liberal mainstream that polices speech and opinions. Maron's characters' views on gender, immigration and Islam made some wonder if the once leftist writer had become Islamophobic or anti-feminist. Maron has also railed against the "gender gibberish" of woke liberals in political essays. She has criticized an "unenlightened Islam" and warned against "tolerance in the face of intolerance." Her political rhetoric echoes the far-right AFD party. Is the opinionated author turning herself into a mouthpiece for the alt right?
"I say what I think," she explained in an interview with public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. "I arrive at my convictions or opinions by looking at the world or reading about it, or by weighing one opinion against another and somehow orienting myself. Whether that's right-wing or not doesn't matter to me in the end."
She studied theatre and spent time as a directing assistant and as a journalist. In the late 1970s, she began writing full-time in East Berlin. In her early novels written in East Berlin, her primary theme was life and loathing inside a totalitarian surveillance state. But despite Maron's criticism of the GDR regime, it turned out that she had worked as an informer for the Ministry of State Security, or Stasi — a fact that she addressed in her 1999 novel, Pawels Briefe (Pawel's Letters).
She left the GDR in 1988 with a three-year visa. After living in Hamburg, Germany, until 1992, she returned to a reunited Berlin, where she currently lives and writes.
Her works deal to a large degree with confrontation with the past and explore the threats posed both by memory and isolation. Her prose is sparse, bleak, and lonely, conveying the sensitivity and desperation of her narrators.
In 1992, she was distinguished with the renowned Kleist Prize, awarded annually to prominent German authors, and, in 2003, with the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize.
Her latest novel, Artur Lanz (2020), delves into the emasculation of men as "heroes," and the evolution of "cancel culture" in a liberal mainstream that polices speech and opinions. Maron's characters' views on gender, immigration and Islam made some wonder if the once leftist writer had become Islamophobic or anti-feminist. Maron has also railed against the "gender gibberish" of woke liberals in political essays. She has criticized an "unenlightened Islam" and warned against "tolerance in the face of intolerance." Her political rhetoric echoes the far-right AFD party. Is the opinionated author turning herself into a mouthpiece for the alt right?
"I say what I think," she explained in an interview with public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. "I arrive at my convictions or opinions by looking at the world or reading about it, or by weighing one opinion against another and somehow orienting myself. Whether that's right-wing or not doesn't matter to me in the end."
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 3, 2016
Leider fliegt die Hauptperson immer noch mit ihrem Hund nach Mexiko! Ich bin beim Hörbuch immer an der selben Stelle eingeschlafen, sehr entspannend bei Einschlafstörungen!
November 22, 2022
Mal wieder einen entspannten Roman lesen, dachte ich… Leider hat dieses Buch meinen Geschmack überhaupt nicht getroffen.
Jeder einzelne Satz wird mit ausschweifenden Nebeninformationen unglaublich in die Länge gezogen. Meine Gedanken sind bei diesen Schachtelsätzen oft abgedriftet. Wiederholt gelesen um den Sinn zu verstehen, war ich oft demotiviert überhaupt weiter zu lesen. Immerhin hatte ich die Hoffnung, dass das Buch eine Lehre oder ein schönes Ende mit sich bringt.
Offenes Ende und keine Lebensweisheit für mich – vielleicht bin ich auch einfach nicht die richtige Zielgruppe…
Jeder einzelne Satz wird mit ausschweifenden Nebeninformationen unglaublich in die Länge gezogen. Meine Gedanken sind bei diesen Schachtelsätzen oft abgedriftet. Wiederholt gelesen um den Sinn zu verstehen, war ich oft demotiviert überhaupt weiter zu lesen. Immerhin hatte ich die Hoffnung, dass das Buch eine Lehre oder ein schönes Ende mit sich bringt.
Offenes Ende und keine Lebensweisheit für mich – vielleicht bin ich auch einfach nicht die richtige Zielgruppe…
December 18, 2022
Una mujer que tras muchos años en su matrimonio se da cuenta de que la relación con su pareja está desgastada, pero encuentra que al conectar con otros seres, como el perrito Bredow o por correspondencia con una rusa mayor que ella, la vida aún tiene mucho que ofrecerle.
July 5, 2020
Ein Roman über das Älterwerden eines Ehepaares und die plötzliche Such nach Glück im weiteren Leben der Frau. Tja wenig erhellend!
January 6, 2021
ein wunderschönes Buch. Marons politische Ansichten möge schräg sein, ihre Einsichten über das Leben sind es nicht. Es geht um Lebensangst, stecken bleiben und Neuanfänge.
December 21, 2007
Great example of middle-aged-people-trying-to-break-out-of-the-box story done well.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews