Picknick der Friseure: Geschichten

by Felicitas Hoppe

Eine Familie vermietet stundenweise einen Balkon. Die frischluftnärrischen Mieter stürzen aus ungeklärten Gründen stets in die Tiefe. Mit den Schaulustigen macht die Familie durch den Verkauf von Schnäpsen gute Geschäfte bis eines Tages sich das Kind auf den geheimnisvollen Balkon wagt. «Picknick der Friseure» ist ein Buch mit zwanzig grotesken und komischen Geschichten, die in der gegenwärtigen Literatur ihresgleichen suchen: manchmal bitterböse, voll atemberaubender Phantasie.

Genres: Short Stories, German Literature

90 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Her work often deals with transitory themes, as in "Picknick der Friseure", in a comical, but nevertheless thrilling way, which make her stories seem to be absurd. She also uses the technique of quotation for her novels, as in "Johanna", where she reconstructs the story of Joan of Arc using official case records.[1] As a relatively young, successful and female writer, she belongs to a group of writers which literary criticism calls the "Fräuleinwunder".

For her work as a writer she received the following awards: in 1994 Alfred-Döblin-Stipendium (a scholarship), in 1996 Aspekte-Literaturpreis and the Ernst-Willner-Preis at the Festival of German-Language Literature in Klagenfurt, in 1997 the Rauriser Literaturpreis, in 2004 the Nicolas Born-Preis des Landes Niedersachsen, the Heimito von Doderer-Literaturpreis and the Spycher: Literaturpreis Leuk, in 2005 the Brüder-Grimm-Preis der Stadt Hanau. In 2005 she also held the Poetikdozentur: junge Autoren der Fachhochschule Wiesbaden. In 2007 she received Literaturpreis der Stadt Bremen and the Roswitha-Preis. In 2008 Hoppe held the Bert Brecht Gastprofessur at the University of Augsburg.

In 2012, Felicitas Hoppe was awarded the most prestigious literary prize in German literature, the Georg Büchner Prize.

Reviews

[Mik]

takie 2.5, podobała mi się, była krótka i przyjemna, ale nic większego nie wnosiła.
Nie spodziewałam się jakiegoś niesamowitego dzieła, ale zwykle w takich zbiorach opowiadań znajduje się chociaż jedno które zostaje ze mną na dłużej. Miła abstrakcja na popołudnie c:

[Pamela]

2.5/5

[Rudi]

Wunderbar ins Phantastische ausufernde Prosaminiaturen, die an Daniil Charms und István Örkény erinnern.

[Mel Grzegorzewska]

Niby króciutka książka, a porusza tyle tematów, że zostaje się zatkanym po większości opowiadań. Wszystkie ciężkie do zrozumienia, trzeba je odszyfrowywać i w jakiś sposób poczuć. Genialny język i sposób przekazywania faktów. Coś dla tych, którzy lubią, jak wszystko jest metaforą i nic tak naprawdę nie jest jasne.

[misvia]

bez komentarza

[Kaja]

Raczej nijakie, bardzo minimalistyczne i pisane jakby w pośpiechu, ledwo ledwo, żeby było

[Katy Derbyshire]

A collection of crazy, sexy, teeny-tiny stories. Good stuff. And I love the totally anonymous narrators.

[Andrea]

"Ansonsten hatte sie nichts zu bieten außer einem Hang zu übermütig geblümten Schürzen."

[Halalilodri]

Parabel, Phantastik oder Persiflage?

[domynyka]

Totalnie nie dla mnie

[Andreas]

Eines der schlechtesten Bücher die ich je gelesen habe! Finger weg davon! 1 Stern nur für die Tatsache, das sich jemand die Mühe gemacht hat ein Bücher zu schreiben.

[Bartosz Bukowski]

To jest coś takiego, co napisałaby moja była egzaltowana dziewczyna.

[Callum]

Everything I write, I get from the world; but, I turn it and infuse an absurd element into my writing. It can at best be called experimental prose. I like playing around with language. The result is neither realistic nor realistic prose, but cryptic prose, a strange mix of the comical and the sinister.
- Felicitas Hoppe

A collection of miniature, modern fairy-tales. As might be expected from her own assessment of her work, Hoppe's stories have a dream-like logic, infused with elements of the grotesque, a skewed exploration of themes linked to family and community. These are prime examples of Hoppe's cryptic prose; a heady mix of the absurd and the unnerving.

[Marian]

I was intrigued by these sharp, spiky, wacky tales, but also a bit confused by some, left a bit flat by one. The stories are mostly quite brief, and as the translation included only five of them, perhaps I've not gotten the proper effect. The infectious tone, though, does inspire me to improve my German reading skills so I can read the tales all together -- and read more of Hoppe in general.

[Iztok]

I read it in translation. For me it was more poetry in prose than prose. For some reason the stories didn't quite caught my attention. But I have to admit it, that the author has a lot of imagination how to sculpt a language.

[Zoli]

I guess this one is alright, though I have to admit it didn't meet my expectations from what I've heard about it.