Chute libre à Berlin

by Peter Schneider, Nicole Casanova

Immigré allemand installé en Californie, le biologiste Edouard Hoffmann apprend qu'il a hérité un immeuble situé à Berlin-Est.

De retour après plusieurs années d'absence, Edouard découvre une ville en chantier qu'il ne reconnaît pas. Il tente de prendre possession de son bien et s'enlise dans des situations de plus en plus absurdes. Bientôt accusé de bénéficier d'un héritage nazi, Edouard se lance à la recherche du passé familial...

Parallèlement, les fissures de sa vie présente apparaissent. Jenny, sa femme, née d'une mère juive-allemande, ne songe guère à s'établir dans le Berlin réunifié. Un problème presque oublié dans leur relation conjugale refait alors surface pour prendre des proportions gigantesques aux yeux d'Edouard...

Chute libre à Berlin décline ainsi d'une manière originale le thème d'une Allemagne qui ne saurait finir d'être déchirée par son histoire récente.

Genres: Fiction

377 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Peter Schneider is a German novelist. His novel Lenz, published in 1973, had become a cult text for the Left, capturing the feelings of those disappointed by the failure of their utopian revolt. Since then, Peter Schneider has written novels, short stories and film scripts, that often deal with the fate of members of his generation. Other works deal with the situation of Berlin before and after German reunification. Schneider is also a major Essayist; having moved away from the radicalism of 1968, his work now appears predominantly in bourgeois publications.

Reviews

[Avd.Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story about an ex-Berliners return, after many years in California, to the familiar but estranged city he once called home. The book vividly captures the new Berlin after the reunification - its strange, ever-changing, unfinished character, its raw ugliness and many layers of history which are still very present and visible, the clash between old and new, and finally, the personal and political tension between East and West which, unlike anywhere else, is so prominent there.
The story has its absurd and funny but also strangely nostalgic moments. Even though Eduard settles into his new home in the end, the fact remains, that coming home to Berlin is an illusion. You can never go back.

[Leannekahn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The fact that it took me MONTHS to read this says something. If it hadn't taken place in Berlin, I would have quit it. I didn't connect with the characters, though I think the plot was somewhat interesting.