Heißer Sommer

by Uwe Timm

Die Studentenbewegung in München und Hamburg.

Genres: German Literature, Germany, Literature, Fiction, Historical, Roman

340 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Uwe Timm was the youngest son in his family. His brother, 16 years his senior, was a soldier in the Waffen SS and died in Ukraine in 1943. Decades later, Uwe Timm approached his relationship with his father and brother in the critically acclaimed novel In my brother's shadow.

After working as a furrier, Timm studied Philosophy and German in Munich and Paris, achieving a PhD in German literature in 1971 with his thesis: The Problem of Absurdity in the Works of Albert Camus. During his studies, Timm was engaged in leftist activities of the 1960s. He became a member of the Socialist German Student Union and was associated with Benno Ohnesorg. From 1973 to 1981 he was a member of the German Communist Party. Three times Timm has been called as a writer-in-residence to several universities in English-speaking countries: in 1981 to the University of Warwick, in 1994 to Swansea and in 1997 to the Washington University in St. Louis. He has also been a lecturer at universities in Paderborn, Darmstadt, Lüneburg and Frankfurt.

Timm started publishing in the early 1970s and became known to a larger audience in Germany after one of his children's books, Rennschwein Rudi Rüssel, was turned into a movie. Today he is one of the most successful contemporary authors in Germany. His books Die Entdeckung der Currywurst (The Invention of Curried Sausage) and Am Beispiels meines Bruders (In my brother's shadow) can both be found on the syllabi of German schools. His readers usually appreciate Timm's writing style, which he himself calls "die Ästhetik des Alltags" ("the aesthetics of everyday life"). Timm imitates everyday storytelling by using everyday vocabulary and simple sentences and generally tries to imitate the way stories are orally told. His works often indirectly link with each other by taking up minor characters from one story and making this character the main character of another work. For example, a minor character like Frau Brücker from Johannisnacht is taken up as a main character in his book Die Entdeckung der Currywurst. Timm's works also tend to have autobiographical features and often deal with the German past or are set in the German past.

Reviews

[luise trichter · Rating 4 out of 5]

bisschen schwer reingekommen, aber wird zum Ende hin gut

[Wolfgang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uwe Timm ist eine Neuentdeckung für mich (leider). "Heisser Sommer" erzählt die Geschichte eines Studenten, der am Rande in die 68er Studentenproteste eingefangen wurde.
Timm fängt die Atmosphäre und den Zeitgeist dieser Jahre perfekt ein. Wunderbare Zeitreise in jetzt doch schon sehr vergangene Denkschemen und Geschehnisse.

[Käthe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anfang sehr sexistisch, Frauen objektifizierend, generell wenig/keine? Frauen auf Augenhöhe bei den politischen Diskussionen, deswegen beinahe weggelegt, zum Ende hin spannender

[Philipp Abele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book and perspective about the movement of 68 (german perspective). It makes the narrator's view and the story very authentic that the author wrote it right back then. Some interesting details include flirting strategys of the protagonist (49 cont.), the specific youtful language of the students and the attitudes of the young generations towards their parents. First half of the book is better than the second one...

[Jamal Ahmed · Rating 1 out of 5]

1,5 ⭐️

Also ich weiß ja nicht. Buch über die 68er-Revolution klingt natürlich spannend, aber diese misogyne und hypersexualisierte Erzählung war wirklich nicht meins.

Ulrich als Protagonist wurde einfach auf Dauer sehr anstrengend und als Entwicklungsroman kann man das Buch nun auch nicht vermarkten, wenn er am Ende an exakt dem gleichen Punkt steht wie am Anfang.

[Sincerely, · Rating 4 out of 5]

Das Geschlecht der Revolution

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obwohl ich nicht alles durch die Zeit und Ortsprünge im Detail verstanden habe ist dieser Roman ein wunderschönes Zeitzeugnis einer wichtigen Zeit. Sie macht gerade diese Absurdität aus, welche man in Form dieser Geschichte eines Studenten der späten 60er förmlich aufsaugt. Inspirierend, Absurd, Wundervoll