Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet

Geschrieben von Herta Müller

Erzählt von Marlen Diekhoff

"Ich bin bestellt. Donnerstag Punkt zehn." Eine junge Frau in einer Großstadt in Rumänien auf dem Weg zum Verhör beim Geheimdienst. Sie hat diese Fahrt mit der Straßen bahn schon oft machen müssen, doch diesmal hat sie aus einer Vorahnung heraus Handtuch, Zahnpasta und Zahnbürste eingepackt. Unterwegs lässt sie ihr Leben an sich vorüberziehen: die Kindheit in der Provinz, die Deportation der Großeltern, das sporadische Glück, das ihr mit Paul gelingt. Außen: Haltestellen, ein- und aussteigende Personen, vorbeiziehende Straßen. All dies führt doch immer wieder zurück zu: "Ich bin bestellt." Doch an diesem Tag hält der Fahrer an der Station, an der sie aussteigen muss, nicht an. Und sie beschließt zum ersten Mal, nicht zum Verhör zu gehen.

• Sprache: Deutsch
• Herausgeber: Hörbuch Hamburg
• Erscheinungsdatum: 13. Aug. 2010
• ISBN: 9783844901962

Herta Müller

Herta Müller is the winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature, as well as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the European Literature Prize. She is the author of, among other books, The Hunger Angel and The Land of Green Plums. Born in Romania in 1953, Müller lost her job as a teacher and suffered repeated threats after refusing to cooperate with Ceausescu's secret police. She succeeded in emigrating in 1987 and now lives in Berlin.

Rezensionen für Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet

[proustitute_1 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

Scott Esposito, editor of The Quarterly Conversation and proprietor of Conversational Reading, asked me what my top reads of 2013 were. Among others (which you can see here and most of which I reviewed here on Goodreads or elsewhere), I chose this amazing book.

For lack of a proper review, here's a brief summation of my thoughts on The Appointment:

"Müller’s unnamed narrator journeys on a tram to make an appointment set for ten o’clock sharp; this is not the first time that she has been summoned, and, in Ceausescu’s Romania, there is no telling when the interrogations will cease or to whom she can turn. On her way, the narrator recounts her life under communism, where intimacy and betrayal, sex and power, and truth and lies inform the individual’s relationship to state, self, and other."

[thorold_1 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

The unnamed narrator of this novel is taking a tram journey from her home to the office where she has been summoned - yet again - to be interviewed about her alleged crimes against the Romanian state. Along the way, she reflects on the other passengers in the tram, on her current and previous husbands, her family and in-laws, her neighbours, and the circumstances that led her to the point of making a small and rather futile gesture against the authority of the régime. Her observation of the small details of everyday life is almost brutally sharp in its focus, as the stream-of-consciousness builds up a composite picture of the way living under a corrupt authoritarian government distorts and coarsens everything in life, down to the most trivial level, with madness, alcohol and suicide appearing as the only viable ways out. It's an interesting contrast with Herztier, the other of her novels that I've read: there the character was a young intellectual who was driven to write, whilst here it's a woman who strongly distrusts the written word (or anything else that leaves a record), but has nonetheless started to note down details of the physical world around her because her faith in reality is so shaken that she no longer trusts that there will be the same number of lampposts along the street from one day to the next. Magnificent, but very painful writing. (I wonder why it is that Müller's titles so rarely survive translation to English? The plain ones become extravagant - Herztier -> The land of green plums, Atemschaukel -> The hunger angel - and the extravagant ones plain Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet -> The Appointment, Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt -> The Passport)

[iansales_1 · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

A conversation on Twitter late one night after I had imbibed a portion or two of wine turned to laureates of the Nobel Prize for Literature (writers, not fucking folk singers), and female laureates in particular, and, well, before I knew it, I’d gone and bought a couple books by female Nobel laureates on the web site of a very large online retailer. The first was this, The Appointment by Herta Müller, a German writer who, despite her name is, er, actually Romanian. Her family belonged to the German-speaking minority in Romania, but in 1987 she was given permission to leave and settle in Germany after many years of trying. Her most successful novel to date has been 2009’s The Hunger Angel, and that same year she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Until prompted to look her up by the aforementioned Twitter conversation, I had not even heard of Müller or her fiction. But I bought The Appointment, and read it on a trip to, and from, Leeds one Saturday. The Appointment was published in Germany – she is, despite her origin, probably best considered a German writer – but the novel is set in Romania, as indeed is apparently much of her fiction. The title refers to the meeting the narrator has with Albu, a major in the Romanian secret police. The narrator used to work in a garment factory, whose products were mostly destined for export – and in a shipment of trousers destined for Italy, she hid a series of notes, asking to be rescued, through marriage, by an Italian man. But the notes were found and she was reported to management. Unfortunately, she had a bad relationship with her manager, and when a later series of notes were found, critical of the regime, she was blamed and sacked. And forced to attend interrogation sessions with Major Albu. It’s grim stuff. I’ve visited Romania – it’s a lovely country, full of lovely people – but the Ceaucescu regime was brutal and Müller pulls no punches in depicting how it impacted the lives of ordinary people. I’m in two minds whether to read more Müller – she writes in a style I like, present tense and slightly distant, and while I’m not especially keen on first-person narratives it works extremely well here; but the story is punishingly hard to read. Having said that, writing about the book for this blog post is sort of persuading me to try something else by her…

[bookomaniac-1 · Bewertung: 2 von 5 Sternen]

Müller blijft weerbarstig voor mij, zelfs bij dit tweede werk dat ik heb gelezen van haar, en dat veel toegankelijker is dan Hartedier. Opnieuw is er diezelfde bedreigende sfeer die over alle zinnen hangt, en dat begint al met de openingszin “Vandaag ben ik ontboden, om 10 uur precies”, Kafkaïaanser kan moeilijk. Wat volgt is het verhaal van een vrouw (zonder naam) die met de tram reist naar de plek waar ze voor de zoveelste keer ondervraagd zal worden. Onderweg mijmert ze in een chaotische wirwar van fragmenten over haar leven, en zijn grotendeels gelijkaardige figuren te herkennen als in Hartedier. Persoonlijke deprivatie, verschraald leven, subtiele en minder subtiele terreur zijn alomtegenwoordig; het is alsof de “ondragelijke lichtheid” van Kundera bij Müller vervangen is door “loden zwaarte”. Dat komt andermaal nog het meest tot uiting in de taal waarin Müller haar boeken schrijft: in gefragmenteerde, verknipte zinnen die de lectuur erg bemoeilijken, en waar je voortdurend op je hoede blijft of er meer achtersteekt. Want Müller heeft er een handje van weg om heel banale situaties te beschrijven, ook gewoon voorwerpen zelfs, maar op zo’n manier dat die een veel bredere boodschap lijken te beschrijven, of misschien ook niet. Daarmee geeft ze wellicht bewust aan hoe de achterdocht in een dictatuur zich ook in de taal nestelt, en dat is best vernuftig. Maar literair maakt ze het de lezer daarmee wel erg moeilijk. Ik moet toegeven: haar werk intrigeert, en boeit zelfs tot op zekere hoogte, maar het spreekt me niet volledig aan.

[kvrfan9 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

Set in Ceausescu's totalitarian Romania, this is essentially the story of how a soulless society saps the individual souls of the people within it. I found myself absorbed, realizing that only through fiction--the relating of one woman's musings--can the deepest dimensions of a life under oppression be truly told.

[hebephrene · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

We know from the history of the Chinese Revolution that the self when exposed to betrayal, intense interrogation and terror begins to extinguish itself. Auschwitz of the Mind it has been called. Muller takes some getting used to. Like her masterpiece The land of Green Plums, the full power of this book isn't felt until quite far in. But then as the scope unfolds and you realize that the mosaic of different tragedies, histories and deaths is tearing apart the "I" . That and her being summoned to meet with her interrogator. From her Nobel Prize Acceptance speech we learn that much of this is autobiographical and the work is less experimental than Green Plums, yet terrifying since it gives us what it was like to live in Romania during Ceausescu's long tyrannical reign. I was reminded of Diaz's Oscar Wao and Englander's Ministry of Special Cases in that we have the foreground the story of the character while in the background (and all around) the recent history of a place not that many of us know about. By the end though you feel as if you understand it in a way that is more emotionally charged than in a "history". The cruelty and suffering are approached obliquely, and the puzzle resembles the character's fragmentation, which is why it has such cumulative power as a work of fiction. We have to praise the Nobel for bringing Muller to world consciousness since she is such a master.

[mjennings26 · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

So far, so terrifying.
Update: I've decided not to finish this one. It's too slow for me and the subject matter is too depressing. Apologies to the Nobel committee.

[roblong_1 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

Like all Muller’s books, this is grim but well worth reading. A woman in Ceaucescu's Romania is summoned, not for the first time, to a meeting with a secret policeman. The whole novel takes place in her head as she travels to the appointment on the tram. Her previous husband and family history, her current husband's descent into alcoholism, the death of her friends and the madness of so many people around her are all gradually brought into focus. The great strength of the book is that it makes her appointment seem not to be the worst of life in that place - the society she lives in is so poisoned that almost everybody is suffering just as badly as she is, albeit in different ways. It's not one I rushed to pick up again, but as an effective portrait of a time and place, it's hard to beat. I wish my German was up to reading the original.

[bhowell_35 · Bewertung: 2 von 5 Sternen]

I should say at the outset that I do not like stream of consciousness prose masquerading as a novel. I found this novel boring, and the less said about the ending the better. Yet the book has attracted many eloquent statements, the result of which was to make me wish that they had written the book rather than Ms. Muller since I could find no evidence of any such profound meaning within the book, still less any pyschological tension or excitement.

[voz_4 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

I enjoyed this experience so much I am going to hunt down others by Herta Muller. In some ways this reads like prose poems, there are all sorts of choatic moments contrasted with brooding angst. Written as a stream of consciousness internal monologue on a ninely minute tram ride. So it's a bleak read, at no time did I feel I was reading a translation. I've wondered just how you stay human in an oppressive society. Harmless pranks are met with The Appointment. But other acts of madness, shocking as they are just part of a world where madness is abstracted and the ordinary is grotesque.

[pgmcc · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

The Appointment is a stream of consciousness novel. My experience of such novels has not been good, but I'm glad to say Herta Muller's novel was fascinating and well paced.It is the thoughts of a woman on her way to an interrogation. The novel opens with the words, "I've been summonsed." There is no thought of not turning up. She lives in a totalitarian state and the consequences are not worth thinking about.Muller conveys the sense of paranoia very well. The individual is a victim of the state and the state watches and punishes those it perceives as having insulted the state or put their personal interests above that of the greater good.The protagonists mind wanders over several topics and across different time spans to give the reader the background to her "summons", and also lays out the history of her two marriages, the love life of her closest friend, the attitudes of the general populace, etc...I found this book not only portrayed the pressures on the individual who is subjected to the revenge of the system, but also what life in a totalitarian state is like, especially under the watchful eyes of the security officials.A sobering yet intriguing book.

[bobbieharv · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

Very well-written, very strange and forboding in a Kafkaesque way. She's being interrogated by a powerful person in the government; on her way to her appointment we find out many details of her life, meticulously observed; but we never find out what happens to her, which of course is deliberate. Too unsettling and unresolved for a 5, but a book that will stay with me for a while.

[rmckeown_9 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

As my faithful readers know, I always read the major prize-winners when announced. As is the case with most recent Nobel Prize awardees, I had never heard of Herta Müller. At first I thought, well yes, Eastern Europe before the collapse of the Soviet Union – secret police, long lines and empty shelves, spying neighbors, frequent and seemingly pointless interrogations to root out dissatisfied citizens – I had heard, seen, and read this plot many times. The difference with Müller’s take on this story involves, lyrical, graceful, simple prose that lulls the reader into a false sense of “been-there, done-that.” I nearly gave up several times and even had to struggle to get through the last 40 pages as the descriptions became more detailed, more bizarre, and the mind of the un-named narrator becomes more and more disjointed. Then I read the last line: “The trick is not to go mad.”So, like Kafka, and Lu Hsun’s “Diary of a Madman,” Müller’s novel relates the descent into madness as a result of paranoia of a dictatorship run wild with maintaining absolute power and control over its citizens. How close we came to that precipice! The novel is a warning. Unbridled police powers will inevitably lead to abuse and oppression.With that last line – almost a Joycean epiphany – the novel made sense. It became harrowing, exasperating, and I understood completely how madness did result. 5 stars.--Jim, 12/31/09

[johnlundy · Bewertung: 2 von 5 Sternen]

The Appointment" is a first-person novel set in Romania during the reign of the communist dictator Nicolai Ceausescu, a time and a place the author knows firsthand.The appointment is at 10 a.m. The narrator -- whose name we are never told -- has been summoned by a major in the secret police. He can require her presence whenever he wants, because she has been fired from her job at a clothing factory for placing notes in 10 pairs of pants being shipped to Italy asking the men who receive the note to take her away to Italy and marry her. Technically, she wasn't fired for those notes but for three other notes in clothing bound for Sweden that say, "Greetings from the dictatorship." She tells the reader that she didn't write those notes, but she might be lying. The narrator is not an entirely trustworthy person (neither is anyone else in this novel).The interrogator says those notes to the Italians make her a prostitute. She denies this. She didn't want money, she only wanted to marry the first Italian who responded. And if that didn't work out, she would marry another Italian, because "after all, there's no shortage of Italians in Italy."Having recently been in Italy, I can testify to the truth of that statement. There also are quite a few Romanians in Italy, for that matter.When the narrator is summoned she comes. She knows if she doesn't come voluntarily, she will be taken, and she will never return to the apartment in a leaning tower that she shares with a heavy-drinking boyfriend.Muller's Romania is a dreary place, filled with woebegone people, secret police, spies and schemers. And they are all very poor, so poor that they can't even afford quotation marks and question marks -- or at least there are none in this novel.Perhaps now that Muller has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, she'll be able to afford quotation marks and question marks. Or she might say: I've gotten this far without them, why bother now. Do you think she will.In one sense, "The Appointment" reminded me of the book I read just before it, Joseph Conrad's "Nostromo." As with "Nostromo," "The Appointment" jumps around chronologically, and Muller does so abruptly -- so that you have to be careful or you lose track of where you are in the story. Which appointment? Which trip to the flea market? Her husband or her boyfriend? The back stories appear in a jumble.Along the way, Muller tells you a lot about life in communist Romania, and, really, none of it is pleasant, although some of it is told with ironic humor:"She wasn't that dear a wife to him, she knew that. He had a mistress my age in the garden shop, a specialist in mites and aphids. Since no one could say her official title of Comrade Engineer for Combating Parasites in Cultivated Plants without laughing, everyone called her Comrade Louse Inspector."