Frösche

Geschrieben von Gert Heidenreich und Mo Yan

Erzählt von Gert Heidenreich

In seinem jüngsten Roman zeigt sich Mo Yan auf der Höhe seiner Kunst. In farbenprächtigen, lebensprallen und oft auch komischen Szenen erzählt er von den Schicksalen der Frauen und Kinder in seiner Heimat Gaomi, von Familiendramen in einer ländlich-patriarchalischen Gesellschaft und von den dramatischen Folgen der Geburtenpolitik für die Menschen in China.

• Sprache: Deutsch
• Herausgeber: Hörbuch Hamburg
• Erscheinungsdatum: 28. Feb. 2013
• ISBN: 9783844907742

Rezensionen für Frösche

[wassilissa · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

In seinem Buch erzählt der Nobelpreisträger von der Frauenärztin Gugu. Zwar ist sie für zehntausend Geburten verantwortlich, aber auch für über 2000 Abtreibungen, die die Einkindpolitik Chinas aufs härteste durchsetzt. Gugu ist eine fanatische Anhängerin der chinesischen Politik, auch Frauen im fünften und siebten Monat treibt sie die Kinder noch ab, jagt sie unerbittlich und gnadenlos. Der Ich-Erzähler, dessen Tante Gugu ist und der die Geschichte in einem Briefwechsel an den japanischen Schriftsteller erzählt, versucht bis zum Ende einen versöhnlichen Ton einzuschlagen. Es ist durchaus interessant gemacht, wie immer wieder die gleichen Figuren verwickelt werden, absurd und bestürzend zugleich. Mir hat das Buch sehr gut gefallen, da es ein Kapitel der chinesischen Geschichte sehr detailliert aufzeigt. Man kann gut folgen, das Buch ist stimmig. Motive und Bilder (etwa die Frösche) sind sinnvoll. Ich hatte das Hörbuch, das von Gert Heidenreich wirklich absolut genial gelesen ist. Der Schriftsteller, an den sich der Ich-Erzähler wendet, ist Kenzaburo Oe nachempfunden. Der Ich –Erzähler schreibt gegen Ende, dass sein Brieffreund auch wissen, wie es ist, wenn man sich in Schwierigkeiten für ein Kind entscheidet. Es stimmt, das Oe ein behindertes Kind hat und darüber geschrieben hat. Dieses Buch (Eine persönliche Erfahrung) werde ich nun als nächstes lesen.

[starbox_2 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

Frogs, babies and family planning, 9 April 2015This review is from: Frog (Hardcover)A powerful work, bringing to life the ramifications of China's 'One Child Policy'; when Gugu, a modern, no-nonsense midwife in a rural township, finds her life in tatters - both emotionally and politically - after her pilot lover absconds - she devotes herself to her work. Only now, the priority is to enforce China's family planning laws. Narrated by her nephew, we follow this apparently cold, hard woman, and her devoted assistant, Little Lion, as they pursue the 'illegally pregnant' ...The words for baby and frog are the same in Chinese; the nephew's nickname is 'Tadpole' and there are many references to frogs throughout the text. The years roll by and a modern and more capitalist regime succeeds the old, a world where anything is possible if you pay. And a local entrepreneur opens a bullfrog-breeding farm, which offers a whole different side to baby-making....After giving up on Mo Yan's 'Red Sorghum', I found this quite a compulsive read.

[seeword · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

Free ARC from publisher through Goodreads First Reads program.I liked this novel about a Chinese midwife who is caught up in China's population control policies. Gugu not only delivers babies, she must provide birth control information, insert IUDs, and perform abortions. The major part of the novel is told by her grand-nephew in a series of long letters. The final portion is a play based on Gugu's life. I found the play section tedious and really a slog to read.Although the subject matter is serious and the characters struggle with difficult moral choices and tragedies, there is a warmth, humor, and sympathy in the narration. Definitely worth reading.

[bluepigeon-1 · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

Frog by Mo Yan chronicles the illustrious career of an obstetrician, nicknamed Gugu. Gugu is very headstrong and stubborn; she is also a staunch communist, determined to walk the party line for a better Republic. Early in her life, she is disgraced by a fiance who defects, and perhaps to overcome this shame, she not only works harder to deliver many babies (the sweet potato babies being her first wave), but also strictly and thoroughly administer the one-child policy.Like the reality of a nation and the myth of a strong nation where everyone is moral and good and well looked after, there is the real Gugu and the myth. Gugu reminds us that "the people need their myths." She doesn't always speak up to denounce false rumors about her abilities to birth children, but she often asks questions that try to point out the ridiculous nature of some of the claims. She is, by far, the most interesting character in the book. With that said, it is hard to focus on Gugu, as the story meanders in too many tangents, all of which certainly have something to do with the lives of the villagers in Gugu's district and all of which are somehow affected by the births and the one-child policy, but very few provide insights into Gugu's motives and actions. The English translation carries the humor and sarcasm well, but perhaps the body-part names should have been used throughout, making it more accessible and the story easier to follow. I am not sure if I got the reason why the author chose to have the book be letters written by a playwright to his Japanese mentor. This seemed a bit contrived, and I failed to see the utility. If there was some meta-meta-commentary on Sino-Japanese relations, I missed it. Or rather, the story itself dealt quite a lot about this, so I didn't see the point of yet another device to do it, and do it not so well. Why couldn't the playwright tell us the story of Gugu and the villagers, and in the end present his play?The contrast between the play and the story is thought provoking. The surreal elements in the play act as great interpretations of the real, yet incredible events that took place. Perhaps the story and the play deal with Gugu's guilt a little too overtly, but it still suits the satirical and humorous tone throughout.Overall, this engaging story could have been much tighter. Perhaps the main problem is that there was only one character that I found rather interesting and I cared about in the whole novel. And there wasn't enough of her to carry the heft of the book.Thanks to Goodreads First Reads and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange of my honest review.

[beamis12 · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

2.5 Tadpole is our narrator, an aspiring playwright, he is telling the story of his Aunt Gugu. Although she started out as a midwife, she is soon trying to prove her loyalty to the party by strictly enforcing Mao's one child policy. This becomes necessary when her loyalty is questioned and she is arrested after her fiancé, a pilot, defected.Individual responses to the changes in China under Mao, the famine and the one child policy are both horrific to experience. Late term abortions, planting of IUD's after the first birth without the mothers permission, enforced vasectomies and of course men, wanting sons after the first birth of a daughter, putting pressure on their wives.I found this book confusing. So many names, back and forth timeline, which is very hard to do successfully and maybe just too much covered in the plot. So read it for the history, not for the story itself. ARC from publisher.

[shelleyraec · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

Frog is the latest novel from contemporary Chinese novelist Mo Yan, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012.The novel is presented in five parts, with each prefaced by a letter from our narrator, Wan Zu/Xiaopao/Tadpole, an aspiring playright, to his Japanese mentor. Set in a rural community in the Shangdong province of China, the events he relates spans several decades from 1960 to around 2000.Frog deals largely with the controversial themes of China’s one child policy with Tadpole writing about his Aunt Gugu, a skilled and popular midwife who later, as a loyal communist, becomes a reviled militant enforcer of the country’s one-child policy. Wan Zu, who plans to write a play about her, relates his observations about the effect of the reform over time on his Aunt and the members of his rural community.It is important to note that the author, as a Chinese citizen, is forced to skirt government censorship so there is no direct criticism of China’s one child policy, which he personally opposes, and some consequences of the law, such as infanticide – where girl baby’s were murdered in order for family’s to try for a boy- are never referred to. There are some harrowing and brutal scenes, including women dragged from their homes to undergo forced late term abortions and some general examples of draconian political practices including public shaming and punishment.Surprisingly perhaps, there is also a generous amount of humour in the story, from Wang Gan’s crush on ‘Little Lion’ to a hand drawn watch, from the rivalry between Gugu and the traditional midwives, and later her supervisor, and the often farcial events and conversations at family gatherings.I was interested to learn that the title ‘Frog’ has multiple meanings which underscore the themes of the novel. The obvious association stems from he narrator of the story who, when writing to his mentor, signs his name as Tadpole. Less obvious to readers unfamiliar with the Chinese language is that the Chinese character for frog is a homophone for a legendary Chinese goddess who created human beings and patched up the sky, and in English the pronunciation is similar to ‘wah’, as in a baby’s cry. Additionally, in some areas of rural China, frogs are revered as symbols of fertility.I have to admit I struggled to keep the characters straight at times, hampered by unfamiliar and similar sounding names amongst a large cast. The first three parts of the novel held my interest but it begin to wane during the last two, which includes the play Tadpole has been promising his mentor.Frog is is not an easy read but an illuminating one, essentially a tragicomedy, exploring the collision of China’s politics with the personal.