Life's Invisible Battles Tohon (2024)

Diskriminierung und Vorurteile sind der in Pforzheim geborenen Tochter türkischstämmiger Eltern nicht unbekannt. Die Bestürzung nach dem rassistischen Anschlag von Hanau im Jahr 2020, ist der Herausgeberin des Buches deutlich anzumerken. Ausgehend von Walter Benjamins Buch "Deutsche Menschen", eine Briefsammlung bekannter Persönlichkeiten, entstanden 1936 im Schweizer Exil, will Selma Wels in "anders bleiben" den Beitragenden, die selbst Ausgrenzung erfahren haben, eine Stimme geben. Welche Werte leiten unsere Miteinander und was macht "deutsch" sein eigentlich aus? Die Autoren schreiben auf berührender Art mal an das eigene Ich, an reale oder fiktive Menschen. Und auch an jene die uns nicht mehr hören können. Für jede*n ist "anders" eine völlig andere Definition. Am meisten beindruckt hat mich die Geschichte von Najem Wali, der in jungen Jahren in einer südirakischen Stadt eine arabische Übersetzung von Rilkes "Duineser Elegien" findet und das sein Leben völlig auf den Kopf stellt!

Renowned science fiction writer M. John Harrison looks back on his impressive career and reflects on his life as well as his stance on literature and writing - what might sound like a fairly straightforward and possibly lacklustre endeavour ends up being the complete opposite. As Harrison is skeptical about the memoir itself (he calls his an "anti-memoir"), reading "Wish I was here" feels like finding a bunch of blurry snapshots in an old box, all out of order or context. The passages in which he lays out political ideas or describes his writing process cut through this dreamlike scenario like a knife; not only because of how precisely they are phrased, but also because of how interesting, unusual and sometimes provocative they are (in a good way). I can safely say I've never read a memoir - or a creative writing guidebook - that comes close to this one!

Prompted by her own series of painful heartbreaks, Australian journalist Stephens sets out to retell the stories of three different people in her debut book. Patrick, Ana and Claire are from different generations and backgrounds but they all share the experience of having relationships that they thought would last forever, suddenly breaking apart. Stephens transforms hours of conversation into three fictionalized stories in a set up that reminded me strongly of Lisa Taddeo's "Three Women". While intriguing, gripping and easy to read, I can't help but feel that by focusing on the relaionship before the break-up, Stephens slightly misjudges her own premise. Relatively little space is allocated to the actual break-ups, much less to the healing process that hopefully followed. I also feel that more voices with higher focus might have served the subject better. Nonetheless, this is a thoughtful book on an all too human experience, which is rarely this specifically written about otherwise.

It sounds completely implausible: the young French anthropologist Martin is trekking through the wild tundra in Kamchatka, when she is attacked by a bear, who violently bites into her face and thigh. Martin, however, manages to fight him off and survives, having to go through a number of complicated operations, unimaginable pain and transformative self-doubt about the complete change of her face. Her memoir about this experience is magical, unclassifiable and occasionally impenetrable. Her trained anthropologist mind teases out meanings here, deeper symbolism, but her new status as someone who survived a bear attack also connects her ever deeper with the spiritual culture of the Evens who she was studying. I'll freely admit that I didn't understand at least 20% of the book, but it is no less impressive and astonishing for it.

Harry Dodge thinks the world is a product of randomness; a conviction that doesn't keep him from tracing patterns, mostly tiny but astonishing coincidences in his life that appear to him like folds in space time. It is this fundamental ontological problem, the rift between the accidental nature of the world and a desire for purpose (and wherever we're placing free will in all of this) around which his memoir revolves. But "My Meteorite" is neither a text about astrophysics, nor a philosophical study - it is something else entirely. In its critical reception, Ben Lerner has called it a thing that "oxygenates discourse," while Miranda July compares it to a "brilliant friend." Isn't it interesting that the greatness of "My Meteorite" seems to lie in its capacity to do both: understand you in a way only a friend can, while still challenging you to get out of your comfort zone and think differently?

Viola Davis impresses with intensity in cinema, for television and on stage. In 'Finding me' we accompany the actress through her childhood and to the roots of her strength.
It's a tough road full of adversity, setbacks and trauma.
Viola's powerful writing is breathtaking, relentlessly honest and full of wise insights.
I really love it.

Ma and Me is a stunning memoir that wrestles with the question of what we owe the people that gave us life. Putsata Reang is barely one year old when her family flees Cambodia for America. She survives the perilous journey solely due to the determination of her mother. This sense of filial duty to please her mother, to be a good Cambodian daughter, causes a rift between them when Putsata reveals her queerness. Similar to Ocean Vuong's "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous", Reang movingly explores themes of queer awakening and romance, complex mother-daughter relationships, the traumas of war, and the search for one's own identity as the child of Asian immigrants. A must-read for lovers of "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" or Michelle Zauner's "Crying in H-Mart".

Hayes' spare and beautiful collection of photographs and diary snippets is one of the first books that tries to capture our new reality. Chronicling the first few months of the pandemic in a New York under strict lockdown, Hayes movingly succeeds in capturing the surreal stillness of the stopped city accumulating deaths. Having myself lived through those months in Berlin and mainly remembering long walks, warm sping days and lots of cooking, I was struck by the difference in our experiences and how much more menacing Hayes' account feels. Shot through the snapshots of a silent city are pictures of 2019, with laughing crowds and party scenes, making for a bittersweet reminder indeed. Occasionally, I found Hayes's voice drifting into the sentimental and looking for an unnessecary emotional punchline, but overall, this is a poignant and beautiful book.

Er ist einer der größten Stars Hollywoods, Rapper, Kino-Held und der "Prinz von Bel-Air". Doch der Strahlemann hatte immer mit ganz eigenen Problemen und Widrigkeiten zu kämpfen: Selbstkritisch und reflektiert führt Will Smith in "Will" durch sein Leben und lässt dabei auch seine Schwächen, Zweifel, Fehler, Macken nicht aus. Ein erfrischendes, fesselndes Buch, das beeindruckend den Menschen hinter der Promi-Fassade zeigt.

The final instalment of Deborah Levy's living autobiography series is her most sensual one, a meditation on home as a physical and non-physical entity, and what (and who) it takes to make a place feel like one. From silk bed sheets to the smell of ylang-ylang, homemade guava ice cream, and good company, Levy invites us to share her appreciation for the small pleasures in life. Part travel memoir and literary criticism, we follow her as she moves to Paris, Berlin, Greece, London, New York, and Mumbai, and muses on domesticity, aging, and relationships, in a way that feels effortless rather than jumbled or overwrought.

Viola Davis impresses with intensity in cinema, for television and on stage. In 'Finding me' we accompany the actress through her childhood and to the roots of her strength.
It's a tough road full of adversity, setbacks and trauma.
Viola's powerful writing is breathtaking, relentlessly honest and full of wise insights.
I really love it.

Somewhat to my surprise (since I thought the author and I would have little in common) I was absolutely engrossed by this memoir.
I especially loved Zauner's reminiscence of her life in the Pacific Northwest, more precisely in Eugene, Oregon. It coincidentally is the same town the American side of my family lived for decades and where I spent a few months after graduation myself; getting to know the college town a little bit which means I was able to recognize many of the spots she describes, be it the Willamette River I cycled next to frequently to get downtown or visiting a concert at the McDonald Theatre.
Zauner's heart-wrenching story of her mother's illness brought tears to my eyes several times and her overt passion for Korean food made me curious to try more of this cuisine. This book is a real treasure!

In Kapuscinski's strange, genre-defying work, a choir of former courtiers whispers to him about the extravagances and eventual decline of the Ethiopian monarchy. The book sits somewhere between oral history and reportage but its strange magic is wrought through the voices of the disgraced king's servants, now in hiding and only to be met through secret doors. They describe the lavish palace, the absurd rituals and the absolute power of the king that everyone had to scrape under. Their flowery language of adoration and servitude masks hidden depths of resentment and glee. It is this contradiction, as well as the observations on possibly the last absolutist monarchy, that make this book the astonishing masterpiece it is.