| | ISBN: 3423128399
| 2004-06-25 | 3423128399 | Die Entdeckung der Currywurst | Timm, Uwe | L?neburg2 | | | This is the first book we read in our literature class this summer at Universit?t L?neburg. There is an English translation if you can't read German (The Invention of Curried Sausage.
If you don't know, currywurst is bratwurst served with a tomato curry sauce, very popular in Germany. Berlin and Hamburg both lay claim to having invented currywurst, and in this novel, Uwe Timm, who comes from Hamburg, puts forth a story explaining how currywurst originated in his hometown. My class took a trip to Hamburg to see the places mentioned in the book and of course to try currywurst.
How and where currywurst was developed is however only part of what this book is about. Alternating between present time and Hamburg in the last days of the Second World War, this book is one of many that help to tell how younger Germans, growing up after the war, have tried to digest just what went on and what roles their parents and other older Germans took in the war.
This class was the first German literature class I'd ever taken, and this book was the first full-length (despite this book being billed as a novella and having only 7 chapters, it was a very long 186 pages) one that I'd ever attempted in German. Add in the Hamburg dialect that Timm uses in parts of the book, and it was a bit of a challenge for me to read, although a worthwhile one of course. | |
| |