Witty slant to politics

IT IS impossible to pin the man down, to get a "straight forward" interview. I am left with scattered impressions. Thorsten Becker, the German novelist, manages to be both elusive and funny at the same time. Visiting the Max Mueller Bhavan, Chennai, as a participant in the on-going German Festival in India 2000-2001, Becker gives his audience a reading from his novel "Schones Deutschland" or "Beautiful Germany." He endears himself to the audience almost at once by declaring in carefully learnt Tamil, "Naan ini padikkapogiren" (I will now read).

With his hawai chappals and unshaven look, he appears every inch a carefree student. His writings speak, however, for his depth and political maturity.

"Beautiful Germany" is a fine piece of literature that carries the markings of politics with it, even as it steers clear from sounding propagandist or dry. Both witty and intelligent, the novel makes a powerful anti-unification statement.

Set in 2048, the narrative happens in a world that is divided between China and Brazil, two super powers. As a consequence, Germany itself is divided between these two powers.

The narrator's loyalty to East Germany comes under fire when he decides to follow the girl he loves to the West. In a sense then, Becker has used the novel to play out his own anxieties and dilemmas, that of a former East German for whom, in his words, "the speed of history was too fast".

However, never once does nostalgia hamper the pace of the novel. Becker takes swipes at East German theatre and its directors: "A theatre director is forced to treat human beings like animals, and therefore, his attitude towards animals becomes his most important characteristic. I had once observed Fritz Meier and his conversation with a fly that lasted for hours..."

Becker's reading from the German original of the novel was preceded by an introduction both in English and Tamil by Professor V. Ganesan of CIEFL, Hyderabad and followed by a reading from G. Krishnamurthy's Tamil translation. This format devised by the Sahitya Akademi (the co-organiser of the programme) and the Max Mueller Bhavan worked well, allowing for an interesting and vibrant interaction between the author and the audience.

Born in 1958 in Oberlahnstein, Becker grew up in Cologne and joined the Vienna Actors Academy where he studied Philosophy, History, Sociology and Theatre Science. His novella, "Die Burgschaft" (The Guarantee) published in 1985, sold over one lakh copies. His other work was not received too well. It was "Beautiful Germany" that brought him to the limelight again, and gave him the success which Becker jokingly says he shares with his namesake in the tennis world. A professional writer for over 16 years now, he has been honoured with several awards and scholarships for his literary work, among them the prize of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a leading German daily newspaper. Becker now lives in Berlin but says he might soon have to move because the neighbourhood is increasingly becoming racist and neo-Nazi. In a sense, Becker is uncomfortable being in his fatherland. However, his experiments of living in exile, first in Greece and later in Zurich after the unification, did not work either.

"When I reached India, I had this strange feeling that I had been here before. I felt at home here," Becker says. I comment on his happy public face, an image that is often contrary to that of the solitary writer. "That is just on the outside! I am actually a private person when I write. I am also a very disciplined writer. I work every day for so many hours till I produce a bit of writing. That is when I am writing, of course." he adds.

What was it like to write in East Germany? "Literature was extremely important in East Germany. The freedom of expression that the West claims it encourages is an illusion."

As a writer in residence here, his next novel, he says, will use Ashoka as the narrator. "A good writer should be 15 years ahead of his times," Becker declares. It is perhaps this very quality of remaining ahead that lends a certain sharpness of political insight to his work.

K. S.

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