Born: July 10, 1871
Auteuil, France
Died: November 18, 1922
Paris, France French author
French novelist Marcel Proust was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. His books abandoned plot and dramatic action in favor of the narrator‘s descriptions of his experiences in the world.
Here I publish some links about author Ijoma Mangold as well as some copies of some relevant articles. Sorry, I could not find anything in English. I added two videos, one is in English. You may find it interesting to find out something about Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel ‘The Goldfinch’. Ijoma Mangold was today a guest in the Deusche Welle program ‘Der Tag’:
“Ijoma Mangold, geboren 1971 in Heidelberg, studierte Literaturwissenschaft und Philosophie in München und Bologna. Nach Stationen bei der «Berliner Zeitung» und der «Süddeutschen Zeitung» wechselte er 2009 zur Wochenzeitung «Die Zeit», deren Literaturchef er seit 2013 ist. Zusammen mit Amelie Fried moderierte er die ZDF-Sendung «Die Vorleser». Außerdem gehört er zum Kritiker-Quartett der Sendung «lesenswert» des SWR-Fernsehens. Mangold lebt in Berlin.”
“Ijoma Alexander Mangold lautet sein vollständiger Name; er hat dunkle Haut, dunkle Locken. In den siebziger Jahren wächst er in Heidelberg auf. Seine Mutter stammt aus Schlesien, sein Vater ist aus Nigeria nach Deutschland gekommen, um sich zum Facharzt für Kinderchirurgie ausbilden zu lassen. Weil es so verabredet war, geht er nach kurzer Zeit nach Afrika zurück und gründet dort eine neue Familie. Erst zweiundzwanzig Jahre später meldet er sich wieder und bringt Unruhe in die Verhältnisse.
Ijoma Mangold, heute einer unserer besten Literaturkritiker, erinnert sich an seine Kindheits- und Jugendjahre. Wie wuchs man als «Mischlingskind» und «Mulatte» in der Bundesrepublik auf? Wie geht man um mit einem abwesenden Vater? Wie verhalten sich Rasse und Klasse zueinander? Und womit fällt man in Deutschland mehr aus dem Rahmen, mit einer dunklen Haut oder mit einer Leidenschaft für Thomas Mann und Richard Wagner?
Erzählend beantwortet Mangold diese Lebensfragen, hält er seine Geschichte und deren dramatische Wendungen fest, die Erlebnisse mit seiner deutschen und mit seiner afrikanischen Familie. Und nicht zuletzt seine überraschenden Erfahrungen mit sich selbst.”
The novel is a Bildungsroman told in the first person by Theodore Decker who, at the age of 13, survives a terrorist bombing at an art museum in which his beloved mother dies. Staggering out through the debris, he takes with him a small, Dutch Golden Age painting, The Goldfinch, which will serve as a singular source of hope as he descends into a world of crime. The painting is one of the few surviving works by Rembrandt‘s most promising pupil, Carel Fabritius; almost his entire oeuvre was destroyed in the Delft explosion of 1654, in which Fabritius was killed.
I can’t believe that today is already the 4th of October. The different months just come too quickly. I feel as though it must still be September!
Well, these beautiful flowers in the picture I received last Sunday, which was the 1st of October. On Monday we had a public holiday here in NSW and Victoria of Australia. So this long weekend was a good time for travelling. Our daughter Monika for instance and a lot of her family travelled to Victora over last weekend. I hope now that Monika can see us after work sometime this week so she can tell us all about their trip to Victoria. I think they stayed for one night in Benalla where our son Martin lives now.
We had daughter Caroline and Matthew staying with us last Sunday. We went for lunch to the TREASURE COURT restaurant at the Dapto Leagues Club which I enjoyed very much. I had small prawns in Curry sauce and boiled rice. We also had vegetarian mini spring rolls as an entree. And all four of us had beautiful Chinese tea. We each got a fortune cookie with our tea. Caroline and I took our cookies home and did only open them at home. Can I remember what it said on the cookies’ verses? Sorry, no I can’t.
With our coffee at home we had savories instead of cake. I took some more pictures of my beautiful flowers on one of the following days: