´One Tuesday, My Mother Decided to Become German`

 

I am too honest and vain and I confess that I really loved the cover of this book before even starting to read it. I am in love with Persian prints and using them as a background of the German eagle looks like a good visual association for the title: ´One Tuesday, My Mother Decided to Become German´. A story perfectly relatable for me, as it reminds me of part of an observation that I younger member of my family repeated at length in the last decade of my life spent in Germany: Yeah, one day - was not a Tuesday, I´m sure - you decided to move to Germany and turn us into Germans. As it will be so easy...

This cynical-comical novel written in German by the Iranian-born Fahimeh Farsaie, currently a journalist and author based in Cologne - relates to many of us, parents, who decided to move in a new country and get used with a new identity. The honorable mother of an Iranian family exiled after the revolution in Germany, decides to give up the Iranian citizenship and start the process of becoming German, For her, it means more than going through the bureaucratic process and the basic language tests. She really want to be one of ´them´ and her journey does not take place without creating various conflicts with her husband - a proud Iranian communist -, the rest of the family in Iran, and own children, both of them more or less involved with non-Iranian friends.

Although I´ve enjoyed must of the book - that I´ve read in the original German version -, I´ve found some stories a bit too general and lacking the local context - for instance, what about the mother´s local network, did she have any friends here, what was she interested in when she was not trying to become a German?

As a story of immigration, this book adds a small layer to the relatively limited bibliography written by non-born German residents. Hopefully I will find soon other contemporary books on this topic. 

Rating: 2.5 stars