2021 will be marked in my bookish history as the year when my German skills felt safe enough to explore as many as possible books nominated for the longlist of Deutscher Buchpreis. In the next days and weeks I am able to offer longer or shorter reviews of most of the nominated books. Most probably although will not be fast enough to finish the list until the short list, respectively the winner will be announced, the reading and reviewing exercise will reveal important directions in the German-speaking realm.
I often think and write - but more think, anyway - about the state-of-the arts of the identity (crisis) discussion in Germany. More often, I´ve find the discourse inconsistent, dogmatic, insincere, superficial and also boring. Don´t expect too much out of it except narcissistic voyeurism. Until I´ve read Identitti by Mithu M. Sanyal.
What does this almost 400-page book brings new to the discussion? First and foremost, a sense of humour and an intellectual irony that you can search for centuries in any ´serious´ media interventions on the topic. They are called ´serious´ for a good philological reason, I suppose.
´This will blow your mind´. Yes, please.
The main topic which is turn on all its faces, intersectionalist or not, is...race. Nivendita Anand is exploring her Indian-German heritage as a blogger - on her ´Blog by a Mix-raced Wonder-woman´ and student of advanced studies. At university, she is following and defending Saraswati, a kind of German Rachel Dolezal who claims a mixed heritage but in fact has a very German family.
The discussion is very nuanced, complex and philosophical touching upon issues relevant not only for Germany, but on the race topic in general. For pages long, it looked for me as a philosophy lesson addressing very serious issues, but without the drama, the sights and the rolled eyes of self-contempt usually associated with it. Also the name dropping and the big words are missing and I am very glad for it.
One can talk about identity and race without necessarily looking for a final verdict or definition. Philosophical inquiry is a journey without a destination, but in order to continue, it needs dedicated humans with critical minds to advance. And with a smart sense of humour. Actually, smart people afford themselves to approach life with humour. Only smart people do it.
Identitti is a gem of a book whose juicy dialogues and introspection I´ve enjoyed a lot. It brings such a fresh air in the literary works in German language on topics of high actuality. I can only hope that someone will have the bright idea to translate this book into English. It´s really worth being known outside, in the wide intellectually curious world.
Rating: 4.5 stars
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