Sunday, September 11, 2022

Hunting Two Tigers...

 


Before starting to read the collection of 15 stories Schlachtensee, the latest by Helene Hegemann, I wanted to get familiar with her writing through another book of her. Trying to avoid the controversial Axolotl Roadkill I decided for Jage Zwei Tiger - Hunt Two Tigers, in my translation. 

The title is inspired by a title of a song by the Slovenian alternative band Laibach and explores various variants of youth sexuality and debauchery. The characters are snobbish youth, mostly from the South of Germany, particularly München, coming from financially abundant background, but broken families. The novel is often compared to Tschick by Wolfgang Herrndorf, which I don´t like at all. If the characters from Tschick were boring teens looking for a local adventure, the ones from Jage Zwei Tiger are asocial, drug addicts, soul-less and a disgrace to themselves. No matter if young or old, they are limited emotionally and intellectually (the vocabulary used is very limited and , dead souls running fast forward through life. And that´s all what it happens in this book and although my attention span is usually limited, still couldn´t cope with the excessive debauchery.

Hopefully my next encounter with Hegemann´s writing will be more intellectually rewarding.

Rating: 2 stars


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