Kleermaker Adam die te veel van de vrouwen houdt die hij kleedt, geeft toch het meerste om zijn vriendin Evelyn, die echter in 1989 (Wende) uit jaloezie naar Hongarije vertrekt ( )

Ingo Schuzle's story of Adam and Evelyn leaving the Eastern Bloc for the West is an imagining of what might have happened when the biblical Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden.

Where would they go? What would they do? And how did they feel about it?

Evelyn comes home from quitting her waitress job to find Adam in the bathtub having sex with one of his tailoring customers. This is just one woman too far and Evelyn storms out of the house decided to go on vacation to Hungary with friends, and without Adam.

Adam, oblivious to why Eve is so angry, packs his car and follows her. As they all drive across borders to Hungary, political tensions are high as large groups of people gather at the borders hoping that the restrictions against travel to the west are beginning to fall.

Adam sneaks a woman he meets at a rest stop, Katja, across the border in the trunk of his car. Evelyn has an affair with her friend's cousin, Michael, which puzzles Adam who still doesn't understand that Evelyn thinks their time as a couple is over.

This book works best as the story of two young people trying to figure out what their lives should mean. One thinks things are great just as they are in the East and really doesn't see a reason to leave, yet does. Evelyn, on the other hand, is restless and believes she can have a better life in the West where she can go to university and study what she likes.

There is endless pointless bickering until the very end, which in some ways mirrors the endless pointless political bickering over borders and ideologies. At the end, the Berlin Wall comes down, and Adam and Evelyn set up life in the West. ( )

Info Schulze's novel Adam & Evelyn takes place primarily during a four month span in the summer and fall of 1989 when a tumultuous series of events in Eastern Europe culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall. Schulze's purpose in writing this novel might have been to present an event that had (and has) global ramifications from the perspective of ordinary people who were experiencing it while it happened, at ground level as it were. Adam and Evelyn live in East Berlin. Their lives are busy and they have little interest in politics. Adam is a tailor with only female clients, and one day in August Evelyn returns home to find Adam in a compromising situation with one of these clients. She leaves, meeting up with the people that she and Adam were intending to travel with to Hungary for a vacation. Adam follows. What ensues is a mad dash across several borders as Adam tries to convince Evelyn that their relationship is worth saving. External events rush forward, however, and eventually they are presented with a much more profound and startling dilemma: whether to return home at all or settle in the West and begin a new life. The novel is effective because it draws us into a story involving several people during a crucial turning point in history and shows us the issues they grapple with as they struggle to make decisions that will change their lives forever. It could have been more effective, however, if Schulze had given us characters we could truly care about. Both Adam and Evelyn have genuinely touching moments, but they can also be moody and petty. Again and again Schulze gives their bickering center stage, not seeming to realize that he's testing his reader's patience. Still, the novel is engaging more often than not and provides a Western reader with a window into a time and place that changed the world in which we live. ( )

Adam og Evelyn er ikke en decideret politisk roman, men det er en fortælling om, hvordan politik pludselig trængte ind i almindelige menneskers liv i den magiske sommer 1989. Den direkte vej til Vesttyskland havde været spærret siden opførelsen af Berlinmuren i 1961, men østtyskerne kunne rejse til de andre lande i østblokken, og da Ungarn åbnede grænsen til Østrig strømmede de mod vest – og drejede dermed endnu et par omgange på DDR’s dødsspiral.

Adam er dameskrædder i nærheden af Leipzig. Han elsker at sy, og han elsker (med) de kvinder han syr smukke kjoler til. Han bor også sammen med Evelyn, og da hun fanger ham på fersk gerning, har vi balladen. Hun pakker kufferten og tager med en veninde på den ferie til Ungarn, de allerede havde planlagt. Adam nægter imidlertid at acceptere situationen, så han følger efter i sin gamle Trabant for at vinde hende tilbage igen.

Evelyn finder sammen med vesttyskeren Michael, og i Tjekkoslovakiet møder Adam Katja, der for enhver pris vil væk. Da de alle sammen er vel installeret ved Belatonsøen trænger den politiske virkelighed sig på: Skal de tage over, nu hvor muligheden byder sig, eller skal de tage tilbage igen? Det valg er selvfølgelig langt mere alvorligt, end det virker i dag: De vidste jo ikke, at DDR var et halvt år fra sammenbruddet, så valget mellem øst og vest måtte tage sig ud som en ”nu eller aldrig” situation.

Romanen har mange lag. Den bygger selvfølgelig på skabelsesberetningen, uden at Schulze på nogen måde argumenterer for, at det er paradiset, de forlader. Det er snarere en ironisk kommentar til DDR’s selvopfattelse, men vesten er selvfølgelig heller ikke uden problemer. Den eneste vej til det evige liv synes at være Michaels forskning i aldringsprocesser! Biblen fungerer fint som ironisk baggrundstæppe for historien uden at blive en påtvunget skabelon.

Bogen reflekterer selvfølgelig også hele den østeuropæiske historie, som den udspringer af. Adam er født i 1956 (Ungarn-opstanden) Trabanten er årgang 1961 (samme år Berlin-muren satte grænser for, hvor den kunne køre hen) og Evelyn er født i 1968 (foråret i Prag og ungdomsoprøret). Selvom undertrykkelsen og overvågningen behandles med ironi (”Ich weiß jetzt, wie es in Wirklichkeit is. Wir sind beide von der Staatssicherheit und kontrollieren die Glaubwürdigkeit des anderen Mitarbeiters.”s. 81-82) så ligger den berettigede paranoia alligevel hele tiden på lur. På et tidspunkt bliver Adam f.eks. overbevist om, at Michael arbejder for den vesttyske efterretningstjeneste.

Alligevel er historien først og sidst en fortælling om to menneskers besværlige kærlighed, og Schulzes fortid som skuespilforfatter viser sig tydeligt i den sceniske opbygning, hvor tingene næsten udelukkende fortælles gennem replikker. Jeg var fascineret af den store historie og rammen om fortællingen, men til gengæld fangede kærlighedshistorien mig ikke specielt. ( )

De flaptekst beschrijft Adam und Evelyn als een tragikomedie. Dat is, vind ik, een juiste beschrijving van het genre van deze roman over deze twee Oost-Duitsers. Zij, Evelyn, betrapt hem, Adam, op overspel. Adam is kleermaker en wordt door zijn dankbare vrouwelijke klanten vaak ook nog in natura beloond.

Lees verder op deze pagina van mijn boekenblog. ( )