 Thomas Meinecke - Tomboy. |
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As far as I can remember I first heard of this novel while driving, listening to the radio. I was on my way to Stuttgart or Karlsruhe, and they broadcasted a review of Thomas Meinecke's Tomboy, along with a general insight into the term "tomboy" and other gender-related subject matter. I later read a positive review in a German magazine and went out to buy the book. It lay on my shelf for a while, and I remember taking it with me on a canoe trip north of Berlin, in the hope of finishing it in a couple of days (which I didn't).
As I haven't touched it in years, my memory of the story has faded, besides some basic data: the place is Heidelberg, a small German city known for its American and Japanese tourists, but in this context most of all a city packed with students of the humanities. Discussing gender issues, or "gender troubles" as the book sleeve states it, making up theories as they chat with their friends, interrupted by the occasional Judith Butler quote and even a short appearance by Mrs. Butler herself (as some of the main characters travel to one of her readings).
I really have no idea why this novel attracted my interest. I later saw it at a friend's place, and we had a short chat during which he recommended it emphatically. But I am neither interested in books about the life of German students (despite being one myself at that time) nor in the general subject of gender studies, so it seemed like a pretty nerdy book to me. I later lent it to another friend who took it with him for a three months trip somewhere in southern Europe, and as far as I know he didn't enjoy it more than I did. (He admittedly had more important stuff to do, like lying in the sun, chatting with locals, and occasionaly even working.)
When I now flip through the pages of Tomboy it seems to be little more than a pretentious novel that gained interest of certain media for a short time span, because the subject matter was en vogue and the concept original. The outlet of someone who was too lazy to write scientific papers and thus wrote a novel, but then forgot to add an interesting plot.
About the Book
| Title: | Tomboy, by Thomas Meinecke | |
| Publisher: | Suhrkamp (D) 1999, first published in 1998 | |
| Vita: | Aquired in ca. 1999 in Berlin, price unknown. Stopped reading at page 128 of 251. |
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