Tirza

This book hurts. The protagonist Vorname is so fucked up and I would despise his way of life in the real world.. Nevertheless, you feel and suffer with him despite of his awkwardness. He is an editor – once in the early career a promising one. The book starts that he is told by his bosses, that they wanted to fire him because he did not find a single best-selling author all these years. They ask him, what did you achieved all those years? Nothing! But the labor laws do not allow that he can be fired, so they give him free until his official retirement in two years. What a beginning! Now we learn about how he became the person he is. The counterpoint is his wife, Vorname, which left him many times, came always back, and the last time disappeared with one of her young lovers until the current story unfolds. She is maybe even more disgusting in her complete lack of responsibility, self-pity, and the inability to age with dignity. She ignores even her own wise conclusion: “there is nobody left for us, it is only you and me we have each other for the rest of our lives. Even we hate each other, we have only ourselves.” He negates even this simple realization, since he has his (their) daughter, who he brought up alone since his wife left the family. And this is what the book is about: the obsessive, possessive, compensative paternal love for his daughter. Tirza.