Alles beginnt mit einem Kuss

by Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir

Im Jahr 2003 wird Island von einem zerstörerischen Ausbruch des Vulkans Katla heimgesucht, ganze Landstriche werden unbewohnbar und selbst in Reykjavík sind die Auswirkungen spürbar. Dort führt das Künstlerpaar Elísabet und Láki ein ausschweifendes Leben. Die charismatische Elisabet spinnt einen Mythos um ihre eigene Person und behauptet, sie habe als junges Mädchen den Kuss der Erleuchtung empfangen, der sie verändert und zur Künstlerin gemacht habe. Während Láki das Spiel mitspielt, lehnt ihr 18jähriger Adoptivsohn Davíd die bizarren Geschichten seiner Mutter kategorisch ab. Er macht sie für seine chaotische Kindheit verantwortlich und glaubt, dass sie durch ihr Verhalten andere ins Unglück stürzt. Dies scheint sich zu bewahrheiten, als Elísabet ihre alte Schulfreundin Indi und deren Mann Jón wiedertrifft, die ihrem Bann verfallen und deren Leben völlig aus den Fugen gerät. Dreizehn Jahre später bekommt Davíd durch Zufall eine Kiste mit Unterlagen seines inzwischen verstorbenen Stiefvaters Láki in die Hände und beginnt nachzuforschen, was damals mit Indi und Jón wirklich geschah ...

382 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Guðrún Eva's first book, Sóley sólufegri, came out in 1998 in a very limited edition. In the same year the publishing house Bjartur published her short story collection Á meðan hann horfir á þig ertu María mey (While He Watches You, You are the Virgin Mary), to much acclaim. Since then Guðrún Eva has published five novels, a collection of philosophical stories for children published by The National Centre for Educational Materials and a book of poetry. She has also translated novels by foreign authors.

Reviews

[Gordon Ambos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Der Schreibstil war super. Die Geschichte war jedoch ein einziges Durcheinander und lässt mich verwirrt zurück.

[Kristín · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir er vel skrifandi og hún hefur frjótt ímyndunarafl. Ég verð samt að segja að ég næ henni ekki alveg. Ég veit yfirleitt ekki hvað það er sem hún er að segja mér nema að litlu leyti. Það er svolítið þannig í þessari bók. Hún er svona eiginlega „fyrir lengra komna“.

[Kiki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spannendes Buch, viele philosophische Ansätze dabei. Darüber habe ich mich natürlich gefreut. Manchmal fiel es mir schwer, dem Verlauf zu folgen und auch über das Ende habe ich noch eine Weile nachgedacht. Alles in allem finde ich den Literaturpreis auf alle Fälle gerechtfertigt und freu mich, dass ich es in dem second Hand Laden in Dänemark gefunden und mitgenommen habe.

[Roberta Carambia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Di sicuro un libro che ti tiene con il fiato sospeso e la voglia di continuare a leggere dall'inizio alla fine.
L'ho trovato molto particolare. Mi è piaciuto molto l'inserimento di vignette all'inizio e in mezzo al racconto.
La fine un po' però mi ha delusa.
Si sono intervallate varie storie, vari collegamenti tra fiabe, racconti e miti che però non credo di essere riuscita ad interpretare e sviscerare nella maniera corretta. Sempre che ci fosse un'interpretazione corretta da comprendere sull'intersecarsi dei vari avvenimenti, perché a volte l'ho trovato così ermetico da farmi supporre di dover godere solo della lettura senza cercare di provare ad andare oltre.
Diciamo che mi ha lasciato un retrogusto dolce amaro, speravo che la fine ricomponesse i vari pezzi del puzzle, ma forse non era questa l'intenzione dell'autrice. Forse l'intenzione era proprio quella di far riflettere e ragionare sui vari personaggi, sulle loro storie e sui loro caratteri anche nei giorni seguenti la fine della lettura.
Di sicuro è un libro che lascia il segno.

[Theresa Gräfe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ich habe den Roman „das Gewächshaus“ dieser Autorin geliebt und „Alles beginnt mit einem Kuss“ mit entsprechend hohen Erwartungen begonnen. Leider hat es mich überhaupt nicht abgeholt. Die Analogien zur Bibel, die sexualisierte Geschichte der Sonne, Menschen dir Drogen nehmen und den Sinn zur Realität verlieren und dadurch denken, sie können zaubern. Alles wild durcheinandergemischt. Mit den Figuren wurde ich dabei nicht warm und das Auftauchen der Mutter hat mich jedes Mal nur genervt. 2 Sterne gibt es für die sprachliche Gestaltung die wiederum wortgewandt und präzise ist. Die Geschichte jedoch hat mich leider gar nicht überzeugt.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allt með kossi vekur – All is awakened with a kiss by Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir, 2011

This book works on a number of levels and is comprised of four interlinked sections. It begins with a retelling of the Garden of Eden story in cartoon-form. The first cartoon strip tells of the Tree of Knowledge (of good and evil) and follows the biblical pattern. The second cartoon strip is an expanded retelling of the Tree of Life. In this story a daughter of Eve and a man from another tradition return to the Garden of Eden. They do not do what is required of them and ultimately cannot resist eating of the fruit of the Tree of Life. This has consequences as serious as when Adam and Eve disobeyed and they are drawn together in a kiss, the result of which is that their offspring are not flesh of their flesh but fire of their fire. The kiss can be passed from one person to another and just as fire has both creative and destructive effects, as evidenced by the Katla eruptions which form the backdrop to the story, so the kiss can provide energy, dynamism (Elísabet); creativity (Þorlákur – who was inspired to draw the cartoons for his next book) or the kiss can bring about destructive, evil elements in a character (Jón).
The main story is set in Iceland during the winter of 2003 when the volcanic eruptions from Mt Katla were at their highest and ash and unease hang like a dark heavy cloud over Iceland. This geological catastrophe as fire erupts from the bowels of the earth, reshaping the very geography of the region, forms a powerful backdrop to the events which unfold and is reminiscent of the curse on the daughter of Eve in the cartoon strip.
The story is in two parts, divided by a modern rendering of the Bluebeard fairy story in which the fated wife is released not by a man but by her sisters. The second half of the story contains a cartoon strip of a contemporary young woman and, like the Bluebeard story and the Garden of Eden cartoon strips, draws out the eternal struggle between women and men, good and evil, love and violence.
In the main story there are five principal characters including the narrator, Davíð, and both parts are written in the first person. The style of the prose is very down to earth, almost conversational and this contrasts well with the plot which contains some mysterious and fantastical elements (hints of magic realism). In essence, the plot is simple: Davíð receives a box in the post with his late step-father’s effects and this triggers his dormant desire to get to the bottom of the series of events 13 years earlier which led to two tragic deaths. As Davíð rummages through his stepfather’s sketches – it was he who was inspired to draw the cartoon strips described above - he remembers that he also has the diaries and journals of Indi and Jón stored away in the back of his garage. In addition to these, his mother Elísabet provides him with another source of information about what happened to her old school friend, Indi and her husband Jón.
The narrator, Davíð, introduces us to the four main characters (Elísabet, Þorlákur, Indi and Jón) and then fleshes them out as the story progresses. When Jón first meets Indi he comes across as rather gauche and socially inept, later he begins to reveal some obsessive compulsive behaviours, and as the story progresses we see a much darker side to Jón. The character who shows the least development is the narrator´s mother Elísabet, but I believe this to be no accident. Guðrún Eva is here shining the light on Davíð and his inability to view his mother dispassionately and thus she brings into question his reliability as an objective narrator of events.
This becomes one of the ways Guðrún Eva examines notion of reality. Is Davíð’s account trustworthy, can the reader believe that these events occurred in this way? Another theme she explores is normality, who is normal in this very down-to-earth and yet intriguingly mysterious and at one level bizarre story in which many of the characters, including the main ones are essentially flawed – one has an addictive personality; one believes herself to have been blessed with the mythical kiss, the fruit of the tree of life; one experiences a series of psychotic episodes and another firmly believes his inspiration comes from the kiss which has also been passed on to him. Or is it the narrator himself, Davíð, who on the face of it is the epitome of normality, in fact the one person who is not normal?
As indicated above, the mythical kiss can be the source of positive, creative forces in a person’s life or it can be the opposite. By using the Biblical story, drawing on myth and folk-tale Guðrún Eva throws the spotlight on evil and begs the question – it exists, so what does society/we do with it? But Allt með kossi vekur is far from a dark story. There is hope as evidenced by Indi who dies heroically and achieves a rebirth, albeit in another dimension.
This story is as broad as it is deep. It can be interpreted on many levels: metaphysical, psychological, social or simply enjoyed at the superficial level of the plot – why did this tragedy occur, what were the string of events that made it an inevitability and in the end was it an accident or a murder/suicide?

[Inga Hrund Gunnarsdóttir · Rating 1 out of 5]

Alger steypa. Skil ekki að bókin hafi fengið verðlaun. Gafst upp og las síðu á stangli og svo seinasta kaflann.

[Bolli Thor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Góð lesning. Gott plott. Var á köflum svolítið langdregin. En hélt manni samt alltaf við efnið.

[Wal.li · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vulkan

Maria zieht in eine Altenwohnung, dahin kann sie Lakis Unterlagen nicht mitnehmen. Und so nimmt sich Lakis Ziehsohn David der Sachen an. Eine Gelegenheit sich zu erinnern. David wurde in Südamerika geboren und dort von Elisabet adoptiert. Bald ist sie zusammen mit ihm nach Reykjavik zurückgekehrt. Allerdings zieht David schon mit 18 von zu hause aus, mit seiner Mutter ist einfach nicht auszukommen. Und nun nach Jahren ergreift David die Chance herauszufinden, was damals mit Indi, einer guten Freund in Elisabets, und ihrem Mann geschah.

In der Gegenwart zeichnet David die Ergebnisse seiner Nachforschungen auf, er schreibt eine Art Bericht. Lebhaft berichtet er von dem, was im Jahr 2003 geschah. Er vernachlässigt deine Familie dabei. Im Jahr 2003 traf Elisabet Indi wieder, im Jahr 2003 geriet alles aus den Fugen.

Ein Roman, der einmal anders ist. Ein Sohn macht sich auf die Suche nach der Wahrheit. Von seinen Erfahrungen berichtet er mittels einer Erzählung. Die Leser sollen sich selbst ein Bild machen. Und selbst ein Bild macht man sich, etwas wirr scheint es, was Elisabeth und Laki erleben. Sind sie tatsächlich erleuchtet oder ist die Erleuchtung eher andern Dingen geschuldet. Wieso eigentlich glauben sie, dass sie dieses mit einem Kuss weitergeben können. Hoch her jedenfalls geht es im Leben der Mutter.

Interessant und fesselnd ist dieser Roman, leider werden die handelnden Personen nicht wirklich sympathisch. Davids Mutter hängt ihren eigenen Gedanken nach, die Behauptung, sie brauche keinen Schlaf, ist nicht wirklich nachvollziehbar. Wie kann man ohne Schlaf auskommen. Eine Behauptung, die Folgen hat. Folgen, die fast unglaublich scheinen. Als wenn das Unterste zu Oberst gekehrt wird. Der Roman gibt Rätsel auf und bleibt doch im Ungewissen. Eine außergewöhnliche Erfahrung eines enervierend anderen Buches. Nachdenklich beendet man die Lektüre, nachdenklich und mit einer gewissen Leere.
3,5 Sterne

[Björg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alveg stórfurðulega góð bók. Erfitt að láta hana frá sér og einnig erfitt að útskýra fyrir öðrum nákvæmlega um hvað hún fjallar án þess að skemma fyrir. Hún er spennandi, grípandi og óhugnanleg á köflum.

[Sigurdur Guttormsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vel skrifuð dramatík á óvenjulegum nótum sem heldur manni vel framan af.