Julia Schoch is a specialist for small sentences with great impact. From the laconic nature of her rough, sometimes almost brittle arranged prose, her writing unfolds a delicate drama. Last year the writer, who was born in Bad Saarow in 1974, published the first volume of her trilogy “Biography of a Woman”. Even then, the monstrous unfolded its power in a very short time. She only needed five words: “By the way, we have the same father” was the sentence that divided a life into a before and an after. The novel “Das Vorkommnis”, in which this sentence was used, did not boil down to the outrageous event, but it happened right at the beginning.
The nameless first-person narrator, a writer, who is addressed in this way by a stranger after a reading, initially dismisses this as a venial event, only to be unable to get rid of her. The terror of the suppressed breaks ground and soon exposes her entire existence to doubt. The square of her East German family of origin – father, mother, two daughters – is thrown out of balance and begs the pressing question: Was it ever in balance?
The smallest shocks raise the biggest questions
It was exciting to see how the author, who now lives in Potsdam, would continue this promising start to her trilogy. The second volume has just been published, which can be described as a successful sequel at eye level. Julia Schoch succeeds once again in pursuing the smallest shocks, which also raise the biggest questions here – what do we dream of, who do we want to be, what stabilizes us – intelligently and idiosyncratically.
The family square also appears in “The Lovers of the Century” – this time, however, not in relation to the family with parents, but with their own children. And here, too, there is a first sentence as if hewn in stone, which makes you sit up and take notice all the more as the female narrator downplays its effect: “Basically it’s very simple: I’m leaving you.” Just three words that can be said so quickly and at the same time mark the end of everything. Once spoken, they can no longer be caught. The fact that Schoch also reflects the other sentence in this prelude, which is also made up of three words, two of which are also identical, and represents the prelude to the really big feelings – I love you – is typical of her prose.
The author with an eye for the inside: Julia Schoch
:
Image: Anne Heinlein
“As it looks,” she lets her first-person narrator sum up, “the most important thing in life can be said with very few words.” She knows a lot and ponders even more, which should not least be one of the reasons why the other person, the Man, initially a friend, then great love, finally husband, distanced himself over the years. We only know the way he thinks, feels and why he acts the way he acts in this slow-motion couple story from her perspective. The fact that his point of view, which is at stake here time and time again and which is addressed in the direct “du”, remains a blind spot, makes the research in one’s own interest appealing.