THE APPOINTMET
by HERTA MÜLLER
Translated by Michael Hulse and Philip Boehm
Today I want to talk to you about the novel "THE APPOINTMENT" by Herta Muller. As I said before, I try to read and introduce to you the best work of any author who won the Nobel Prize for literature. According to many authors and websites related to books, the book "THE LAND OF GREEN PLUMS" is the best work of Herta Muller. But Sometimes, a writer or director creates a wonderful work, then their other works get overlooked. so, their other works are not given as much attention as they should be.
The German language and the authors impressed the judges of the Swedish Nobel Academy of Literature. Herta Müller is one of the best of them, a writer who uses the magic of language and literature to describe the difficult life conditions of her country and the Romanian people. And finally, Muller won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009.
The book " The Appointment" tells the constant humiliations, threats and fears of a young woman whose name we do not hear throughout the story, a woman who is a symbol of oppressed people under the control of the Romanian dictatorial government led by Nicolae Ceaușescu.
She, who works as a tailor in a garment factory, is a lonely and helpless woman who commits the crime of putting a short note. " Marry me" is repeatedly summoned and interrogated inside the lining of clothes exported to Italy. This short and simple yet expressive sentence shows the narrator's desire to escape from the difficult situation of life in Romania under the rule of the Romanian totalitarian and communist regime. A tailor woman who is humiliated by her interrogator named (Albu), her human dignity is not seen, she often feels jealousy and despair and the constant fear of being summoned and imprisoned is always with her.
This book was written in 1997, when Herta Müller immigrated from Romania and lived in Germany, Müller who herself lived in the same suffocating atmosphere of the Romanian communist regime and touched it closely and had the same feelings as the woman on the train.
His narration gives more depth to the story. Herta Müller's scattered texts in this book also originate from the narrator's troubled mind. A woman who is constantly in fear of being summoned and goes to the place of summons by train and tells her story to the readers in the same situation.
The Appointment shows that all individual freedoms and personal identity of people have been lost and people are controlled even by their own neighbors and they are repeatedly summoned and humiliated to answer the issue for which they have been summoned dozens of times and there is widespread distrust. It prevails in the whole society.
Throughout the story, we see that life goes on in the sewing workshop, in the shoemaker's shop, and in the local bazaars... but one thing, one feeling, or rather, the happiness arising from the sense of freedom and human dignity, is missing. And people's share of life is just to be alive in exchange for spying and flattery.
Notes from book:
"I've been summoned. Thursday, ten sharp." Page 1
If you're sure you can't sleep anyway, it's easier to think of something bright inside the darkness than to simply shut your eyes in vain. Page4
People say the plums represent the love between bottle and drinker. The Way I see it, those cheek to - cheek plums look more like a wedding picture than a Madonna and Child. Page 6
I heard the workers say: with a sewing machine, you oil the cogs, with a human machine, you oil the throat. Page 8
No one's ever in the exact same boat as you. pages 8-9
Ever since my first summons, I've begun to distinguish between life and fortune. When I go in for questioning, I have no choice but to leave my good fortune at home. I leave it in Paul's face, around his eyes, his mouth, amid his stubble. If it could be seen, you'd see it on his face like a transparent glaze. Every time I have to go, I want to stay behind in the flat, like the fear I always leave behind and which I can't take away from Paul. like the fortune I leave at home when I'm away. he doesn't know how much my good fortune has come to rely upon his fear. He couldn't bear to know that. What he does know is obvious to anyone with eyes: that whenever I've been summoned, I put on my green blouse and eat a Walnut. the blouse is one I inherited from Lilli, but its name comes from me: the blouse that grows. If I were to take my good fortune with me, it would weaken my nerves. page 15-16
People who are summoned develop routines that help them out a little. Whether these routines really work or not is beside the point. it's not people, It's me who's developed them; they came sneaking up on me one by one. page 19
Some things aren't bad until you start talking about them. I've learned how to hold my tongue before it gets me into trouble, but usually it's already too late, because sooner or later I always want to have my say. page 28
O the tree has its leaves,
the tea has its water,
money has its paper,
and my heart has snow that's fallen astray. page 31
Lilli once said that secrets don't go away when you tell them, what you can tell are the shells, not the kernel. That may have been true for her, but for me, if I don't keep something concealed, then I've already exposed the kernel. page 32
Senselessness was easier for me to handle than aimlessness. page 38
life became a mincing parade of calves drawn taut by stiletto heels marching across the asphalt, from the barracks to the officers' mess and back. page 54
Later Lilli admitted that there was nothing so great about things being secret. That's just how it always turned out. The real secret is why love starts out with claws like a cat and then fades with time like a half-eaten mouse, she said. page 81
In this country you can be as smart as a whip but without a red book all you can do is stand on your beak and fart the dust like a partridge. page 86
Paul's father believed the signature reflected the man, that people can learn more from your signature than from your eyes. page 88
world world sister world
when shall I tire of you.
When my bread is dry
When my hand forgets my glass.
When the coffin's boxed me in
Maybe that's when I'll be tired of you.
Living is disappearing
and the dead the dead they rot away ... page 92
My grandfather had said that life was just the farty sputter of a lantern, not even worth the bother of putting your Shoes on. page 116
l searched for two dry spots. Written on the wall in red paint was: "Life is really Full of shit. there's no choice but to piss on it." page 147-8
Cherry season comes every year and lasts from May through September, and it will be that way as long as the world exists, no matter what. how does that help him, there aren't any cherries in prison. page 189
An ant scurried across the kitchen table, Paul waved a amage over it.
Where do the ants go, to the forest.
Where has the forest gone, into wood.
Where has the wood gone, into the fire.
Where has the fire gone, into my heart.
My heart has stopped,
and the ants keep going. page 191
Every time we have sex it's a spoonful of sugar for her shattered nerves, the only thing I can use to keep my wife from taking leave of her senses. page 210
I went into the pharmacy and bought the glass eye. Once they stop summoning me, Paul can attach a little ring to it and I'll wear it as a necklace. So I thought at that time. page 212
THE APPOINTMET by HERTA MÜLLER
