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As the subtitle News from the Good-for-Nothing suggests, Alexander Rösler has written a modern version of the 200-year-old character called the Good-for-Nothing. Since decades, The Life of a Good-for-Nothing by Joseph von Eichendorff has been mandatory reading for students of German literature. Eichendorff’s good-for-nothing would rather sit in the sun than give his hard-working father a hand. The dreamy, nature-loving life of the good-for-nothing, after running away from his parent’s mill, has long been considered the ideal image of romantic life.
Rösler’s good-for-nothing is a seventeen year old named Robert, and he is about to graduate from high school. His parents reprimand him for being lazy, and he thinks they are uncool. One day, they bug him so much, he takes off with nothing more than his backpack. On the way, he encounters all sorts of curious things: he is witness to the slaughtering of a cow, takes part in a medieval parade, and, of course, he meets the love of his life at the Frankfurt train station, the "Poppy Princess". If he wants to see her again, he has to travel to Chicago ... But is real adventure even possible in the 20th century? Robert’s story is told with humor by Alexander Rösler, who shows that adventure often is hiding in the activities of everyday life. You just have to be curious enough, and dare to look at the world with your own eyes. With this book, Rösler takes the good-for-nothing out of the canon of German literature classes, and puts him back in his rightful place: at the center of life.
It is spring, the sun is shining, Robert’s father is mowing the lawn, his mother is cleaning the garden furniture. The neighbors are busy; everybody “is working in the garden, on their cars, or on the dog.” Robert is off in a corner watching the action. "[S]th inally nd do sthing,'" drones his father’s words over the noise of the mower. “You don’t help in the garden. You don’t clean the house. You’re going to flunk out of high school. You hang around and eat us out of house and home. Do something useful already [...]!'" His father’s tirade does the trick, even if he doesn’t achieve the desired outcome. Without further ado, Robert goes inside the house and packs his backpack. The adventure begins.
He doesn’t know where to go. The main thing is to escape the confining atmosphere of the community. A bit further off in the country, a tractor pulls up beside him. When the farmer asks Robert where he wants to go, he’s not sure what he should say. "I hesitated a moment, then I said, ‘Frankfurt am Main.’ 'There are words that come out of your mouth without your knowing why and they probably decide your fate. This answer was one of those cases.” Robert gets into the farmer’s tractor, which is carrying a half-dead cow to a butcher in the next village. After the first night camping out, he follows a jogging path that leads him to a medieval festival. He thinks the people dressed in old-fashioned clothes are strange, but also somehow interesting. He is especially drawn to Kunigunde in her dark green dress, and she talks him into joining the cortège as a plague victim.
Soon the modern good-for-nothing is confronted with a problem: He needs money. The money from his mother’s household budget is rapidly dwindling. First, Robert gets hired as a lottery ticket seller at a fair. The next job takes him to a nursing home, where he meets the beautiful nurse Gabi. He is drawn to her. But Robert finds ways professionally to deal with the situation. "If I get horny, it’s best for me to think about the dentist or Mickey Mouse. Or I take a step backwards. I bought a postcard, addressed it to Gabi, and wrote her that I often think about her, and sometimes on Mickey Mouse too. Then I turned around and walked backwards carefully until I bumped into the mailbox. There you go."
Nothing comes of the romance with Gabi, unfortunately, but he meets the love of his life at the Frankfurt train station. He arrives hungry and is again without money. He has no choice but to ask for something to eat at the station’s food stands. A pretty food server offers him a poppy seed roll over the counter, but the manager stops her at the last moment. Shortly later, the server stands in front of Robert, hands him 50 Euros with a smile, and disappears without a word. The meeting lasts only a few seconds, but Robert falls in love on the spot with Anaid, his "poppy seed princess". He has to see her again. The trail leads him to Chicago. While searching for Anaid there, he experiences all sorts of adventures. A chase scene ensues with Anaid’s relatives, he is invited to a hardcore gay party, and receives a copy of the "Good-for-Nothing" by Joseph von Eichendorff. Then he heads home.
The book is suspenseful, yet Robert hasn’t really experienced anything particularly unusual. The charm of the adventure arises primarily from the fact that Robert is completely on his own. He allows himself to drift and to be surprised by what crosses his path. The suspense and spirit of the book are achieved through the language. Robert, the first-person narrator, goes through the world with an alert mind, commenting on what he sees, always a bit distant, with sparkling wit, and sometimes biting irony.
The world of adults plays no role in this book. It’s as if they had disappeared. This gives Robert free room. While walking, he remarks: "Everything happens automatically, the feet, breath, thoughts. I thought [...] about nothing in particular, [...] let the thoughts come as I inhale, and go as I exhale. I was removed from the world. The school, parents, lawnmowers and the cops were also removed from the world. But in another corner." Far from all authorities, Robert can discover the world without somebody telling him how he should comprehend it. The good-for-nothing’s message has lost nothing of its relevance in the last 200 years—and this can’t be taught in school.
Eva Kaufmann
November 2009
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