By PROSSER GIFFORD
The 11th program in the series "Encounters with the Most Acclaimed European Writers" was held at the Library on Feb. 5 and featured Uwe Timm, who read from a recent novel to an audience in the Jefferson Building's Southeast Pavilion.
Mr. Timm read the opening chapters of Johannisnacht, a 1996 novel about the differences between the cultures of East and West Berlin after the fall of Communism in 1989. Recently translated by Peter Tagel and published by New Directions in 1998 as Midsummer Night, the novel's narrator and protagonist is a writer who takes on an unlikely assignment to write a story about potatoes.
On the trail of a former East German scholar who knew a great deal about potatoes and who left an extensive bibliography of note cards, the narrator finds himself facing several bizarre, amusing, ironic and frustrating experiences. He learns about some of the peculiar denizens of East Berlin, but never does get his article written.
For the evening's reading, Mr. Timm read in German several pages of the opening chapter, "Napoleon's Camp Bed." The chapter was then read in English by Lane Jennings, a poet and translator from the Goethe Institute, followed again by Mr. Timm, who read a portion of the second chapter, "The Reichstag, Wrapped."
Jens Hanefeld of the German Embassy introduced Mr. Timm, mentioning that he had been born in Hamburg, studied in Paris, and earned a Ph. D. in philosophy from the University of Munich in 1971. Three of Mr. Timm's earlier novels also have been translated into English: The Snake Tree (1990), Headhunter (1994) and The Invention of Curried Sausage (1995).
He is known as well in Germany as an author of children's books and radio plays. A masterly storyteller, Mr. Timm combines comedy, irony, realism and magical moments in his narratives.
Mr. Gifford is director of the Office of Scholarly Programs.