Zurich, Switzerland. Once, 20 years ago, Ben Oppenheim was a promising young author. His work Caries received the Swiss Book Prize, was made into a film, the press wrote puns, Caries was on everyone’s lips. But since then he hasn’t achieved anything. He hasn’t had much success as a screenwriter either. Outlines and ideas have been and continue to be rejected. In addition, his family is falling apart.
After separating from his wife, the physiotherapist Marina, which is not a fundamental separation, firstly because of the children, the cheeky and precocious teenager Rosa and seven-year-old Moritz, and secondly because he cannot afford his own apartment in the expensive city on the Limmat, which is why he is still there half the week, he sets about writing a screenplay about Stefan Zweig. The Viennese author and humanist, who is still widely read today, fled Salzburg in 1934 and, in deep despair over the course of time and the world, took his own life in Petrópolis in Brazil in 1942.
To his great surprise, Ben has also found a new friend in the artist Julia. But he breaks up with her too, because: as he and Marina had long expected, an ammunition depot has exploded in Krasny, Russia! It’s war! So the emergency plan comes into play: escape to Brazil! That’s the only place where it is still safe from the supposed nuclear escalation.
The Casa Zweig, the last residential building and now a museum, is a disappointment
They fly off in a hurry, land in Recife, want to think about where they will settle down for good, and have to realize that they are the only ones who have a plan. But they are also the only ones fleeing Europe. In the end, we can reveal that they pack up camp again. Before that, Ben visited Casa Zweig, the last residential building and now a museum – a disappointment.
Again, it must be said: If witty entertainment comes from Switzerland, then it is only from Jews. Another, Thomas Meyer, is also under contract with Diogenes. This Zurich house has now As soon as we arrive not only because Micha Lewinsky’s father Charles is a regular and successful author there, but also because Diogenes published Micha Lewinsky’s children’s book two years ago. Holly in Heaven printed.
The reason is rather that this debut is extremely successful. Especially in the second half, when we arrive in Brazil, we realise that Lewinsky, born in 1971, has been writing screenplays and directing films for more than 20 years, most recently Moscow Simply!a film which, although it won the Swiss Film Prize in the Best Actress category, had a difficult time outside of German-speaking Switzerland because it was shot in Swiss German.
Ben is a breathing comfort zone
With Ben Oppenheim, Lewinsky has succeeded in creating a subtly drawn, hilarious character. He is deeply insecure, usually misinterprets statements and even more so behavior, stumbles from one desperate faux pas to the next, is often overwhelmed – in short, a modern man. Ben is a breathing comfort zone. He wants to please everyone and not mess with anyone.
He explains his behavior with his roots: Jews who fled pogroms survived and reproduced, while those who fought back perished. So his motto is: avoid them whenever possible! When he actually pulls himself together to “heroically” resist another person, even to fight, as in the finale for his favorite chair in the hotel, then the victory that he announces to his children at the end of the fight against this tall, blond, much stronger German seems to them like a hair-raising defeat.
It’s no wonder that this entertaining, slightly satirical, often witty novel was published in mid-summer. It’s the perfect setting for a mercilessly funny film adaptation. Dani Levy, take over!
Micha Lewinsky: »As soon as we arrive«. Diogenes, Zurich 2024, 288 pp., 25 €
