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The Snake Tree: Novel
Wagner, an all-efficient German engineer, takes in hand the job of rescuing a floundering construction project in the South American rain forest. But before he even reaches the site, his car runs over an emerald-green Acaray snake--marking him, according to local beliefs, for death. Things go from bad to worse. Wagner's slowly degenerating colleagues are useless; his attempts to help the workers bring on a strike that the military regime suppresses; and he botches up the Company's delicate system of bribery. The building is sinking into the red mud faster than it is being built. Losing ground, Wagner tensely observes himself losing balance and events take an ugly turn.
281 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
3 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
About the author
Uwe Timm
85 books115 followersUwe Timm was the youngest son in his family. His brother, 16 years his senior, was a soldier in the Waffen SS and died in Ukraine in 1943. Decades later, Uwe Timm approached his relationship with his father and brother in the critically acclaimed novel In my brother's shadow.
After working as a furrier, Timm studied Philosophy and German in Munich and Paris, achieving a PhD in German literature in 1971 with his thesis: The Problem of Absurdity in the Works of Albert Camus. During his studies, Timm was engaged in leftist activities of the 1960s. He became a member of the Socialist German Student Union and was associated with Benno Ohnesorg. From 1973 to 1981 he was a member of the German Communist Party. Three times Timm has been called as a writer-in-residence to several universities in English-speaking countries: in 1981 to the University of Warwick, in 1994 to Swansea and in 1997 to the Washington University in St. Louis. He has also been a lecturer at universities in Paderborn, Darmstadt, Lüneburg and Frankfurt.
Timm started publishing in the early 1970s and became known to a larger audience in Germany after one of his children's books, Rennschwein Rudi Rüssel, was turned into a movie. Today he is one of the most successful contemporary authors in Germany. His books Die Entdeckung der Currywurst (The Invention of Curried Sausage) and Am Beispiels meines Bruders (In my brother's shadow) can both be found on the syllabi of German schools. His readers usually appreciate Timm's writing style, which he himself calls "die Ästhetik des Alltags" ("the aesthetics of everyday life"). Timm imitates everyday storytelling by using everyday vocabulary and simple sentences and generally tries to imitate the way stories are orally told. His works often indirectly link with each other by taking up minor characters from one story and making this character the main character of another work. For example, a minor character like Frau Brücker from Johannisnacht is taken up as a main character in his book Die Entdeckung der Currywurst. Timm's works also tend to have autobiographical features and often deal with the German past or are set in the German past.
After working as a furrier, Timm studied Philosophy and German in Munich and Paris, achieving a PhD in German literature in 1971 with his thesis: The Problem of Absurdity in the Works of Albert Camus. During his studies, Timm was engaged in leftist activities of the 1960s. He became a member of the Socialist German Student Union and was associated with Benno Ohnesorg. From 1973 to 1981 he was a member of the German Communist Party. Three times Timm has been called as a writer-in-residence to several universities in English-speaking countries: in 1981 to the University of Warwick, in 1994 to Swansea and in 1997 to the Washington University in St. Louis. He has also been a lecturer at universities in Paderborn, Darmstadt, Lüneburg and Frankfurt.
Timm started publishing in the early 1970s and became known to a larger audience in Germany after one of his children's books, Rennschwein Rudi Rüssel, was turned into a movie. Today he is one of the most successful contemporary authors in Germany. His books Die Entdeckung der Currywurst (The Invention of Curried Sausage) and Am Beispiels meines Bruders (In my brother's shadow) can both be found on the syllabi of German schools. His readers usually appreciate Timm's writing style, which he himself calls "die Ästhetik des Alltags" ("the aesthetics of everyday life"). Timm imitates everyday storytelling by using everyday vocabulary and simple sentences and generally tries to imitate the way stories are orally told. His works often indirectly link with each other by taking up minor characters from one story and making this character the main character of another work. For example, a minor character like Frau Brücker from Johannisnacht is taken up as a main character in his book Die Entdeckung der Currywurst. Timm's works also tend to have autobiographical features and often deal with the German past or are set in the German past.
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August 24, 2023
فراتر از شاهکار
هر بار از اووه تیم اثری میخونم مجذوب قلم زیبا و در عین حال پر از حرفش میشم. نویسنده ای که جوایز ادبیات آلمان رو درو کرده ولی به نظر میاد خیلی توی ایران شناخته نشده. از دام گستر و کشف سوسیس کاری تا این ابرشاهکار
داستان از جایی شروع میشه که مهندس واگنر قصد داره از کشورش به پاراگوئه برای ساختن ساختمانی سفر کنه. سفری که اون رو با فساد بی حد و مرز آشنا میکنه.
از دیکتاتوری حاکم و گم شدن مردم با ساده ترین اشاره
تا سودجویی و استعمار عوامل رده بالا از پروژههای در حال ساخت.
مهندس واگنر بین منظم ترین بی نظمی ای که دیده اسیر میشه. اسارتی که ترجیح میده بهش پا نده و ازش خارج بشه ولی یک به هزار احتمالش چقدره؟
مهندس واگنر از کیفیت بُتن ها ناراضیه. از مار پرستی بومیها تعجب کرده و از اینکه حتی تامین مصالح ساختمانی هم رنگ و بوی سیاسی داره ترسیده. جایی که اکثریت افراد اشاره میکنن تا واگنر خودش رو درگیر اینکارها نکنه و صرفا سازه رو تکمیل کنه. ولی اون نمیتونه همچین شرایطی رو تحمل کنه. بی نظمی ای که هیچکس به موقع به کارش نمیرسه هیچ موادی تامین نمیشه و حتی به معلم یادگیری زبانش هم توسط حکومت ایراد گرفته میشه.
میتونید این اثر شاهکار رو بخونید و ببینید مهندس واگنر هم آروم آروم جزوی از این سیستم فاسد و سودجو میشه یا اینکه میتونه تغییری ایجاد کنه.
پیشنهاد میکنم به هیچ وجه این کتاب رو از دست ندید.
هر بار از اووه تیم اثری میخونم مجذوب قلم زیبا و در عین حال پر از حرفش میشم. نویسنده ای که جوایز ادبیات آلمان رو درو کرده ولی به نظر میاد خیلی توی ایران شناخته نشده. از دام گستر و کشف سوسیس کاری تا این ابرشاهکار
داستان از جایی شروع میشه که مهندس واگنر قصد داره از کشورش به پاراگوئه برای ساختن ساختمانی سفر کنه. سفری که اون رو با فساد بی حد و مرز آشنا میکنه.
از دیکتاتوری حاکم و گم شدن مردم با ساده ترین اشاره
تا سودجویی و استعمار عوامل رده بالا از پروژههای در حال ساخت.
مهندس واگنر بین منظم ترین بی نظمی ای که دیده اسیر میشه. اسارتی که ترجیح میده بهش پا نده و ازش خارج بشه ولی یک به هزار احتمالش چقدره؟
مهندس واگنر از کیفیت بُتن ها ناراضیه. از مار پرستی بومیها تعجب کرده و از اینکه حتی تامین مصالح ساختمانی هم رنگ و بوی سیاسی داره ترسیده. جایی که اکثریت افراد اشاره میکنن تا واگنر خودش رو درگیر اینکارها نکنه و صرفا سازه رو تکمیل کنه. ولی اون نمیتونه همچین شرایطی رو تحمل کنه. بی نظمی ای که هیچکس به موقع به کارش نمیرسه هیچ موادی تامین نمیشه و حتی به معلم یادگیری زبانش هم توسط حکومت ایراد گرفته میشه.
میتونید این اثر شاهکار رو بخونید و ببینید مهندس واگنر هم آروم آروم جزوی از این سیستم فاسد و سودجو میشه یا اینکه میتونه تغییری ایجاد کنه.
پیشنهاد میکنم به هیچ وجه این کتاب رو از دست ندید.
December 22, 2023
تموم کردن این کتاب در حالی که بعد از یه ازمون دهن سرویس کن اومدم و کنار بخاری نشستم و دارم خوراکی های باقی مونده شب یلدا رو غارت میکنم واقعا لذت بخش بود😂.
این شاهکارم بالاخره تموم شد و من مدت ها بود انقد غرق یه کتاب نشده بودم و با شخصیت هاش همراه نشده بودم.
کلمه به کلمه این کتاب رو انگار میشد زندگی کرد.
گرما،فساد،کارگرای خسته و دور از وطن،مسئولایی که فقط رشوه میگیرن و گند میزنن به هرچی که اسمش انسانیته. و حتی سردرگمی و واگویه های واگنر. هر کدومشون پرداخت فوق العاده ای داشتن.
اون تصویری که نویسنده از جنگ و رواج فساد توی کشور ساخته واقعا قابل لمسه.گاهی انقدر درگیر کتاب میشدم که حس میکردم دارم با واگنر توی خیابون ها و محوطه ساختمون سازی قدم میزنم،همراهش شراب مینوشم و به زندگیم نگاه میکنم.
شخصیت اصلی داستان اصلا قهرمان نیست،خیانت میکنه و حتی دچار لغزش میشه شخصیتی داره که بنظرم باید ازش الگو گرفت.که توی کار خودمون شرافت داشته باشیم و به قیمت پول جون انسان هارو به خطر نندازیم...
این شاهکارم بالاخره تموم شد و من مدت ها بود انقد غرق یه کتاب نشده بودم و با شخصیت هاش همراه نشده بودم.
کلمه به کلمه این کتاب رو انگار میشد زندگی کرد.
گرما،فساد،کارگرای خسته و دور از وطن،مسئولایی که فقط رشوه میگیرن و گند میزنن به هرچی که اسمش انسانیته. و حتی سردرگمی و واگویه های واگنر. هر کدومشون پرداخت فوق العاده ای داشتن.
اون تصویری که نویسنده از جنگ و رواج فساد توی کشور ساخته واقعا قابل لمسه.گاهی انقدر درگیر کتاب میشدم که حس میکردم دارم با واگنر توی خیابون ها و محوطه ساختمون سازی قدم میزنم،همراهش شراب مینوشم و به زندگیم نگاه میکنم.
شخصیت اصلی داستان اصلا قهرمان نیست،خیانت میکنه و حتی دچار لغزش میشه شخصیتی داره که بنظرم باید ازش الگو گرفت.که توی کار خودمون شرافت داشته باشیم و به قیمت پول جون انسان هارو به خطر نندازیم...
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July 25, 2017Translated into English as The Snake Tree the novel tells the story of an Engineer who takes up a job to deliver a construction project in South America apparently to get away from his feelings of dissatisfaction with his married life.
The project has the reputation of being a Kamikaze mission and if that wasn't portentous enough he runs over a snake on his way to the construction site - this is taken to be a symbol of death by the Indians.
Despite, or perhaps because of, his technical, correct and legal approach things go wrong. He causes a breakdown down in relations with the local authorities, causes a strike and his attempt to learn Spanish may have some bearing on the arrest of his teacher - part of the background of setting is a dirty war.
Naturally given his one-sided boredom with his marriage, his attempt to learn Spanish ran beyond the confines of the textbook and his feelings for his teacher lead him to use his contacts to try and track her down. Eventually he gains access to the headquarters of military intelligence where he sees the Snake Tree of the title. Here are bright young people, educated in Europe, who don't take bribes who run the computer database. People like himself whose faith in a technological solution serves only to make them blindly destructive.
As the construction project continues during the course of the novel to sink into the mud it is not surprising that the end of the book is suggestive of the last judgement. To help that idea along we are introduced to the remnants of German settlers in the region, Anabaptists awaiting the coming of the Lord. Or at least waiting for the angels to start blowing their trumpets.
Making the central character an engineer is an immediate warning to the reader, here is planning, order, forethought, mathematics and so inevitably there must be an equal force in the novel to balance this out, Nature, the irrational
Equally since the engineer is constructing. Precision. Blueprints. The literary counterbalance has to be vague, amorphous, hinting at infinite readings. This for me for the problem, but alone as my mind reaches out to impose order and assume the Gantt charts, critical path analysis and beautiful technical drawings that must exist before the finished building. Yet, consider the medieval Cathedrals. In an early scene our engineer sees the project's Indian work force all standing in a long line facing the Sun, he assumes an act of pre-Christian worship but coming closer he sees they are all simply asking the call of Nature to empty that which has become unpleasantly full over night. So our assumptions makes asses of ourselves .
The project has the reputation of being a Kamikaze mission and if that wasn't portentous enough he runs over a snake on his way to the construction site - this is taken to be a symbol of death by the Indians.
Despite, or perhaps because of, his technical, correct and legal approach things go wrong. He causes a breakdown down in relations with the local authorities, causes a strike and his attempt to learn Spanish may have some bearing on the arrest of his teacher - part of the background of setting is a dirty war.
Naturally given his one-sided boredom with his marriage, his attempt to learn Spanish ran beyond the confines of the textbook and his feelings for his teacher lead him to use his contacts to try and track her down. Eventually he gains access to the headquarters of military intelligence where he sees the Snake Tree of the title. Here are bright young people, educated in Europe, who don't take bribes who run the computer database. People like himself whose faith in a technological solution serves only to make them blindly destructive.
As the construction project continues during the course of the novel to sink into the mud it is not surprising that the end of the book is suggestive of the last judgement. To help that idea along we are introduced to the remnants of German settlers in the region, Anabaptists awaiting the coming of the Lord. Or at least waiting for the angels to start blowing their trumpets.
Making the central character an engineer is an immediate warning to the reader, here is planning, order, forethought, mathematics and so inevitably there must be an equal force in the novel to balance this out, Nature, the irrational
Equally since the engineer is constructing. Precision. Blueprints. The literary counterbalance has to be vague, amorphous, hinting at infinite readings. This for me for the problem, but alone as my mind reaches out to impose order and assume the Gantt charts, critical path analysis and beautiful technical drawings that must exist before the finished building. Yet, consider the medieval Cathedrals. In an early scene our engineer sees the project's Indian work force all standing in a long line facing the Sun, he assumes an act of pre-Christian worship but coming closer he sees they are all simply asking the call of Nature to empty that which has become unpleasantly full over night. So our assumptions makes asses of ourselves .
October 18, 2016
The author of The Snake Tree, Uwe Timm, is a distinguished figure in Germany and at least one of his books, The Invention of Curried Sausage, has been widely read abroad. This one hasn’t, and I first read it after finding the English edition remaindered for £1.00 in a London bookshop a year or two after it was published in 1988. I liked it, and on rereading it 25 years later, I like it even more. It is a dark, gripping little thriller. But it is also a very subversive book, asking questions that are even more urgent now.
The setting is an unnamed subtropical South American country, almost certainly the far north of Argentina during that country's infamous dirty war (Timm doesn’t name the country but it is fairly clear). A German civil engineer, Wagner, arrives to put a delayed construction project - a paper mill - back on schedule. He lands in the humid heat after a long flight from Frankfurt. As the car takes him north toward his destination, Wagner argues with the driver, convinced that they are going south; he has forgotten he has changed hemispheres. The car takes him to a colony of villas on a hill, ringed round its base with concrete and barbed wire. He learns that his predecessor was kidnapped and that the work, a new paper mill, is way behind. Then, driving to work on the first day, he runs over a sacred snake; for the Bolivian workforce this is a very bad omen.
From the beginning, Wagner will impose his technocratic standards in an attempt to get the project back on track. But he soon finds himself involved in a web of corruption and political violence that makes a mockery of everything he tries to do. Meanwhile his attempts to maintain his own values will put others in danger, sparking a strike that brings the workforce to the attention of the army. There are arrests. To make things worse, he begins an affair with his language teacher, a lovely young woman who may have contacts with left-wing guerrillas. Then she disappears. Wagner tries to find out why. But what were her own intentions towards him? Was he to be kidnapped too?
Reading The Snake Tree is like walking through a minefield of metaphors, and I am still not sure I stepped on them all. But a few clearly went off. The trees are being cut down around the paper mill, says one cynic, so that Europeans can wipe their arses on the rainforest. The result is a bare muddy plain that floods as the wet season comes, carrying away earth and the road to the city; the gated hill is thus besieged by both man and nature. Later parts of the book have an apocalyptic feel that is nicely underlined by Wagner’s housekeeper, an elderly, staring evangelical who is looking forward to the end of the world and mutters about “whoremongers and idolaters” as she serves him his supper.
But the clearest theme running through this book, for me, was the imposition of one set of cultural standards on another in the name of development. Timm comes quite close to saying this openly when he has Wagner visit Hartmann, a German colleague who has resigned. Why is he leaving, asks Wagner; because of the oppression? No, says Hartmann. “One can’t force an alien logic on things, and on people even less. Or you rape them. Then they’re broken, things as well.”
I don’t know why this very intelligent thriller did not have more impact in Britain. Sloppy production won’t have helped; although the translation is mostly excellent, there are some garbled sentences that the British publisher (Pan) really should have caught. It may also be that Timm wasn’t well-enough known outside Germany. But I also wonder if the critique of technocratic development, and its relationship with the environment, went over people’s heads. It wouldn’t now; it would be very fashionable. Perhaps this book was just plain ahead of its time.
The setting is an unnamed subtropical South American country, almost certainly the far north of Argentina during that country's infamous dirty war (Timm doesn’t name the country but it is fairly clear). A German civil engineer, Wagner, arrives to put a delayed construction project - a paper mill - back on schedule. He lands in the humid heat after a long flight from Frankfurt. As the car takes him north toward his destination, Wagner argues with the driver, convinced that they are going south; he has forgotten he has changed hemispheres. The car takes him to a colony of villas on a hill, ringed round its base with concrete and barbed wire. He learns that his predecessor was kidnapped and that the work, a new paper mill, is way behind. Then, driving to work on the first day, he runs over a sacred snake; for the Bolivian workforce this is a very bad omen.
From the beginning, Wagner will impose his technocratic standards in an attempt to get the project back on track. But he soon finds himself involved in a web of corruption and political violence that makes a mockery of everything he tries to do. Meanwhile his attempts to maintain his own values will put others in danger, sparking a strike that brings the workforce to the attention of the army. There are arrests. To make things worse, he begins an affair with his language teacher, a lovely young woman who may have contacts with left-wing guerrillas. Then she disappears. Wagner tries to find out why. But what were her own intentions towards him? Was he to be kidnapped too?
Reading The Snake Tree is like walking through a minefield of metaphors, and I am still not sure I stepped on them all. But a few clearly went off. The trees are being cut down around the paper mill, says one cynic, so that Europeans can wipe their arses on the rainforest. The result is a bare muddy plain that floods as the wet season comes, carrying away earth and the road to the city; the gated hill is thus besieged by both man and nature. Later parts of the book have an apocalyptic feel that is nicely underlined by Wagner’s housekeeper, an elderly, staring evangelical who is looking forward to the end of the world and mutters about “whoremongers and idolaters” as she serves him his supper.
But the clearest theme running through this book, for me, was the imposition of one set of cultural standards on another in the name of development. Timm comes quite close to saying this openly when he has Wagner visit Hartmann, a German colleague who has resigned. Why is he leaving, asks Wagner; because of the oppression? No, says Hartmann. “One can’t force an alien logic on things, and on people even less. Or you rape them. Then they’re broken, things as well.”
I don’t know why this very intelligent thriller did not have more impact in Britain. Sloppy production won’t have helped; although the translation is mostly excellent, there are some garbled sentences that the British publisher (Pan) really should have caught. It may also be that Timm wasn’t well-enough known outside Germany. But I also wonder if the critique of technocratic development, and its relationship with the environment, went over people’s heads. It wouldn’t now; it would be very fashionable. Perhaps this book was just plain ahead of its time.
September 20, 2023
4.5
کتاب خیلی عجیب و جذابی بود. روایت جالبی داشت و درکل برام تازگی داشت. واگنر...⚡️
حتما از ادبیات آلمان این کتاب رو بخونین.
|تکه کتاب|
▪︎توانایی شنیدن با ارزشتر از گفتن است.
▪︎_اگر جای من بودید چه کار میکردید؟
_من هیچ علاقهای ندارم یه جای شما باشم.
▪︎تصادف چیست؟ در دنیای حساب شدهی شما گناه هر کار را به گردن تصادف میاندازید. آنچه قابل محاسبه نیست و نمیشود روی آن حساب کرد، تصادف است. مثل باقی مانده ابدی معادلهای که حل نشدنی باشد. ساده و بی تکلف، گنگ و بیمعنا، و هالهای برای رد گم کردن. ولی این انسانها برای تصادف هم دلیلی دارند. قوانینی دارند با نیروهایی که طور دیگری روی هم تاثیر میگذارند. سنگها، مارها، جنگل، خورشید، برق آسمان، ابرها، باران.
▪︎ما فکر میکنیم برای این مردم کاخ سعادت میسازیم ولی این کاخ روی بدبختی آنها درست میشود. و شما فکر میکنید این اتفاق در مملکت خودتان نمیافتد؟!
▪︎انگار انسانها تنها با رویت خودشان میتوانستند از بودنشان مطمئن شوند. انگار تاریکی میتوانست همه چیز را در خود ببلعد.
▪︎ولی او دلش میخواهد تاریکی و سیاهی تا مدتها پایدار بماند...
کتاب خیلی عجیب و جذابی بود. روایت جالبی داشت و درکل برام تازگی داشت. واگنر...⚡️
حتما از ادبیات آلمان این کتاب رو بخونین.
|تکه کتاب|
▪︎توانایی شنیدن با ارزشتر از گفتن است.
▪︎_اگر جای من بودید چه کار میکردید؟
_من هیچ علاقهای ندارم یه جای شما باشم.
▪︎تصادف چیست؟ در دنیای حساب شدهی شما گناه هر کار را به گردن تصادف میاندازید. آنچه قابل محاسبه نیست و نمیشود روی آن حساب کرد، تصادف است. مثل باقی مانده ابدی معادلهای که حل نشدنی باشد. ساده و بی تکلف، گنگ و بیمعنا، و هالهای برای رد گم کردن. ولی این انسانها برای تصادف هم دلیلی دارند. قوانینی دارند با نیروهایی که طور دیگری روی هم تاثیر میگذارند. سنگها، مارها، جنگل، خورشید، برق آسمان، ابرها، باران.
▪︎ما فکر میکنیم برای این مردم کاخ سعادت میسازیم ولی این کاخ روی بدبختی آنها درست میشود. و شما فکر میکنید این اتفاق در مملکت خودتان نمیافتد؟!
▪︎انگار انسانها تنها با رویت خودشان میتوانستند از بودنشان مطمئن شوند. انگار تاریکی میتوانست همه چیز را در خود ببلعد.
▪︎ولی او دلش میخواهد تاریکی و سیاهی تا مدتها پایدار بماند...
July 12, 2022
Klar, dass das nicht gut geht, wenn Uwe Timm seinen Ingenieur Wagner als Bauleiter nach Südamerika schickt. Er soll dort eine Papierfabrik aufbauen, demontiert sich im Laufe des Romans aber zunehmend selbst.
August 15, 2024
رمانی در نقد ساختار قدرت و نظام اقتصادی-سیاسیِ حاکم بر جهان و به خصوص کشورهای جهان سوم که با حضور پررنگ زور و نیز نظامیان همراه است...
به شخصه حضور دین، خرافات و نقششان در جهان و زندگی واقعی را در این اثر ادبی پسندیدم.
به شخصه حضور دین، خرافات و نقششان در جهان و زندگی واقعی را در این اثر ادبی پسندیدم.
December 10, 2022
I happened across Uwe Timm’s SNAKE TREE at Half Price Books—in the clearance section, no less—and was struck by both its title and its somewhat minimalist cover. The brief synopsis said it was about a man who runs over a snake in South America and is cursed because of it, which sounded interesting enough. What really encouraged me to plunge into buying it was seeing that there were only 87 ratings and 9 reviews for the book on Goodreads. Could it be possible I has stumbled upon an undiscovered gem? What if it turned out that this book was excellent? It seemed worth the $3 to see.
SNAKE TREE centers on a German structural engineer, last name Wagner, who accepts a position overseeing the construction of a pair of anonymous factories in an ambiguous South American country despite knowing in advance that the previous two managers were (a) kidnapped by either left-wing guerrillas or the right-wing military police and (b) had a nervous breakdown, respectively. Wagner takes the job immediately and without second thoughts, in part because it offers him a way out of his dull marriage for a year; he believes both he and his wife Suzann have been feeling the inevitability of their relationship‘s demise for some time, though he can’t really explain why. Something just feels… unexciting between them. Her quick acceptance of his plan to leave the country—to move to a new hemisphere twice over (trading the northern for the southern and eastern for western)—read to Wagner as proof of his assumptions.
Almost immediately after beginning the job, he runs over the emerald Acaray snake as prophesied, and the locals murmur that he’s now destined to die by drowning. The remainder of the book is coated in suspense because of this occurrence, less for awaiting the foretold drowning itself than the calamitous sequence of events which will necessarily precipitate (no pun intended) his eventual fate. Partly the sense of gloom that overhangs the narrative comes from the oppressive world Wagner inhabits. It’s a jungle country so decimated by logging and paper mills that its landscape is red dirt resembling the moon. At one point Wagner defends this desecration by commenting that he always wanted to go to the moon. 😐 He’s building the factory out of “sand” (so to speak—really, just poor quality concrete) on a sinking foundation. Wagner does not speak the language, does not understand the culture, and - one imagines - is unthinkingly inviting danger through his boorish insistence on the supremacy of his own perspective. For example, he goes to the government of a corrupt and violent country (there are regular “disappearances” of dissidents) thinking he’s entitled to information about a missing person. Even as he’s cutting to the front of a line of desperate and maimed people (one man’s arm is a stump infected with white worms), he doesn’t stop to reconsider his course of action.
This brings me to a third point: the tension is created in large part because of Wagner’s selfish behavior. The fate of the missing person is a good example: it’s his 19-year old Spanish teacher, Luisa, who he took for a 16-year old at first and who he naturally began making goo-goo eyes at and eventually slept with. His co-workers warn him about the danger of this relationship, but Wagner dismisses them—he doesn’t care what people say! But that’s because he’s only thinking about himself, and not about the effect it’s liable to have on Luisa. Likewise, he considers writing his wife to tell her it’s over and to inform her about an affair he had with a married neighbor. Again, in my head I’m screaming because he wants to unburden himself with no regard for what this will mean for Renate, the woman he would be implicating. The air of menace is undercut somewhat by the sense that Wagner deserves whatever occurs to him; that is, he’s not the “hero” of the story—it’s almost desirable for him to get some kind of comeuppance.
There are times that Wagner’s self-centered nature leads to humor. Take, as an example, a scene where he and Luisa laugh while out at dinner, leading to annoyed glances from other diners; Wagner dismisses them as spoilsports and thinks the waiter is a jerk for interrupting them. Shortly afterward Col. Kramer, part of the military leadership, arrives and laughs with his group. Wagner now complains that he’s “disturbing the silence” and starts wondering where the Colonel got all those medals, suggesting that Wagner thinks they’re unearned or fake. Another standout moment comes when he witnesses several of the South American workers at the factory getting up in the morning; they “turned toward the rising sun as if worshipping the blood red light” and he “wondered what ritual lay concealed behind this gathering”, thinking it some sort of primitive religious event. Then he notices a jerking movement from the men and, as they turn back toward him, sees some pulling up their trousers. The book is blunt about the reality of the situation: “They had been pissing.”
I feel like I’ve been giving the impression that my view of the book is entirely positive. I *did* like it, but I don’t think that Timm is as condemnatory of Wagner as I am. There’s more than one scene where Timm, through Wagner, comments on the robustness or shape of women’s breasts—I got the feeling this was just a blind spot for Timm, that he’s writing about women through the male gaze genuinely, not using it as a method of showing Wagner’s skeevy behavior. The book was published in 1986 and so I’m sure this sort of self-reflection about biases wasn’t as in vogue. Also, in general there’s not a lot that happens here. A lot of the first act is not particularly affecting and though I get the idea that the work of building a factory is meant to be monotonous, that aspect of the story nevertheless is less than compelling. I’m also not sure how to read what the book is saying about Wagner’s doomsaying housekeeper Sophie. On the one hand he belittles her insane religious rambling—rightly so, in my view—but on the other she seems to be foretelling something real on the horizon, possibly? Is she a loon or a righteous one? Also, the book is so clearly awash with symbolism (there’s even an allusion to Conrad’s HEART OF DARKNESS) to the point is kind of irritated me… it felt too in-your-face, reminding me of a book to be read as an assignment in high school. That feeling that it was *trying* to be clever rubbed me the wrong way.
In all, I think it’s a decent book. There’s parts that made me laugh—I liked Wagner’s memory of accidentally being suckered into letting Jehovah’s Witnesses into his apartment, until before he knew it “they were sitting on the sofa comparing the building of a power plant to a sparrow’s nest.” And I think the air of uncertain peril that shrouds the whole affair is often effective. It didn’t fully mesh for me, though, and as mentioned there was a long stretch at the beginning where it wasn’t working at all. It does get stronger as it goes on, but ultimately I think worthwhile, yes, but more good than great. I’m saying 3.5 stars.
SNAKE TREE centers on a German structural engineer, last name Wagner, who accepts a position overseeing the construction of a pair of anonymous factories in an ambiguous South American country despite knowing in advance that the previous two managers were (a) kidnapped by either left-wing guerrillas or the right-wing military police and (b) had a nervous breakdown, respectively. Wagner takes the job immediately and without second thoughts, in part because it offers him a way out of his dull marriage for a year; he believes both he and his wife Suzann have been feeling the inevitability of their relationship‘s demise for some time, though he can’t really explain why. Something just feels… unexciting between them. Her quick acceptance of his plan to leave the country—to move to a new hemisphere twice over (trading the northern for the southern and eastern for western)—read to Wagner as proof of his assumptions.
Almost immediately after beginning the job, he runs over the emerald Acaray snake as prophesied, and the locals murmur that he’s now destined to die by drowning. The remainder of the book is coated in suspense because of this occurrence, less for awaiting the foretold drowning itself than the calamitous sequence of events which will necessarily precipitate (no pun intended) his eventual fate. Partly the sense of gloom that overhangs the narrative comes from the oppressive world Wagner inhabits. It’s a jungle country so decimated by logging and paper mills that its landscape is red dirt resembling the moon. At one point Wagner defends this desecration by commenting that he always wanted to go to the moon. 😐 He’s building the factory out of “sand” (so to speak—really, just poor quality concrete) on a sinking foundation. Wagner does not speak the language, does not understand the culture, and - one imagines - is unthinkingly inviting danger through his boorish insistence on the supremacy of his own perspective. For example, he goes to the government of a corrupt and violent country (there are regular “disappearances” of dissidents) thinking he’s entitled to information about a missing person. Even as he’s cutting to the front of a line of desperate and maimed people (one man’s arm is a stump infected with white worms), he doesn’t stop to reconsider his course of action.
This brings me to a third point: the tension is created in large part because of Wagner’s selfish behavior. The fate of the missing person is a good example: it’s his 19-year old Spanish teacher, Luisa, who he took for a 16-year old at first and who he naturally began making goo-goo eyes at and eventually slept with. His co-workers warn him about the danger of this relationship, but Wagner dismisses them—he doesn’t care what people say! But that’s because he’s only thinking about himself, and not about the effect it’s liable to have on Luisa. Likewise, he considers writing his wife to tell her it’s over and to inform her about an affair he had with a married neighbor. Again, in my head I’m screaming because he wants to unburden himself with no regard for what this will mean for Renate, the woman he would be implicating. The air of menace is undercut somewhat by the sense that Wagner deserves whatever occurs to him; that is, he’s not the “hero” of the story—it’s almost desirable for him to get some kind of comeuppance.
There are times that Wagner’s self-centered nature leads to humor. Take, as an example, a scene where he and Luisa laugh while out at dinner, leading to annoyed glances from other diners; Wagner dismisses them as spoilsports and thinks the waiter is a jerk for interrupting them. Shortly afterward Col. Kramer, part of the military leadership, arrives and laughs with his group. Wagner now complains that he’s “disturbing the silence” and starts wondering where the Colonel got all those medals, suggesting that Wagner thinks they’re unearned or fake. Another standout moment comes when he witnesses several of the South American workers at the factory getting up in the morning; they “turned toward the rising sun as if worshipping the blood red light” and he “wondered what ritual lay concealed behind this gathering”, thinking it some sort of primitive religious event. Then he notices a jerking movement from the men and, as they turn back toward him, sees some pulling up their trousers. The book is blunt about the reality of the situation: “They had been pissing.”
I feel like I’ve been giving the impression that my view of the book is entirely positive. I *did* like it, but I don’t think that Timm is as condemnatory of Wagner as I am. There’s more than one scene where Timm, through Wagner, comments on the robustness or shape of women’s breasts—I got the feeling this was just a blind spot for Timm, that he’s writing about women through the male gaze genuinely, not using it as a method of showing Wagner’s skeevy behavior. The book was published in 1986 and so I’m sure this sort of self-reflection about biases wasn’t as in vogue. Also, in general there’s not a lot that happens here. A lot of the first act is not particularly affecting and though I get the idea that the work of building a factory is meant to be monotonous, that aspect of the story nevertheless is less than compelling. I’m also not sure how to read what the book is saying about Wagner’s doomsaying housekeeper Sophie. On the one hand he belittles her insane religious rambling—rightly so, in my view—but on the other she seems to be foretelling something real on the horizon, possibly? Is she a loon or a righteous one? Also, the book is so clearly awash with symbolism (there’s even an allusion to Conrad’s HEART OF DARKNESS) to the point is kind of irritated me… it felt too in-your-face, reminding me of a book to be read as an assignment in high school. That feeling that it was *trying* to be clever rubbed me the wrong way.
In all, I think it’s a decent book. There’s parts that made me laugh—I liked Wagner’s memory of accidentally being suckered into letting Jehovah’s Witnesses into his apartment, until before he knew it “they were sitting on the sofa comparing the building of a power plant to a sparrow’s nest.” And I think the air of uncertain peril that shrouds the whole affair is often effective. It didn’t fully mesh for me, though, and as mentioned there was a long stretch at the beginning where it wasn’t working at all. It does get stronger as it goes on, but ultimately I think worthwhile, yes, but more good than great. I’m saying 3.5 stars.
March 1, 2021
رمان درختمار رو توی قفسه کتابها که دیدم اسم و طرح جلدش همگی دافعه ایجاد میکرد. اما من که مدتی هست که به دنبال بدویت هار و وحشی خودم میگردم به خودم گفتم اتفاقا تو دنبال همین دافعهها هستی. نویسنده کتاب - تیم اووه- بسیار دقیق است. برخی جملات کتاب واقعا مگر جز با تجربههای محض انسانی نویسنده نمیتوانستهاند خلق شوند. و اما جزییات!
توی یک برنامه تحلیل ورزشی یادمه که از کارلوس کیروش سرمربی وقت تیم ملی جملهای رو نقل میکردند فوقالعاده جمله فوقالعادهای بود. کیروش گفته بود بودجهای که باشگاههای لیورپول، منچستر یونایتد، آرسنال و چلسی برای یک فصل خرج میکنند و همچنین امکاناتی که باشگاههاشون دارن خیلی نزدیک به هم و تقریبا همسطح هم هستند پس چی میشه که یکی از تیمها قهرمان میشه یکیشون هفتم هشتم؟ و پاسخ به این سوال رو خودش داد: details, details, details
تیم اووه جزییات رفتارها و اکتها افراد را استادانه استخراج کرده است. همین که واگنر جذب دختری شده بود که هیجان زده نمیشد و من فکر میکنم اغلب انسانها جذب اکتهای زیرپوستی و پنهانی میشوند که خودشان هم نمیدانند آن چیست که آنقدر جذاب است.
درخت مار رمانی بود که اگر ۱۵۰ صفحه اولش را همراهی میکردی ۱۳۰ صفحه بقیهاش تو را با خود میکشید. من به خواندن فضاهای کارگری و پاره شدن مردهایی که دوست دارند کار درست را انجام دهند علاقهمندم. این رمان همین کار را میکرد. ملغمهای از انتقام، خرافات، فساد، دوست داشتنها، خفقان و ترس که همان لایه پنهان زندگی است.
توی یک برنامه تحلیل ورزشی یادمه که از کارلوس کیروش سرمربی وقت تیم ملی جملهای رو نقل میکردند فوقالعاده جمله فوقالعادهای بود. کیروش گفته بود بودجهای که باشگاههای لیورپول، منچستر یونایتد، آرسنال و چلسی برای یک فصل خرج میکنند و همچنین امکاناتی که باشگاههاشون دارن خیلی نزدیک به هم و تقریبا همسطح هم هستند پس چی میشه که یکی از تیمها قهرمان میشه یکیشون هفتم هشتم؟ و پاسخ به این سوال رو خودش داد: details, details, details
تیم اووه جزییات رفتارها و اکتها افراد را استادانه استخراج کرده است. همین که واگنر جذب دختری شده بود که هیجان زده نمیشد و من فکر میکنم اغلب انسانها جذب اکتهای زیرپوستی و پنهانی میشوند که خودشان هم نمیدانند آن چیست که آنقدر جذاب است.
درخت مار رمانی بود که اگر ۱۵۰ صفحه اولش را همراهی میکردی ۱۳۰ صفحه بقیهاش تو را با خود میکشید. من به خواندن فضاهای کارگری و پاره شدن مردهایی که دوست دارند کار درست را انجام دهند علاقهمندم. این رمان همین کار را میکرد. ملغمهای از انتقام، خرافات، فساد، دوست داشتنها، خفقان و ترس که همان لایه پنهان زندگی است.
April 24, 2016
Good story about an German engineer landing in Paraguay (although setting remains hinted at rather than spelled out) to supervise the building of a factory. It was a quieter, subtler read than I expected, but there were quite a few good ideas throughout.
It says things about the neo-colonial overtaking of big projects abroad by western countries ("The people pay for everything. We give them the loans, build them the factories, deliver the machinery, cut down the forest and then wipe our arses with the paper. What we leave behind is a red desert, a useless paper factory and debts."), the pointlessness of such projects, often not much more than money-moving schemes (great image of highway bridge standing in the middle of the forest, unconnected to anything).
As a Frenchman, I was also very interested in how the German characters go around speaking German, relying on a web of local administrators, officers, workers who speak the language, and never having to learn Spanish (which is something I know some English speakers find hard to believe, but these weird "spheres of influence" exist for other languages than English).
It says things about the neo-colonial overtaking of big projects abroad by western countries ("The people pay for everything. We give them the loans, build them the factories, deliver the machinery, cut down the forest and then wipe our arses with the paper. What we leave behind is a red desert, a useless paper factory and debts."), the pointlessness of such projects, often not much more than money-moving schemes (great image of highway bridge standing in the middle of the forest, unconnected to anything).
As a Frenchman, I was also very interested in how the German characters go around speaking German, relying on a web of local administrators, officers, workers who speak the language, and never having to learn Spanish (which is something I know some English speakers find hard to believe, but these weird "spheres of influence" exist for other languages than English).
June 21, 2018
کتاب، در مورد یک مهندس آلمانیه که برای اجرای پروژه های ساختمانی، از طرف شرکتی که توش کار می کنه، به یکی از کشورهای آمریکای لاتین اومده. نویسنده با نثر خیلی روان، مسائل و مصائبی رو که واگنر در طی ساخت کارخانه باهاش درگیره مثل فساد اداری و رشوه خواری مسئولین اون کشور آمریکای جنوبی، شرح میده. وسط این مشکلات کاری، واگنر درگیر جدایی عاطفی بین خود و همسرش، و همینطور رابطه عاطفی با دختری جوان که به عنوان معلم اسپانیایی باهاش کار می کنه، میشه. در کل کتاب خیلی خوبیه.
October 3, 2013
The long steady implosion of a modern man whose personal issues fail to trump natural selection. We chop down the rain forest to make paper to wipe our asses and wonder why the natives think we're ignorant.
September 4, 2023
Interessante Geschichte, aber mir persönlich hat der Erzählstil nicht so gut gefallen.. Ich habe mehrere Anläufe gebraucht, um das Werk zu beenden.
October 18, 2023
Started out well but by the end it became less interesting. You can see however a bit of Joseph Conrad's influence in the story.
July 22, 2013
سه چهار ماهی می شه که کتابو خوندم الان که دارم فکر می کنم چی بنویسم خیلی چیزی یادم نمی یاد مهندسی بود واگنر نام از المان متمدن اومده به این کشور های قبیلهای، بدوی بماند حالا حتما حدس زدین فضای داستانو! ! توصیه حقیر این که اگه تمایل داشتین بخونینش از دوستی کسی قرض بگیرین اقا کتاب گرون شده عجیب! !"
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