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The invention of curried sausage by Uwe Timm
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The invention of curried sausage (original 1993; edition 1997)

by Uwe Timm (Author), Leila Vennewitz (Translator)

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6172537,733 (3.64)55
"A bestseller in Germany, The Invention of Curried Sausage was tagged a "novella," in the original sense of the word, "a little piece of news." This is what author/narrator Uwe Timm uncovers about a popular German sidewalk food, curried sausage." "Timm is convinced it originated not in Berlin in the fifties as generally supposed, but much earlier in his native Hamburg. He tracks down Lena Brucker, now living in a retirement home there. And, yes, curried sausage was her invention but it's a long story, one that Timm cajoles from her during a number of tea-time visits. It all started in April, 1945, just before the war's end when she met, seduced, and held captive a young deserter. The war was over, the lover escaped, and Lena Brucker, with remarkable ingenuity, went into business. That's where the sausage comes in!"--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)
Member:christiguc
Title:The invention of curried sausage
Authors:Uwe Timm (Author)
Other authors:Leila Vennewitz (Translator)
Info:New York: New Directions, 1997.
Collections:Your library
Rating:***1/2
Tags:fiction, male author, german, germany, hamburg, war, wwii, new directions publishing, bookshelf27, read2015

Work Information

The Invention of Curried Sausage by Uwe Timm (1993)

  1. 10
    Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada (meggyweg)
  2. 00
    Traitor by Gudrun Pausewang (meggyweg)
    meggyweg: While one is for adults and the other for teens, both books center around a Russian soldier hiding in Germany during World War II.
  3. 00
    Midsummer Night by Uwe Timm (chwiggy)
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» See also 55 mentions

English (18)  German (2)  Italian (1)  Danish (1)  Dutch (1)  Swedish (1)  All languages (24)
Showing 1-5 of 18 (next | show all)
A perfectly readable book that is less about the invention of curried sausage than about one woman's end-of-WW2 experiences in Hamburg, Germany.

My copy of this book (New Directions paperback, the edition I have chosen here) says this is a novel. Yet googling suggests this is more of a memoir, that Timm does not believe the standard story the curried sausage (aka currywurst) was invented in the 1950s in...Berlin. He remembers it from the 194os in Hamburg. I neighbor had a stand and sold it there. Even the back of the book says this--while also classifying it as a novel.

So, I'm confused and a bit annoyed LOL. ( )
  Dreesie | Sep 17, 2022 |
Such a sweet and tender book. It's not a love story - apart from anything else love would be too grand for this book - although it is infused with care and affection. This is a book about an ordinary, but extremely talented and perceptive, woman, remembering a few weeks in her life at the end of the war in Hamburg. It is lovely to read and very satisfying in a warm way. It is comfort food of the highest order. ( )
  Estragon1958 | May 23, 2022 |
Set in Germany during the end of WWII. The story of a woman street vendor who invented curried sausage.

Interesting to read a book set in Germany during the war and while the story could have only taken place at that place and time, it wasn't so much about the fighting and the horrors that were happening as much as how people lived day to day. ( )
  curious_squid | Apr 5, 2021 |
Timm has penned sweet little novel that ostensibly sets out to prove that German fastfood staple curried sausage was not invented in postwar Berlin, but in 1945 Hamburg -- that's what the title and the early pages promise. What the book really is about is the collapse of the Third Reich, the end of the war as seen from within Germany, and the takeover by the Allied forces. And those two things go better together than you would expect.

The narrator, who was born during the war and who grew up in the years after the war, is convinced that the commonly known history of the curried sausage is wrong: as long as he can remember, Mrs Brückner has been serving them from a little booth outside his house. His visits to her in the retirement home lead to long sessions of reminiscing in which she tells him about her life just before the capitulation of the Third Reich and the following months. The invention of the dish involves the coming together of local foods and foreign foods, as well as betrayal, abandonment, stolen love, the black market, all at the onset of a rebuilt city.

I was not expecting the cutesy cover story and the actual novel to fit together that seamlessly, or indeed, so poetically. But they did. A lovely surprise! ( )
1 vote Petroglyph | Dec 6, 2017 |
As every German schoolboy (or girl) knows, currywurst was invented by Herta Heuwer in Berlin in 1949. There is a plaque commemorating the event in the Charlottenburg neighborhood of Berlin. Yet, Uwe Timm is having none of it. He wants you to believe that it was invented in his native Hamburg (naturally), and not only that, by a woman who lived in his apartment building. Can we forget that Hamburgers look at Berliners with disdain, and that Berliners think Hamburgers are snobs? Hamburg is the sophisticated city, whereas Berlin is a blue-collar town of louts, they say. Basically, Timm has no evidence that Lena Brucker invented the currywurst, and that he, yes, Timm himself was eating the spicy concoction years before the official invention. For some reason, this is very important to him.

The book itself is a fairy tale, preposterous and full of heartwarming coincidences. I counted at least three ridiculously sentimental absurdities at the end of the book. I'm not sure what gets to me more, the sheer bravado of writing this over-the-top sickly sweet crap, or that of hijacking Heuwer's very real contribution to German street eats. ( )
1 vote nog | Oct 12, 2016 |
Showing 1-5 of 18 (next | show all)
Den rakt berättade långnovellen bär Timms typiska signum: den omsorgsfulla respekten för karaktärerna, det sociala engagemanget och den milda humorn
 
Därför är den här boken en mycket lämplig aptitretare för den som förutom currywurst också vill smaka på den spännande tyska litteraturen.
 

» Add other authors (4 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Uwe Timmprimary authorall editionscalculated
Bussink, GerritTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Galli, MatteoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ivanova, IvaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kreiss, BernardTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Paúlou, AlexándraTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Vennewitz, LeilaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Voor Hans Timm (1899-1958)
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Vor gut zwölf Jahren habe ich zum letzten Mal eine Currywurst an der Bude von Frau Brücker gegessen.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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"A bestseller in Germany, The Invention of Curried Sausage was tagged a "novella," in the original sense of the word, "a little piece of news." This is what author/narrator Uwe Timm uncovers about a popular German sidewalk food, curried sausage." "Timm is convinced it originated not in Berlin in the fifties as generally supposed, but much earlier in his native Hamburg. He tracks down Lena Brucker, now living in a retirement home there. And, yes, curried sausage was her invention but it's a long story, one that Timm cajoles from her during a number of tea-time visits. It all started in April, 1945, just before the war's end when she met, seduced, and held captive a young deserter. The war was over, the lover escaped, and Lena Brucker, with remarkable ingenuity, went into business. That's where the sausage comes in!"--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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Die Nachkriegszeit bekommt hier auch für die Jüngeren ein Gesicht. Bei diesem Schicksal geht es im doppelten Wortsinn um die Wurst. Das Rätsel löst sich erst ganz am Schluss – und trotzdem: Bitte ganz von vorne anfangen, das Buch ist viel zu anrührend und schön, um auch nur eine Seite zu überblättern! Andererseits reichen schon wenige Seiten, um Zuhörer neugierig aufs Weiterhören zu machen.Lesespaß für alle…
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