The famous first glance is often decisive in interpersonal relationships, but this is not the case for books. After all, who would assume at first glance that Marie Gamillscheg’s “Rebellion of the Sea Animals” would end up on the long list for the German Book Prize, a novel that begins with a detailed lecture on the sea walnut!
The sea walnut is a species of jellyfish that is harmless to humans in direct contact and glows in rainbow colors. However, it is very harmful. It multiplies unrestrainedly, eats all fish eggs, slimes the sea coasts and clogs the cooling water inlets of nuclear power plants.
Nevertheless, the protagonist, the marine biologist Luise, defends her research object, partly because humans themselves are responsible for the rampant spread of this plague. Luise’s sympathies for the sea walnut go even further. Sometimes she looks almost enviously at the jellyfish life, which is just a voracious body and gets what the swarm needs to survive, instinctively and morally free.
Individuality and awareness, strength and advantage of people, are sometimes experienced as a burden. Luise is not at peace with her body. She is prone to skin diseases and has suffered from eating disorders since she was young. They are burdened by pressure and existential insecurity in the scientific community. This burden increases when she is commissioned by her employer, a research institute in Kiel, to establish contacts with a zoo in Graz. Graz of all places!
The reunion with the people and places of her origin is anything but joyful for Luise. In any case, she has a fragile relationship with her divorced parents. She has no emotional connection to her father, nor to her brother, who blames her bad relationship with her father as a failure. The reunion with childhood friends is also unfortunate.
The content of the novel, which initially seems a bit off the mark, turns out to be not only an illuminating story about the needs of modern man, but also a convincing work of linguistic art. This equally irritating and fascinating combination of nature and civilisation, man and animal, jellyfish life and women’s life makes Marie Gamillscheg’s novel an extraordinary reading experience.
Source: Nachrichten
