German Literature Month: Momo

In Michael Ende’s modern fable Momo, first published in 1973, the title character is a young girl who lives in a ruined amphitheater on the outskirts of an unnamed European city. Momo’s outer appearance is a bit strange, with her wild black hair and man’s jacket that is too big for her, but she has an outstanding ability that soon attracts many visitors: she can listen. Simply by listening, she enables friends-turned-enemies to resolve their conflicts. Storytellers are inspired when she is in the audience. And children know that their play takes flight when Momo is listening.

But mysterious men dressed in grey begin to convince people to stop wasting their time on friendship or stories or children, and instead to save up precious seconds in their “time bank”. Only Momo can hear their real thoughts, their desperate hunger that drives them to suck time away from human beings … and her wondering response is “Does no one love you?”

The thieves of time have visited all of us. Never has a society been so obsessed with and so successful at saving time, nor so exhausted and depressed. Meaningful work is steadily being sucked away, and deaths of despair are on the rise. The hunger for love fuels all kinds of addictions. Momo’s gift of listening leads her into the depths of the heart to save her city; we can learn from her journey as we face our own struggles.

I’ve read Momo before in English, but it’s been a while. As I read through it this time in German — slowly! — I thought how timely it remains. And while at one time I thought Momo’s gift of listening was not that exciting, I now realize ever more how important it really is. Listening is more than merely hearing, more than letting sensations wash over us. It turns the act of giving attention into a doorway of creation. It’s what I started to grasp through the spiritual direction training I recently completed, and what I want to continue to practice in as many ways as possible.

I’m glad to get to highlight this classic for German Literature month, and wanted to note that it also marks my final book of the StoryGraph German Challenge, for which I read 8 books over the course of a few years. I’m quite amazed that I managed to read half of those in German!

In case you’d be interested, here’s the challenge list with links to my reviews:

1. Any book originally written in German: Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Carol Brown Janeway
2. A children’s or middle grade book: Emil und die Detektive by Erich Kästner
3. A classic: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, translated by A.W. Wheen
4. A modern classic: Momo by Michael Ende
5. A fantasy or sci fi book: The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, translated by Ralph Manheim
6. A book that many German/Swiss/Austrian kids had to read in school: Krabat by Otfried Preussler
7. Set in an existing place in a German-speaking country: The Cafe with No Name by Robert Seethaler, translated by Katy Derbyshire (set in Vienna)
8. By an author who’s not from Germany: Kindergeschichten by Peter Bichsel (a Swiss author)

If you’ve read any of these, I’d love to hear your thoughts!