2023-10-13 07:13:24
Dirk Stermann’s new book is not a novel, as announced by the publisher. But Erika Freeman’s life certainly sounds like a novel. “I’m fine, if not today, then tomorrow” is not well invented, but well told. Or better: retold. Stermann met the psychoanalyst again and again – and is now recounting these encounters. On Sunday the two meet not in the coffee house of the Hotel Imperial, but in the literary salon of the Rabenhof.
He has proven time and again that Dirk Stermann is not only a successful cabaret artist and presenter, but also an author to be taken seriously, most recently in 2019 in “Der Hammer”, a historical novel about the Viennese orientalist Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, and in 2022 with “Maksym “, a “mostly fictional” novel about a boorish Ukrainian babysitter. So Stermann can read novels. But this time he takes a step back and listens – and lets Janina Enderle type out his countless conversations with Freeman (who already had a fictional short appearance in “Maksym”) as a collection of material for a charming mix of life and relationship history. The focus is on his encounters with the now 96-year-old, who was surprised by the corona pandemic while staying in Vienna and became a permanent guest at the Hotel Imperial.
After an invitation to “Welcome Austria”, an intense friendship develops between the delightful old lady, who once had to flee Vienna and became an analyst for the stars in the USA, and her host, to whom she smiles as she informs her that it is her first date since her death to be a man. So “a Harold and Maude thing” arises between the two, who meet each other every Wednesday morning in the posh ambience of the Imperial for coffee and croissants and a walk or two. The 57-year-old Viennese-by-choice feels “too old to be a toy boy,” but he is an empathetic conversation partner, key word giver, listener and commentator.
Because Freeman, whose mother was the model for Isaac Beshevis Singer’s short story “Yentl”, which was filmed with Barbra Streisand and died in the bombing of the Philipphof in 1945, has a lot to tell, about escape and persecution, about career and celebrities, but above all about life himself. Stermann is at her side when she celebrates her 94th birthday, when she gets Austrian citizenship again or when she gives a speech at the Festival of Joy on Heldenplatz on May 8th. Before that, she is allowed to go to the balcony of the Neue Burg, from which Adolf Hitler announced “the entry of my homeland into the German Reich” in front of fanatical crowds. Freeman enjoys her late triumph: “I am still here, he is gone!”
When Stermann confessed one day that he was writing a book about her, she asked about the planned title. He says he stayed away from “Wednesdays Erika” on the publisher’s advice, “that would sound dubious, as if I had a fixed appointment with a prostitute on Wednesdays.” So he decided to quote her in the title: “I’m fine, if not today, then tomorrow.” “She thought for a moment. ‘Such a long title. Then people don’t have to read the rest of the book when there’s so much on the cover.'” The title has eight words and the book is 250 pages. And each one is worth reading.
(SERVICE – Dirk Stermann: “I’m fine, if not today, then tomorrow”, Rowohlt Hundert Augen, 256 pages, 24.70 euros; Literature Salon in the municipal building: Dirk Stermann and Erika Freeman, Rabenhof, October 15th, 8 p.m.)
1697182346
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