Uwe Johnson's Anniversaries - The Mookse and the Gripes

Uwe Johnson’s Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl is a masterpiece of world literature. Originally published in four parts (1970, 1971, 1973, 1983), NYRB Classics recently published Damion Searls’ new translation in two volumes, with a page count totaling 1,668. This was a major publishing event. If you haven’t read it, it’s not intimidating if you take it day-by-day, as it is structured. The book contains one entry for every day spanning August 21, 1967 to August 20, 1968.

Please join me as I read it again. From August 21, 2019 to August 20, 2020 there will be weekly posts (linked to below as they happen) that will give us a place to share our thoughts about the days. We’ll get to know Gesine and her daughter, Marie, as they live through the hours, days, weeks, and months of that year fifty years ago, and watch as Johnson explores, in a significant year, in a significant century, how we are created by the flow of time, whether it pushes us forward or pulls us back, whether it’s turbulent or pacific.

1967

1968

January 1 – 7
January 8 – 14
January 15 – 21
January 22 – 28
January 29 – February 4
February 5 – 11
February 12 – 18
February 19 – 25
February 26 – March 3
March 4 – 10
March 11 – 17
March 18 – 24
March 25 – 31
April 1 – 7
April 8 – 14
April 15 – 21
April 22 – 28
April 29 – May 5
May 6 – 12
May 13 – 19
May 20 – 26
May 27 – June 2
June 3 – 9
June 10 – 16
June 17 – 23
June 24 – 30
July 1 – 7
July 8 – 14
July 15 – 21
July 22 – 28
July 29 – August 4
August 5 – 11
August 12 – 18
August 19 – 20

Helpful Links and Resources

–The Anniversaries Address Book (Literaturlexikon online list of all of the characters in the novel, with accompanying biographies)

The entries

Here are the weekly entries, with the most recent first (the first, other than the introduction, will appear the week of August 21). They will show up in the main feed of The Mookse and the Gripes as well, but here you’ll see them pop up unencumbered by the rest of the blog content. If you’re going to readalong might I suggest making this your default stop.