Tschick: Translating John Green
Wolfgang Herrndorf’s Tschick bears all the genre tropes inherent to Young Adult Fiction. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl, two awkward loners from vastly different backgrounds, a crush on someone totally out of your league, the main character being the most fleshed out, all are near universal elements in the YA genre. This is not to speak negatively of Tschick, but instead to note its distinct connection to the American YA scene but more specifically to authors like John Green.
John Green, author of novels like Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, defined the YA genre of the 2010s, leading to a huge upsurge in the popularity of the genre, spawning countless iterations on Green’s formula: An isolated loner makes a strange friend that pulls them out of their mundane or depressing life and takes them on an adventure that defines the experience of their youth while meeting weird and wild characters that further challenge the life they had known and leave them fundamentall changed. Its essentially the hero’s journey with characters, settings, and language that are familiar to a young audience. So, how does Green relate to Herrndorf?
While I was reading Tschick, I was struck by not just the similarity in narrative choice(the titular character could’ve been pulled right from one of Green’s novels), but also the youth POV. The main characters talk about playing GTA IV, put tape on their faces to look like Kevin Kuryani, swear like sailors, and feel out place in the abandoned industrial areas of East Germany. They are unmistakably young and very much in the 2010s, which works for and against the novel. While the novel came out right as the YA genre was hitting its stride, it feels a good deal more dated thirteen years later. Since its release, the YA genre has become severely oversaturated with titles just like Tschick, meaning that for to stand out it would have to have done something different. While not stated explicitly in more contemporary reviews, the lack of detail about specific themes or character traits lead to this interpretation as well.
Phillip Ardagh’s review is a perfect example of this. While Ardagh touches on the interesting elements of the plot (such as Mike’s unreliable, almost surreal POV), it feels evident that the writer may not have had much more to say about the novel. German reviewer Christian Brockhaus agrees, though much more explicitly, writing “Zugegeben, Tschick ist kein tiefgründiges Buch”. Even at release, the book was not regarded as something outstanding, but still something highly enjoyable with heart and fun writing. However, that brings us back to the question of John Green.
While Green’s works are foundational to how the genre has shaken out over the years, their prevalence has washed out much of what is unique about Tschick. The setting, the narration, the limited story and stakes of the story, all give the novel some reason to stand out, but it isn’t enough to overcome the heap of similar novels.
