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Rusalka Reh
THIS BRAVE BALANCE (German Original: ASPHALTSPRINGER) (2011) translator from German: Katy Derbyshire Paperback: 142 pages Publisher: AmazonCrossing (August 23, 2011) ISBN-10: 1611090059 reviewed by Patrick Killough (1) biblio.com not found 08/01/2011 Would you recommend this book to other readers? review: =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (2) lunch.com 08/04/2011 name of review: As metaphors for life how good are Parkour? Origami? Read THIS BRAVE BALANCE and find out. rating: * * * review: The year 2010 saw publication of what the author Stephen Davies called "perhaps the world's first parkour novel," HACKING TIMBUKTU. Parkour, if you haven't already heard of it is a newish sport that originated in France. Its practitioners (males are traceurs, females are traceuses) have as their goal: to move from point A to point B as quickly, efficiently and with as little wasted effort as possible. If obstacles are between A and B, traceurs, if possible, leap over them (a park bench), scale them (a wall), bounce off them and such like. Much of HACKING TIMBUKTU is an extended comparison between internet hacking and parkour. It might be predicted that students of popular culture would soon grind out more "young people's novels" based on new metaphors. The new comparisons of soon to be published in 2011 THE BRAVE BALANCE by Rusalka Reh are between parkour and origami (folding paper into shapes) and between them and human life itself. The novel's German original is called ASPHALTSPRINGER ("Asphalt Leaper" or "Pavement Jumper." It has been serviceably translated into non-American (presumably British) English by Katy Derbyshire. The story is set in a large city of today's no longer divided Germany. That city is not named, but appears to be Leipzig, historically one of Germany's two greatest trade fair metropolises. A considerable amount of parkour training takes place in the apparently abandoned old East German trade fair grounds. The novel begins by introducing the members of The Urban Planetbirds, four 16-year old German boys who learn and practice parkour together. Each has taken the name of a bird (some names presumably are more common in Britain than in the USA -- such as Corone (the scavenger crow). Corone brags about his sexual conquests. Novel's narrator is Dipper, a bird "rather quick and quiet in its ways." The third member is Skylark. And the fourth Urban Planetbird is Jay. Corone's ten year old, a bit retarded sister often tags along with her brother and wants a bird's name, too. She is christened Kittiwake. And is proud of her progress at "dipshit school." In their first conversation that we overhear, Corone compares parkour with having sex and Jay says it "is
kinda like flying. It makes your free because you leap over everything
that gets in your way: fences, walls, tashcans,even garages if you
like, anything and everything. You don't take detours. You don't let
anything stop you. You're so totally absorbed in your own body, you
switch your head to empty."
As October turns into November, Leipzig turns downright cold and gets steadily colder till the novel climaxes around Christmas time with the local river (Pleisse?) full of floating ice. One cold November day Corone's latest ex-girl friend shows up and asks to join the group. She already has a bird's name, Kite. Her parents live in Wales. Her mother is German. She is 19 and studying at the local university. Like the rest of them, Kite has a secret: she is already a proficient traceuse, apparently better than any of the four boys, but she pretends to be a novice. Each of the boys' families is under a different form of stress. Dipper's mother is a widow and keeps a public latrine clean. Dipper himself has recently dropped out of school and does odd jobs on construction sites to help out with family expenses.The parents of Corone and Kittiwake have vanished and their water and electricity are soon turned off. Early on we meet Jay's father, Professor Bigshot, a lawyer. HIs wife had run away from home, taking Jay's younger brother. We are given little clues that something is not quite right about Professor Bigshot. He willingly becomes a regular baby sitter for young Kittiwake. And the story is off and running. There is a glossary of parkour terminology at novel's end: curiously a bit out of alphabetical order. The 22 chapters are not numbered. Parkour is more often talked about than shown in action, with a couple of exceptions including the tale's dramatic ending on the frozen river bank. Dipper dreams a lot and it is not always clear whether he is describing a dream or external reality. A mysterious Asiatic man appears and shows him how parkour is an image of real human life. The girl Kite does the same regarding the art of paper shaping: origami. I have not read the original German (and do not intend to), but the translation appears at times clumsy and off target. In the chapter "Breaking Through," for example, Corone and Dipper are riding a train to the old trade fair to practice parkour. Corone never buys tickets. When caught by two inspectors, looking like Laurel and Hardy," who threaten arrest, Corone waited for the train's doors to hiss open. He then "ducked
under Laurel's arm, dodged past Hardy, and jumped up on a strap hanging from
the ceiling. From there, he swung himself out of the doors: saut de
fond and a roll across the street."
Somehow there has to be a better translation than "jumped up on a strap." The Urban Planetbirds encounter police with fair regularity, also occasional skinheads, neo-Nazis and leftist radicals, who sometimes complicate their efforts to find perfect places to practice parkour. This basically forgettable novel might work well as the basis of a parkour action movie, but is light on bringing the reader into the moves and ethos of the novel's traceurs and, eventually, two traceuses. Slowly the boys learn that their parkour moves take place against dark, emerging tragedy. I have read worse. -OOO- http://community.cafelibri.com/reviews/d/UserReview -Rusalka_Reh_THIS_BRAVE_BALANCE 2011-74-1753572-211116-How_good_as_metaphors _for_life_are_Parkour_.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (3) bn.com 08/05/2011 title of review: The phenomenology of parkour rating: * * * review: Posted 8/5/2011: What does parkour do? Why does parkour satisfy? Where does parkour fit in among other human goal-oriented activities like origami, Feldenkrais exercises, pilates and yoga? Read Rusalka Reh's novel of 2011, THIS BRAVE BALANCE, and you will find explicit or implicit answers to these and other questions. If you are lucky, you will then begin to make your own comparisons and draw fresh conclusions. My first impression is that THIS BRAVE BALANCE was rushed into print too soon. It hints at potential depths that prove too deep in the end for the book's slight, mildly tragic plot; and its sketchy parkour scenes are underwhelming. In the hands, however, of a gifted screenwriter and director, the action sequences, even with this rushed textual version as a starting point, could be turned into something much more than a teen flic. THIS BRAVE BALANCE is the story of about two months (late October till Christmas) in the lives of eight people in what is apparently today's city of Leipzig, Germany. A parkour group of four German boys (all age 16 if I recall correctly) styles itself the Urban Planetbirds and each of which has picked a bird name for himself. They are narrator Dipper, a bird "rather quick and quiet in its ways," Corone (the carrion crow), Jay and Skylark. Corone's mentally retarded ten year old sister Kittiwake often tags along at parkour practices, because there are no parents at home to babysit her. The group is soon joined by Lark, a Welsh-German 19-year old studying at the local university. She is a former girl friend of Corone and soon has Dipper smitten with her. The two adults we learn most about are DIpper's "ma," a widowed cleaning woman in a public latrine and Professor Bigshot, Jay's father. Jay's mother, older brother in tow, has split from his father. The plot has the four boys and two girls moving from parkour practice back and forth in and out of generally dysfunctional households. Jay's father, Professor BIgshot, takes to young, simple-minded Kittiwake and often babysits her in his attic. Corone and Kittiwake, with no funds from his absentee mother, have their electricity and water cut off. By novel's end their lives are rushing into tragedy. The other aspect of THIS BRAVE BALANCE is didactic, even philosophical. Dipper's mind wrestles with the meaning of parkour, its overcoming of any obstacles blocking its traceurs and traceuses from rapid reaching of goals while in harmony with the environment. A mysterious Asian stranger convinces Dipper that parkour is a metaphor for human life. Kite's apartment is full of her paper arrangements via the art of origami. Dipper is suddenly illuminated: "'Paper parkour,' I said. ...
Origami helps train your concentration, And that's what we traceurs and
traceuses do too.'" Lark summed things up: "You know, it's all advanced mathematics.
... I just wanted to show you, because I always thought
there was some kind of parallel.'"
-OOO- recommended reading: Stephen Davies - HACKING TIMBUKTU http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/reh-this-brave -balance?store=book =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (4) amazon.com 08/05/2011 Review title: "It's only ice for God's sake. ... all of a sudden I found the strength" Reviewer's rating: * * * Review of THIS BRAVE BALANCE There is a young but growing literature of parkour for young readers. 2010 brought Stephen Davies's HACKING TIMBUKTU. And 2011 sees into the world of readers THIS BRAVE BALANCE by Rusalka Reh. Katy Derbyshire translated THIS BRAVE BALANCE into non-American English from the German original ASPHALTSPRINGER. The target audience for THIS BRAVE BALANCE is presumably teens who want to learn more about their favorite new non-competitive sport, also known as PK. And this novel covers the basics. There is an imperfectly alphabetized Appendix: Basic Parkour Moves, most from the French, from Atterrissage through Planche to Tic-tac, the latter defined as "pushing off from an object (for example a wall), to overcome an unstable or small obstacle." We learn in the novel a tiny bit about France's "Lisses, the birthplace of parkour. You meet a whole load of traceurs there" (last of 23 unnumbered chapters). And we are shown a bit of the philosophy lite side of parkour. It is compared to origami (paper shaping) and to life itself. Its essence, running fast toward a goal overcoming any and all obstacles in between, is seen as producing skills usefully transferable to other dimensions of human life. THIS BRAVE BALANCE's story line focuses on six people younger than 20 and the two unrelated parents of two of the youngsters. THIS BRAVE BALANCE is about four boys, aged 16 and 17, who practice parkour together in a large city of today's Germany, probably Leipzig. Their lives are generally unhappy and their families dysfunctional or otherwise distressed. To give themselves a fresh boost up from misery, the four boys rebaptize themselves The Urban Planetbirds. Each boy selects the name of a bird he identifies with: Dipper, who is the narrator, Corone ("carrion crow"), an utterly impoverished stud, Skylark and Jay. Corone is often accompanied to parkour practice by his slightly retarded 10-year old sister whom they name Kittiwake. Ere long the gang is joined by a girl, Welsh-German 19 year old university student who already has a bird name: Kite. Kite is a former lover of Corone but is soon courted by Dipper. Dipper's kind-hearted, widowed mother ("Ma") cleans public latrines and provides a home for her only child. Jay's parents are university types. Jay's mother and sister have separated from Jay's father, Professor Bigshot. The novel's plot is about (1) the puppy love triangle of Kite,
Corone and Dipper;
(2) the increasing desperation in the home life of Corone and his sister Kittiwake (abandoned by their mother, their electricity and water are shut off); (3) Professor BIgshot's growing fondness for young Kittiwake; (4) and various aspects of parkour. The time is late October till Christmas in an increasingly cold Leipzig, where most of the parkour training of the Urban Planetbirds is perforce done outdoors, including on the freezing banks of the River Pleisse where all elements of the plot finally come to a climax. Let me end with sample of writing -- about that exciting episode. Attempting a rescue of a comrade, Dipper, Kite and Skylark use a series of parkour moves to get onto a bridge over a weir on the ice-floe river, then down close to the person in trouble. The three jumped for a wall. "We jumped over the raging canyon. We
grabbed hold of the edge of that wall. ... and then I noticed I was
slipping. There
was a layer of ice beneath my hands. I was slipping ... I couldn't get
a grip. Then something came over me. ... maybe like a lever in my head
flicking over to the other side. Give it up with the damn loser shit!
said something inside my half-frozen brain. It's only ice for God's
sake. And all of a sudden I found the strength, like someone somewhere
had poured it over me and inside of me."
-OOO- http://www.amazon.com/This-Brave-Balance-Rusalka-Reh/ dp/1611090059/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid= 1312230542&sr=1-1 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (5) epinions.com 08/06/2011 Review Title: "You get days like that when something suddenly falls into place" Product Rating: * * * PROS: German teen Angst. Dysfunctional families. Parkour and origami as metaphors for life. CONS: Translation into limping non-American English. Details of parkour movements barely sketched. Somewhat incoherent plot. BOTTOM LINE: Young parkour practitioners will enjoy mechanics of their sport. Perhaps they will learn to begin philosophizing a bit about overcoming obstacles in harmony with local environments. English translation limps. aohcapablanca's Full Review: Have you read my October 03, 2010 epinions review of Stephen Davies's parkour novel, HACKING TIMBUKTU? If you have, then you know that my grandson Gavin Patrick is an ardent traceur of that recently created but rapidly spreading non-competitive sport aka PK. Slow moving, relaxed tai chi is for ancient me. But Gavin runs, somersaults, bounces off walls and rattles off the French terminology of parkour with the best of them. He also trains with other teen age boy traceurs (I haven't asked if traceuses are part of the gang) in Greenville, SC. They put parkour training films of themselves up on line (even one home-made original fantasy PK drama), and are looking for a permanent, all-weather place to train. Knowing all that, I asked amazon.com's Vine program to send me for review a pre-publication text of THIS BRAVE BALANCE, a 2011 parkour novel set in contemporary Leipzig, Germany, written by Rusalka Reh. The German original, ASPHALTSPRINGER, has been translated into sometimes wooden non-American English by Katy Derbyshire. In three or four hours I am going to lend my copy of THIS BRAVE BALANCE TO GAVIN. My wife and I will have driven an hour and a half south from our mountains to celebrate our own 47th and the 17th wedding anniversary of Gavin's parents. After Gavin has read it, I will ask him which he liked better: 2011's THIS BRAVE BALANCE or 2010'S HACKING TIMBUKTU. For my part, I rate the latter higher. Parkour is more integral to its boys' action set-in-Africa plot, and the scenes of climbing, running, overcoming obstacles and such like are generally more three dimensional. Let me tell you a bit more of THIS BRAVE BALANCE (if the title is ever explained in the novel, I missed it). The novel focuses on two increasingly bitter cold months (late October to Christmas) in the lives of six youngsters and the unrelated parents of two of them. It is noir, shivering cold, and tragic in a way that offers only a faint hope of recovery for the victims -- two children at a minimum. Perhaps every character is up against tragedy. Four German boys, aged 16 and 17, practice parkour together. Their families are dysfunctional, in three cases close to abjectly poor. Their personal lives disappoint the boys. In order to try to give themselves hope and a sense of fresh beginnings, the four give their group a name, the Urban Planetbirds. Each boy assumes the parkour name of a bird that says something personal about himself. The narrator styles himself Dipper (a bird "rather quick and quiet in its ways"). The novel's depressed anti-hero is Corone ("carrion crow"). The third boy becomes Skylark. And the only boy from an affluent (but broken) family is Jay. A sort of junior member of the Urban Planet birds is Corone's tag-along ten-year old, mildly retarded sister, who is dubbed Kittiwake. A few chapters (none numbered, but there are 22 of them) into the plot, the Planetbirds are enlarged to include a German-Welsh 19 year old girl named Kite. She is a university student and has recently broken off an affair with Corone. Kite is also an advanced traceuse, a fact which she conceals from all the other Planetbirds except narrator Dipper, who has promptly developed a crush on her. Dipper's kind-hearted, widowed mother ("Ma") cleans public latrines and provides a home for her only child. Jay's parents are university types. Jay's mother and sister have separated from Jay's father, Professor Bigshot. The novel's plot has at least four elements: -- (1) the intense love triangle of Kite,
Corone and Dipper;
-- (2) the desperate home life of Corone and his sister Kittiwake (abandoned and left penniless by their mother, their electricity and water recently shut off); -- (3) Professor Bigshot's growing fondness for young Kittiwake (keep your eye on this aspect); -- (4) various technical, emotional, educational and even cross-cultural aspects of parkour. Here is a longer excerpt from a passage indicating what it's like when parkour traceur or traceuse hits a personal high: The four boys and Kite are practicing together. Dipper does a franchissement ("swinging through a gap {for example two horizontal poles}"). He tells us: "It's a real cool feeling when you think
you're never gonna get a jump or a combination down right ... and then
you stand there and after the twentieth move you flick some kind of
switch in your head. You run, push off, and swing in a perfect motion
between the bars of a railing. Makes for major satisfaction. ... You
get days like that when something suddenly falls into place,
something that you hadn't made the slightest bit of progress for ages.
As if you'd been a caterpillar in a cocoon for the longest time, and
all of a sudden you break out of your shell. And fly" (from chapter entitled "Breaking
Through").
Two of the Urban Planetbirds, Dipper and his new girlfriend Kite, try to wrap their budding intellectual and imaginative powers around parkour. A mysterious Asian man (perhaps in a dream, Dipper dreams a lot) watches the boy practice and says that parkour is a metaphor for life itself. Kite takes Dipper to her very large studio apartment and introduces him to the art of origami (making animal and other shapes from a single sheet of paper without any cuts). Kite is big on origami as applied spatial mathematics, with its hundreds of shapes already invented and with seven axioms discovered by two Japanese. Dipper in dialog with Kite: "So, ... these origami guys make all this
out of one sheet of paper, with no tools?"
"Yes." "So they have a goal and they go straight there without getting distracted? A path with no diversions?" "Yes!" "'Paper parkour," I said" (from Chapter entitled Origami). I am not sure that adults used to better writing and more mature insights will linger long over THAT BRAVE BALANCE. But there is a creditable amount in it for beginning traceurs and traceuses. A two-page appendix "Basic Parkour Moves" presents 16 parkour phrases, slightly out of alphabetical order, ranging from Atterrissage through Lache, Passement, Roulade, Saut de bas and ending with Tic-Tac: "pushing off from an object (for example a wall), to overcome an unstable or small object." There is the tiniest bit of the history of parkour and its not very distant birth in Lisses, France. In passing we encounter Leipzig's skinheads, neo-Nazis, left radicals and ever vigilant police -- all obstacles that the Urban Planetbirds overcome with or without parkour. I see THIS BRAVE BALANCE as a passably average early work of a young author. Its parkour scenes are less vividly described than in HACKING TIMBUKTU, but in the hands of a gifted screenwriter and director might conceivably morph into a four-star motion picture after the manner of Errol Flynn or Bruce Lee. My friends are too old for me to commend THIS BRAVE BALANCE to them. To young practitioners like my 16-year old grandson, yes, but only after a preliminary chat about the dubious morals of several characters. -OOO- Recommended: no. p. s. Thank you Pestyside Patsy for making THIS BRAVE BALANCE reviewable for epinions.com. http://www.epinions.com/review/Rusalka_Reh_ This_Brave_Balance_epi/content_559778795140 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= http://www.patrickkillough.com/books/reh_balance.html |