“Alle Toten Fliegen Hoch: Amerika” or “All the Dead Fly Up: America” by Joachim Meyerhoff is a raw, nonchalant, and emotional description of the author’s year in the US as a German exchange student.
The book is non-fictional and recounts things that happened to the author who is now a German actor, director, and writer when he was a high school student. It takes the reader on a rollercoaster from ecstatic, great moments in the narrator’s life down to more tragic, difficult ones and back up to moments that can only be described as unexpected and bizarre.
The story begins in Germany. Meyerhoff is living his life there as a normal German high school student. The first part of the book paints a picture of the narrator’s life and character. He is just finding out about the exchange program. Meyerhoff describes the application process and some of the thoughts he had that influenced his decisions.
Once he finally makes it to the US, a place called Laramie in Wyoming to be specific, he meets his host family and gets to know them. Later on, he describes his first day at an American high school and the teachers he met there.
He goes on to recount many things that happened to him, like a trip to a prison that he went on with one of his teachers and an awkward date he had with a girl. But he also mentions his thoughts and impressions throughout most of the book.
Those thoughts and impressions are largely relatable to someone who has done an exchange year in a different country or who has generally moved to a different country for an extensive amount of time. The wonder, curiosity, and confusion that Meyerhoff describes as he sees and experiences Americans and their way of life around him are relatable to someone who is in a similar situation.
Settling into this new, different life in a new place with new people and a new language can be hard and Meyerhoff manages to describe that transition very well, using descriptions of everything around him but also himself. Throughout the book, he changes as a person as well and mentions some of those changes to the reader when he notices them himself.
Others become clear just by reading the story which is mostly possible due to the raw and direct way that the book is written. Meyerhoff is very open and nonchalant in his descriptions of people, their behavior, and their appearance, whether they are wearing clothes or not. The same goes for his descriptions of himself and his thoughts. He doesn’t seem to hold back or hide anything from the reader.
Due to that and some experiences that can only really be described as strange and unexpected, this book has a raw, strange, and nonchalant tone. It is funny sometimes and makes the reader feel for the narrator at other times.
That rollercoaster of experiences and emotions is what makes the story relatable to someone who has gone through that experience of moving to a different place.
As someone who has been through that experience myself, I enjoyed reading someone else’s different but similar perspective and rate this book an 8 out of 10 stars.
Reading this reminded me of the foreign exchange students we had when I was in high school. I can’t say I got to know any of them, and the only one I remember specifically was a guy who practiced (never played, obviously) with the girls volleyball team. At the time I thought that was weird.
Laramie would be a tough place for anyone to adjust to, Americans included. It sounds like an interesting book; let me know if it gets translated into English. The review/discussion is fine. It’s pretty obvious HOW he went about collecting the information and experiences for the book.
I would have liked a few specific examples of “raw” and “direct,” however. Those terms can mean lots of things, so provide examples. The same goes for the “changes” he experiences. It’s possible, as someone in a similar position, that these changes and experiences are obvious, but for someone like me who is un-travelled, more information is necessary.
The phrase “whether they are wearing clothes or not” also piques my interest. That seems like a tease that needs to be explained.