Description
Book SynopsisWe All Giggled tells the stories of two families that came together when the author's parents met and married in 1945. The HÃ"glins had lost most of their fortune in the course of two world wars, and the Wachendorff s had survived the Nazi years despite their Jewish ancestry. The families' roots are traced back to a vineyard in southern Germany, a jail in Geneva, the Conservatory in St. Petersburg, and the hometown of a Jewish merchant in Silesia. This engaging book centres on the author's recollections of his grandparents, his parents, and his own growing up in postwar Germany in an environment of bourgeois stability and comfort. As the author chronicles his family's ups and downs and abiding love for music, food, and art across several generations, a rich tapestry of anecdotes unfoldsâabout opera singers, restaurants, and travels, and about family relations, romance, and the kind of "impromptu reactions to people, places, and situations that often result in uncontrollable giggles."
Trade Review"This book reminds us what the ideal family actually is: a collection of colourful, delightfully imperfect people who have, for better and worse, made up the music of our lives. May we all remember and honour our families with such care, respect, and willingness to giggle and forgive." -- Alison Wearing, author of Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey -- 201011
Table of ContentsTable of Contents for We All Giggled: A Bourgeois Family Memoir by Thomas O. Hueglin Thanks What This Is About Part I: The HÃ"glins 1. Tango 2. A nearly missed wedding 3. Madonnas and Buddhas 4. Diaspora 5. Les artistes 6. Nationalökonomie 7. Rhenish humour 8. Genealogy of men 9. (Some) artists again 10. The villa(s) 11. Christmas 12. Mucki 13. The Planter 14. Nemesis 15. Zauberberg 16. Varasdin on the Isar 17. NÃ"ssli mit Likör 18. The surroundings 19. Kids 20. School 21. Cars 22. The Jewish question (I) 23. Black Forest 24. From music to medicine 25. War Part II: The Wachendorffs 26. A sombre beginning 27. A macabre anniversary 28. Black stairs 29. The photographer 30. The factory director 31. The gardener 32. Tyrant and charmer 33. Possible encounter 34. Another Chile connection 35. Hattenheim 36. The Rhine 37. Freie Heimat 38. Books and poems 39. The Jewish question (II) 40. Same subject continued 41. Postscript 42. In from the cold 43. Favourite aunt 44. Hans-Erich 45. Family reunions 46. Gamelan meets baroque 47. Reborn 48. Middle names 49. Middle ground 50. Skin of our teeth 51. War again Part III: Renate and Hans 52. Presto agitato 53. Courtship 54. The crossing 55. Occupation 56. Wings 57. Degrees of separation 58. Presto agitato again 59. Interlude Part IV: Tutzing (1950s) 60. Little house on the lake 61. On the town 62. Boys and girls 63. Catholics and Communists 64. The hotel 65. Erika 66. Piano lessons 67. Music, caviar, and space 68. Star-struck 69. Beaulieu-sur-Mer 70. Disaster 71. A few months later, back to the memoir 72. Geneva 73. On the radio Part V: Munich 74. Esmeralda 75. The apartment 76. The doctor 77. The piano 78. Dallas 79. School again 80. The group 81. Girls 82. Ambach
