Alina Bronsky; trans. Tim Mohr
My Grandmother’s Braid by Alina Bronsky, translated from the German by Tim Mohr, unfolds in the first-person voice of Max, a young boy who lives with his Russian grandparents in Germany in a home for refugees.
Max has been fed all sorts of misinformation by his domineering grandmother. She tells him he is weak, incompetent, unhealthy, and prone to catch germs. She hovers over him continuously, denying him the space to breathe, to eat what he wants, and to live his life as a child. She takes every opportunity to put him down. But as Max gets older, he begins to recognize her exaggerations and lies for what they are. And although he maintains the façade of being a bit of a dolt, he is smart enough to notice his grandfather is having an affair with their neighbor, Nina. When Nina gets pregnant with his child, things come to a head. Much to Max’s surprise, his grandmother embraces her husband’s illegitimate child and acts as a surrogate mother to the newborn and to Nina who is incapable of handling the situation alone.
The dialogue is rich with biting humor. Max tolerates his grandmother and finds ways to thwart her prohibitions without her knowledge. He is intelligent, astute, observant, and knows how to manipulate and distract her. But it is Bronsky’s portrayal of Margarita, the grandmother, that carries the novel. She is simultaneously a tyrant, incorrigible, unlikeable, threatening, and demanding. But she is also compassionate, loving, generous, and capable of great tenderness. In Margarita, Bronsky has created a complex character that generates sympathy in spite of her crazy notions, a grandmother that one can dislike and love at the same time.