Floating in My Mother's Palm

Burgdorf Cycle #2

by Ursula Hegi

Floating in My Mother's Palm is the compelling and mystical story of Hanna Malter, a young girl growing up in 1950's Burgdorf, the small German town Ursula Hegi so brilliantly brought to life in her bestselling novel Stones from the River.Hanna's courageous voice evokes her unconventional mother, who swims during thunderstorms; the illegitimate son of an American GI, who learns from Hanna about his father; and the librarian, Trudi Montag, who lets Hanna see her hometown from a dwarf's extraordinary point of view. Although Ursula Hegi wrote Floating in My Mother's Palm first, it can be read as a sequel to Stones from the River.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Germany, Short Stories, Coming Of Age, Novels, Literary Fiction

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Ursula Hegi is a German-born American writer. She is currently an instructor in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.
She was born Ursula Koch in 1946 in Düsseldorf, Germany, a city that was heavily bombed during World War II. Her perception growing up was that the war was avoided as a topic of discussion despite its evidence everywhere, and The Holocaust was a particularly taboo topic. This had a strong effect on her later writing and her feelings about her German identity.
She left West Germany in 1964, at the age of 18. She moved to the United States in 1965, where she married (becoming Ursula Hegi) in 1967 and became a naturalized citizen the same year. In 1979, she graduated from the University of New Hampshire with both a bachelor's and master's degree. She was divorced in 1984. The same year, she was hired at Eastern Washington University, in Cheney, Washington, near Spokane, Washington, where she became an Associate Professor and taught creative writing and contemporary literature.
Hegi's first books were set in the United States. She set her third, Floating in My Mother's Palm, in the fictional German town of "Burgdorf," using her writing to explore her conflicted feelings about her German heritage. She used the setting for three more books, including her best selling novel Stones from the River, which was chosen for Oprah's Book Club in 1997. Hegi appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 8, and her publisher reprinted 1.5 million hardcover copies and 500,000 paperbacks. She subsequently moved from Spokane to New York City.
Hegi's many awards include an NEA Fellowship and five PEN Syndicated Fiction Awards. She won a book award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) in 1991 for Floating in My Mother's Palm. She has also had two New York Times Notable Book mentions. She has written many book reviews for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post.

Reviews

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hegi's Stones from the River is one of those read books whose memory is caught in the mists between pre-GR and post-reviewing, when literary enjoyment was a hobby and any career other than engineering a pipe dream. Like many books I loved before my understanding of them began to yearn towards holism, I will eventually return and pull from it some sense of origin, grounding the sensibilities of a younger self in the analytic soil of an older. I will not indulge in lazy disdain and withering remarks, for there is enough death dealing bullshit being spilled by those in the name of 'maturity' to fill the world many times over. Besides, it is much harder to hone one's skills at anything if the roots are continually denied.

I will compare this both to My Brilliant Friend and Stephen King, for what the former makes explicit in black market inheritance and the latter in child-eaters of the dark is the weight of history, post-WWII and all its grappling. Concerning King, it was eerie how closely one of the short stories (to be frank, a more accurate term of the structure of this tome would be watercolors taken at different vantage points throughout the town of Burgdorf, focused more on the story as a whole rather than the perspective of a linear soul) came to that scene of children on bikes chasing down a horror, smack dab in the middle of the pathos that ranges between Stand By Me and It. Indeed, I've a theory that my intolerance of whitewashing atrocities stems not from any inherent moral character of my youth, but of the sheer amount of King and co. that I imbibed, stories of children tracking down monsters no adults would touch not because they were curious, not because they were looking for a thrill, but because they were being killed, and the grown ups did nothing. It's a tension Hegi doesn't touch upon as much as I would've liked (not the least mention of the lack of Jewish neighbors, for example), but amongst the day to day of painters, healers, small town scandal and the librarian who feeds on it all, it is there. The childhood grasping at what the past has left, and the adults who refuse to talk.

For anyone who's now extremely concerned about this story collection terrifying them out their wits, the King comparison was more personal experience than exact definition. The one thing I remember most about Stones from the River was a soothing prose that did not dim its beauty by swerving away from odious events or smoothing out the uglier facets of 1950's Germany, and the same can be found here. No Ferrante, to be sure, but there is a similar faithfulness to depicting how emotions violently inflict themselves on the body of self and those surrounding. History has a way of working itself out eventually, no matter how many are silent.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first published book in Ursula Hegi's "Burgdorf Cycle". I haven't heard the term "cycle" applied to books before, but it certainly makes more sense in this context than does the term series. The events in this book take place after her more well-known Stones from the River.

I would characterize this as more a collection of stories with the narrator and setting the same throughout. Hanna Malter is a young girl who tells of her life and town following WWII when she is perhaps between the ages of 10 and 14. Trudi Montag, the dwarf who runs the pay library who was the narrator in Stones, plays a featured part in this one.

Hanna is not a perfect child - she is known to say some very hurtful things, and she and her friends have played some pranks. Hanna also is not what I think of as a typical child in that she is quite perceptive of people. Of the priest's unmarried sister she observes:

The pastor's sister, Hannelore Beier, was a woman in her thirties with crippled hands. Her fingers over-lapped and drew themselves toward her palms, birdlike claws which she refused to hide. When she taught Sunday school, she moved them gracefully, those stiff extensions of herself, weaving the texture of her words into our hearts.

And this, of her mother's friend who had bouts of mental illness:

On days when she couldn't speak at all, her head would jerk forward as though she were trying to make the words fall from her mouth, and I'd think of the thousands of unspoken words crowding inside her, wishing I could help her release them. I'd feel my neck and shoulders tighten, my lips moving as if, somehow, I could form those words for her.

This is not a plot-driven work. If that is your favorite, you might wish to look elsewhere.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quiet story of a community emerging from the ashes of war and a young girl growing up contentedly in the middle of a loving family, supported by broken but mostly kind neighbors.

[Kathryn Bashaar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is consists of linked short stories, about the people in the German town of Burgdorf in the 1950s. The stories are told from the point of view of young Hanna Malter, only living child of a beautiful, risk-taking artist mother and a sober, much older dentist father. Hanna's mother is loving but somewhat distant, often absorbed in her painting. Hanna adores her mother, but compensates for the lack of her mother's full attention by forming relationships with other adult women, including the family's housekeeper and Trudi Montag, the owner of the town's pay library.
Trudi is a gossip, and Burgdorf is quite the Peyton Place. The Malter's housekeeper's son is the illegitimate result of a brief relationship with an American solider. A neighbor commits suicide. The parish priest's sister finds love unexpectedly. Hanna's relationship with Trudi, along with her own naïve curiosity, bring Hanna into contact with all the town's secrets.
But this is not a dark novel. The recently-ended war and Nazi era are a dim, receding darkness in the background, but the stories brim with beautiful details that bring the town to life, and with a tender compassion for the hopes and errors, sufferings and joys, of its residents - including Hanna, of course, as she grows up. I think Hegi is showing us that the errors and flaws of individual human people, and the German people as a whole, are not their whole story.
My husband and I are planning a trip to Germany and the Netherlands this fall, and I always try to read fiction that takes place in countries that I'm visiting before I go. I will definitely read more of Hegi's work.
Like my reviews? Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com/blog/
Author of The Saint's Mistress: https://www.bing.com/search?q=amazon....

[Linda Lipko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profoundly insightful, incredibly haunting, both heartbreakingly sad and heartwarmingly charming, lyrical and poetic in dealing with some very difficult life experiences, this book is destined to be one of my top reads of 2011.

In small town post WWII, 1950's Burgdorf Germany, pre-teen Trudy Malter provides insights into colorful characters, rich in history and life experience.

Possessing the soul of her artistic, carefree mother, and the kind, gentleness of her father, Trudy listens to the stories of the towns people and deftly provides insights into their personalities while absorbing their joys, frustrations and sorrows.

In a series of short stories, each well connected, Heigi brilliantly develops characters that shine through their struggles.

This is exquisitely, beautifully written, as one emotionally laden story follows another, until at the end the reader cannot help but sigh and feel sad that the book is finished.

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reviewers felt that this book could be read as a sequel to "Stones From the River" (which is one of my all-time favorite books). However, it read more like a series of short stories than an actual novel. Because of this, I felt no connection to the main character, Hanna (I even had to check the book jacket to see what her name was, and I just read the book), and I even felt out-of-touch with the character I had loved so much in "Stones" (Trudi Montag), who has cameo appearances in this book. In fact, after having read this book, I have been wondering if I would even like "Stones" if I were to read it again now. Trudi, the main character from "Stones" comes across as meddlesome and annoying in this book. IF I didn't know that the author wrote this book first, I would have thought that she just threw Trudi into the mix to lure in "Stones'" fans.

I can't say I completely hate this book, though, because Hegi has a great writing style and a very believable voice.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to this author's talent. This book is a series of stories during the childhood/adolescence of the main character; Hanna. Set in Germany in the 1950s.

[Camelia Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a penchant for coming-of-age or childhood memoir-like novels from the female perspective where the young protagonist narrates their life and bears witness to others around them, usually set in a small town or a small neighborhood in a city, and read like a chain of interlinked short stories. Depending on how the book is written, sometimes the story is only revealed through the child’s eyes at the moment of the events. Other times it’s mixed with reflection from the protagonist’ later life, and it can take a lifetime for them to understand what had actually happened. The child’s observation may or may not be accurate, but it is always sincere. It is the sincerity that gets me.

Here are the books I think belong to this mini-genre: 1. Memory of Peking - South Side Stories by Lin Haiyin; 2. Hulan River by Xiao Hong; 3. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Now I shall add Floating In My Mother’s Palm by Ursula Hegi.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 BIG stars for the writing alone, but the beautifully constructed sentences also presented me with some really, REALLY good stories that made up the life of young Hanna Malter in postwar Germany. Like most tourists, when we visited gorgeous Germany, we really only encountered those people in the tourist industry. These short but rich stories allowed me to get to know the people better. Although it's fiction, the characters ring true, as if Ursula is writing stories from her own childhood. Her Trudi from Stones from the River makes appearances from time-to-time, which was nice. I hadn't even realized that I missed her, but apparently I had. This is a small but powerful book that I highly recommend.

[Sharon Huether · Rating 5 out of 5]

The honesty and innocence of a child is expressed by the author as Hanna Malter describes her friends and neighbors in a small town in Germany
Life centers around her friend Trudi at the Pay Library, who knows all.
Hanna and her mother are very close and like to take risks.
Hanna does her best to make sense of an uncertain world. She turns out a strong young teen.

[Infosifter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a reread for me, though I didn't realize it when I started the book. Not much happens on the surface of the story, but it's interesting from a psychological viewpoint. The main character has flashes of uncommon empathy with the people who live in her town. 3.5 stars; I love watching history flow by on the page.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would nearly classify this book as a collection of short stories, although by the end of the book, the reader is aware that the main character is Hanna. From time to time, this distinction is unclear as you learn about the lives of the people in town.

Hegi has a very pleasant writing style that feels naive and whimsical, fitting as reality is filtered through the mind of a child. This stands out in stark contrast to some of the darker undertones of the recollections and backstories recanted about the denizens of this post-wwII German town. My particular favorite has a pack of German Shepherds (you'll know it when you get there).

Overall, a very nice book. My attention has been caught - adding her other novels to the list.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful writing. I actually felt the warmth of the people in the town, and felt their sorrows and pains as well. The relationship Hannah has with her mother is complex and loving. Hegi does an amazing job writing from the perspective of an adolescent girl, and touches on so many cultural post war issues in Germany. I highly recommend this book. The chapters are like small stories about different people in the village, so it's a great bedside book, easy to read a few chapters and put it down for the night.

[Katie]

I loved Stones from the River, but this one isn't keeping my attention at the moment. It also reads as a collection of short stories, which is something I don't enjoy in general.

[Clara Mundy]

Utterly adored this! Such a simple yet moving portrait of a community full of people striving for love, companionship, and meaning—all in the shadow of Germany reckoning with the Nazis’ atrocities. I had never heard of this book or this author before being gifted it by my dear friend Meghan, but boy she hit it out of the park. Only thing better than reading a great book is reading a great book given to you by a great friend <3

“It was quiet in our apartment, a silence that had a texture of its own, a different texture than when my parents were asleep and their breaths—even though I couldn’t hear them—took the starch out of the cloth of silence and made it smooth like a familiar blanket.”

“Rolf leaned forward, looking at the man’s faded features with such longing that I imagined his fatehr reaching up toward the branches of an orange tree under a sun that was bright, white, a sun that soaked its rays into his shirt as he stood in that one luminous moment before breaking off an orange, forever reaching, forever there.”

[Florence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hanna, a young girl lives in Burgdorf, a German village on the banks of the Rhein in the postwar 1950s. She flits about the village in the carefree manner of a child collecting stories about its inhabitants. At first, the tales seem whimsical and lighthearted. As Hanna grows she seems to become cognizant of the adversity that touches the lives of her neighbors. Some events, though they are macabre, still retain an element of whimsey. Does this sound contradictory? Ursula Hegi is a masterful writer with a command of language and an understanding of human foibles. She makes these characters and their village come alive at a moment in time.

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stones From The River is among my favorite books ever read, both content and writing style. I still adore Hegi's writing style, which is where the 4 star rating originates. However, in terms of content, this book is essentially a string of short stories related through the storyteller who is not particularly interesting (although the characters she describes often are) more of a 3 star rating. Beautiful writing, medium stories.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pleasant enough story, just not especially simulating. Short and quick. The writing is very nice. For the most part, I did not really have a sense of what the novel was about; I finally decided it was the coming of age of the central character and her relationship with her mother. I have the other book in this cycle, and won't hesitate at all to read it when it comes up.

[Deb Urbano · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.
A sequal to Stones from the River, though this was written first. This series of character sketches builds a larger pictiure of Hannah Malter coming of age in Burgdorf, Germany. Covers all of life's thrills and heartbreaks from love and childbirth to suicide and grief.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

First —or second?—book in the 4-volume Burgdorf cycle. Written first, but actually a sequel of Stones From The River…which I read two years ago, and which is the best of the cycle.
This second in cycle consists of a series of inter-related vignettes featuring citizens of Burgdorf. I have recently finished the fourth book in this cycle. Highly recommended

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

With a town’s people as continuing characters in these stories they are woven together but still seem of separate times. Arge scenes are not always pretty but the writing is beautiful: “Anton Immers bred violets on the windowsill and shelves of the room he occupied on the second floor of his son’s house.”

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking for a very good quick read? This book is well written and interesting story. More appeal to female than male but a great little book.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

1950s Germany

To my surprise, I liked this little book. Now I'm wondering if I should read Stones from the River again. Maybe I had to get comfortable with the tone of Hegi's writing. The first sentence plunges the reader into Hegi's style:
When my mother entered her tenth month of carrying me, I stopped moving inside her womb.

Overall, the writing is dark, somber. There's no joy or attempt to focus on the positive aspects of life. This book is told from a young girl's POV, and she already views the world as do her elders but with more naivety. The tales are told very matter-of-factly. That's the way of life.

Here's a comment on death and dying that caught my attention:
Eleven times so far it had seemed as though she were ready to die, and Frau Brocker had sent Rolf to fetch the increasingly reluctant Herr Pastor Beier who knew, along with the whole town, that whenever he administered last rites to the old woman, she recovered within a few days as if cured by his final absolution.
I had never thought about the last rites. It's the last sacrament a Catholic experiences. So does it "expire," or is it only "valid" if the person dies?

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ursula Hegi wrote "Floating in My Mother's Palm" before "Stones from the River", although the events in it come afterward. I'm not sure why I picked it up, much less bought it, because I was lukewarm about Stones. Yet, when I saw that Floating might give a different perspective on some of the same characters, I had to get it. It was an easier read that Stones, with chapters more like vignettes, and a main character, Hannah, that I found more likeable than Trudi in Stones. It was also a lot shorter, so I read it through in one sitting -- much less a commitment than Stones requires. I'd still have to say I'm lukewarm about the whole story, yet there is obviously something about it that intrigues me. Hegi's prose is excellent, so that alone make her worth reading. I think she has two other books that also feature characters in this German town; not sure if I'll read them or not, but I am thinking about it.

[Diane Webber-thrush · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Ursula Hegi's Stones From the River years ago and loved it, so I'm not sure what took me so long to pick up another one of her books. I heard about this on an NPR show about the book and mini-series Olive Kittredge. A caller chimed in and said she thought this was a more successful collection of short stories about the same characters. Hegi wrote it before Stones from the River but it takes place after in time ... sort of prequel and sequel at the same time. It totally worked for me. One of my favorite moments is when she describes the old church ladies of the town -- they all feel young because they have known each other since they were children. Loved that thought.

[msleighm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars, second in the series. The first book, Stones from the River, is more linear in the telling of a German town WW1 & WW2. This one is a generation later, told an essay format, between the chronigal timeline of the daughter of some of the principal characters from the first book, interspersed with slice of life stories about other characters. It is a beautifully designed tapestry. Coming in under 200 pages, I would have enjoyed twice that much. There are two more books in the series, I'm looking forward to them.

see also msleighm.wordpress.com for other reviews, editorials, and essays.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author’s Stones From the River novel is one of my all time favorites. I always wondered how friends & neighbors could allow the Jews to be taken away. That book helped me understand the situation a bit.

This book by the same author is good writing style but is lacking in plot.

[Lacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading and loving "Stones From The River" this was a disappointment. It lacked the character development and charm of the first book in the series. I found that surprising since this book was actually written first even though it is the second in the series.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A unique coming of age story told from the point of view of Hanna, a young girl growing up in a small town in Germany shortly after WWII has ended."

Pros: Hegi's writing flows so well and she paints such vivid images of the town and people, it's easy to see yourself watching it all unfold.

Cons: Though it's mainly about what Hanna, the young girl sees in the town, there doesn't seem to be a set, linear storyline, which isn't a con per se but sometimes it leaves the reader wanting for some continuity.

Full Review:
The war has ended, with its repercussions, but for Hanna, life is more or less the same as it's always been. She interacts with the others in the town, her best friend, Renate, who everyone thinks may be a Gypsy orphan, the Dwarf Librarian, Frau Montag and Hanna's housekeeper, Frau Brooker, who has an illegitimate son who's father was an American G.I who was stationed in their small town after the war.

She's learned most of what she knows about the people in the town from Frau Montag's insatiable curiosity and gossip and Frau Brooker's own wagging tongue. Hanna is young, innocent and isn't concerned about the outside world, since so far, it hasn't affected her much. She's content to live her life the way she always has, surrounded by her loving parents and sometimes attempting to learn more of the past from what others have told her. She tries to conjure up memories of her younger brother, who passed away when he was only nine days old, and its only when she imagines memories that they've never shared and never will share, such as sledding together, that she can feel the sorrow for the connection she's never had.

Like any small town, it has its share of scandals. The Priest's sister running away with a young school teacher who came to town, a rash of crimes of passion committed and other happenings in a small town where everyone knows one another and nothing can really be kept secret. The ending was surprising in its abruptness but overall, it felt complete.

This is a hard book to describe but I'm glad I read it. It had a way of making the reader feel transported, running alongside Hanna and Renate near the Rhein, sitting with Frau Montag in her library and drinking tea. It was a beautifully written book and it was an interesting change of pace from what I usually read.

[Sophie Bod]

Beautiful and neat stories of a community of routines and lives intersecting but also separated out :)
Really enjoyed and I will try to catch Ursula Hegi’s other book, Stones from the River, which is seen as the prequel to this book
things I noticed:
- the trope of the artistic not like other girls mother is strong in this one! She reminds me of I capture the Castles model mum who’s name eludes me, lots of risk taking and wildness - especially nature frolicking
Can hugely relate to them both and they are fun characters
-the description of the gossipy lady Trudi Montag was that of a “dwarf” and idk I think the language is perhaps a bit outdated ? It’s hard to know if you should police language in older books but yes an interesting dilemma, and does this characters identity revolve around her physical differences?
-the kissing of the bully boy character is a little unusual, it’s quite nice but it feels a little lost in fantasy, perhaps the author is dreaming of a time in her youth ..!
- I love his mother who gets with the American soldier and the potato sack man, she is a fun addition and very interesting morality to bring into the town
-the deaths of 2 men go practically unnoticed in the town, compared to the deep dive into the child like view of Hanna - it feels weird to devote just a chapter to the horrific deaths of the 7 German Shephards man and the hanging drunk man - and also to step away from Hanna in those moments but then to return to her timeline again.
- for me I love when author writes in a little bit of the current situation ie Trudi and Hanna are gossiping and then once they start off the gossip, the story takes over and so comes more alive, it’s very pretty! Just hard to fit it all back in at the end when you have to come back to earth or to Trudi s library
- love the remarriage at the end, you really see Hanna growing up and the risks she is now taking too.
I also like the mistakes she makes and the cruelty of her personality, it’s an interesting way to portray kids cruel nature, and how you learn later in life the after effects.

Would now like to visit Burgdorf! And possibly swim in a red swimsuit :)