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Failing Forward In Saarland
Failing Forward in Saarland is the memoir of a transplanted Canadian with Caribbean roots, venturing with her husband and their daughter into Saarland, Germany. The memoir describes the year the family spent in this small forested land tucked away in the western corner of Germany on the border to France. Her teenage daughter made the daily commute to attend a lycée in France and her husband spent most days doing research in labs and forests. What was the mother and wife left to do in the Saarland with next to no knowledge of the German language let alone the Frankish accent? As a career teacher, the author’s life had never before been reduced to awaiting the daily home-coming of daughter and husband. During her year in Saarland, she did much more than that. This book is an entertaining and informative account by an experienced Black teacher of what it means to transplant a family into a foreign country and how to enjoy a welcoming culture.
Most significantly, this memoir is a meaningful addition to the literary corpus focusing on strangers in a strange land. Even though the author is intimately familiar with the notion — she has lived most of her adult life in Canada, far from her Barbados birthplace — she immediately faces the challenges of adjusting to the customs of a new land and, especially, learning to communicate in German. And her story is anything but ordinary — it’s a moving, often amusing, and sometimes humbling account of the author’s adventures and learning experiences in a largely unknown country without the benefit of fluency in the local language. As the title indicates, the author comes to view these challenges — and even failures — as positive “life lessons in adaptability, strength, and resilience” — failing forward.
Most significantly, this memoir is a meaningful addition to the literary corpus focusing on strangers in a strange land. Even though the author is intimately familiar with the notion — she has lived most of her adult life in Canada, far from her Barbados birthplace — she immediately faces the challenges of adjusting to the customs of a new land and, especially, learning to communicate in German. And her story is anything but ordinary — it’s a moving, often amusing, and sometimes humbling account of the author’s adventures and learning experiences in a largely unknown country without the benefit of fluency in the local language. As the title indicates, the author comes to view these challenges — and even failures — as positive “life lessons in adaptability, strength, and resilience” — failing forward.
324 pages, Hardcover
Published May 10, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 15, 2024
Failing Forward in Saarland is an engaging account of the year Claudette Bouman spent with her researcher husband and teenaged daughter in western Germany’s Saarland region. Part memoir, part travelogue, part inner dialog, she wonderfully unwraps the patterns and flavours of daily life, exploring a country where she does not speak the language and where her family is fully engaged in its own routines.
Using her free time to travel around by rail, car, and ferry, she explores new cultures and cuisines, while struggling to improve her German. These efforts are wryly amusing and self-deprecating—all those long sentences with the verb at the end—the exhaustion of communicating through endless sentences where only the speaker knows the destination! But existing in a strange yet-unknown language, she realizes in retrospect she took “slim pickings from a cultural feast.”
Claudette was born in Barbados, and there is to some extent a coming-of-age memoir lightly woven beneath the Saarland narrative. In the German context where she is always “visible,” always Black, she considers aspects of the contemporary African diaspora, and harkens to its relevance to her own past and its meaning for her birthplace. She was in her late teens when Barbados became independent and for the first time, higher education became universally accessible. Born into a working class family, by her own account a deprived and contentious one, she enrolled in the new community college and thrived, her resilience and intelligence recognized and encouraged by teachers and colleagues.
Self-defined as “a Black Canadian woman of Barbadian origins,” she has returned to her Nova Scotia home, glad of the risk-taking and efforts that “prompted personal and professional grit and growth,” and that led her to write this memoir.
Using her free time to travel around by rail, car, and ferry, she explores new cultures and cuisines, while struggling to improve her German. These efforts are wryly amusing and self-deprecating—all those long sentences with the verb at the end—the exhaustion of communicating through endless sentences where only the speaker knows the destination! But existing in a strange yet-unknown language, she realizes in retrospect she took “slim pickings from a cultural feast.”
Claudette was born in Barbados, and there is to some extent a coming-of-age memoir lightly woven beneath the Saarland narrative. In the German context where she is always “visible,” always Black, she considers aspects of the contemporary African diaspora, and harkens to its relevance to her own past and its meaning for her birthplace. She was in her late teens when Barbados became independent and for the first time, higher education became universally accessible. Born into a working class family, by her own account a deprived and contentious one, she enrolled in the new community college and thrived, her resilience and intelligence recognized and encouraged by teachers and colleagues.
Self-defined as “a Black Canadian woman of Barbadian origins,” she has returned to her Nova Scotia home, glad of the risk-taking and efforts that “prompted personal and professional grit and growth,” and that led her to write this memoir.
October 12, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. It is funny, touching, relatable and very well-written If you ever had an experience in your life where you found yourself totally out of your comfort zone, you will totally relate to the author’s observations about living in a foreign country for a year, not knowing the language and discovering the culture. If you ever had to move away with your children, especially teenagers, taking them away from their friends and all they know, you will relate to the struggles faced by parents in that situation. All this while learning about the incredible journey of a young girl from Barbados to Nova Scotia. It is a wonderful book that I highly recommend!
February 25, 2025
I couldn't put this book down! I was so drawn in to the story Claudette was sharing about her family's big adventure abroad. Even better were the links she was making between her own West Indian heritage, immigration, and the current discourses on the same in Europe.
This book has everything - from sumptuous descriptions of delectable German desserts, to ruminations on class and racism that are profound and personal.
Highly recommend this for academics on sabbatical, their families, and anyone thinking of making a big leap in life. This book will show you that it's worth it!
This book has everything - from sumptuous descriptions of delectable German desserts, to ruminations on class and racism that are profound and personal.
Highly recommend this for academics on sabbatical, their families, and anyone thinking of making a big leap in life. This book will show you that it's worth it!
October 11, 2024
"Failing Forward in Saarland" is a beautifully honest examination of Bouman’s time spent living abroad in Saarland, Germany. It does not shy away from topics such as language barriers, cultural differences, or family dynamics. Bouman manages to carry the past forward in her work, frequently referencing tales from her time spent living in Barbados, and later, Canada. The effect is an informative perspective on an ex-pat’s life in Germany that is engaging and full of heart.
October 11, 2024
This book was written with the reader in mind. It was immensely readable but did not lack in any way when it came to allowing the reader to experience Claudette's journey with her. It was a wonderful mix of past and present recollections which allowed us some insight as to what brought Claudette to the mental and physical space she was occupying. A wonderful tale told by a wonderful author.
October 14, 2024
A riveting book that I couldn’t stop reading (finished it in two sittings). Along with depicting challenges faced by a Canadian family while living for a year in Saarland, Germany, the author includes snippets of history and geography, which I found fascinating. Though I sometimes felt as if I was a voyeur peeking out my window into someone else’s, I enjoyed every moment...
October 17, 2024
Claudette Bouman’s book, Failing Forward in Saarland, is much more than a memoir. Rather, it is a mesmerizingly poetic exploration of life’s wonders and difficulties, flowing seamlessly between the author’s memories from her youth in native Barbados, her life in her adopted country of Canada, and her family’s exciting but intimidating adjustments to being new temporary residents of Germany.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews