A garden is for relaxing in on a summers evening.
For growing vegetables.
For having a cheeky cigarette when you're supposed to be finishing the accounts.
A garden is also a metaphor for growing up, maturing. Getting older.
In the final (smow)liest event for the 2010 Leipzig Buchmesse, journalist and author Gerhard Matzig presented his own personal tale of the journey from carefree urban youth to responsible suburban middle age. And to a garden.
In front of a potentially illegally overfilled (smow)room, Gerhard Matzig began by outlining and explaining the problems of family life in a city centre flat. In the following hour he then led the (smow)audience through the stages - physical, mental and emotional -of the journey that one must complete on the way to becoming a garden owner.
Easy it ain't.
But amusing.
Perhaps the most entertaining aspect of "Meine Frau will einen Garten" is, at least for us, Gerhard Matzig's outbursts at designer furniture and contemporary architecture.
In his "real life" Gerhard Matzig is, amongst other jobs, architecture correspondent for the Suedduetsche Zeitung. As such the sarcasm and criticism come from a specialist viewpoint, and so are particularly well aimed.
With his unhurried, personal approach Gerhard Matzig brought each episode perfectly to life and as such ensured both a fitting, and highly enjoyable, end to the 2010 (smow)liest.
More of the same next year!
Meine Frau will einen Garten by Gerhard Matzig is published by Goldmann Verlag.
