When others are Germany, then Frank Goosen is the Ruhr area, or more precisely: Bochum. He was born there in 1966. He has stayed there. Although he already had his first, rather accidental performance at the tender age of three in the dining hall of a hotel in Bad Godesberg. For a few minutes, he interpreted pop songs and children's songs, in order to then collect money at the tables. Knownly, even show-offs start small.
Goosen does not let go of the stage, and so after studying history, German studies, and politics in Bochum, he founds the pub literary cabaret "Tresenlesen" with Jürgen Malmsheimer. As the name suggests, two men sit at the bar, read highly funny stories with distributed roles, praise the foreign word as such, and immerse themselves in their texts. This particularly applies to Mr. Malmsheimer. The concept is so successful that at some point the pubs become too small and larger halls have to be booked.
In the same year, Goosen scores big with "Liegen lernen." With the novel, he captures the tone of a generation that is around 40 at that time and also looks back. "Liegen lernen" tells of the puberty of Goosen's generation, and while reading, pop cultural education about the music of those years proves helpful. For this reason, the comparison to Nick Hornby doesn't seem so far-fetched, although Goosen's heroes have other things to do than hanging around in the record store. In 2003, the work is filmed. After "Liegen lernen," follow "Pokorny lacht," "Mein Ich und sein Leben," and "Pink Moon."
Goosen gets serious in 2007: His novel "So viel Zeit" tells what has become of the learners from back then – not as funny as one would expect from the author. Rather, it deals with the crisis of middle life and the realization that one should "go out again to produce some memories."
This mixture of wit and defiant sentimentality also shapes Goosen's stage program "A 40 – Stories from Here." These are small stories about the feeling of life in the Ruhr area, the people, football, and of course, Bochum. Or more broadly: home. Self-confident and often in hearty Pott vocabulary. The same tone as in his collection of football stories "Weil Samstag ist" or in his 2023 football novel "Spiel ab" about a Bochum youth team. Whereby, as a fan of VfL Bochum, one is known to be subjected to a high level of suffering.
Meanwhile, Goosen is already working on bigger thoughts. In an interview, he mentions his plan to write a really big Ruhr area novel, from the dusty past to the cultural capital. Perhaps the Buddenbrooks from the coal pot. But that still has time. Until then, Frank Goosen, as described in "A 40," will be standing on top of the railway bridge at Lohring, looking over his city and watching the sun set in the west behind Bochum-Stahlhausen. And then he will probably think: "It's not nice. But it's mine."
