Momo by Michael Ende: The Girl Who Listened, the Grey Men and the Stolen Time
Momo is a poor little girl who lives in an old amphitheatre on the edge of the city, where she settled after running away from an orphanage. Many children of her age come to see her, among them her best friends: Gigi, a spectacular storyteller, and Beppo the road-sweeper, who always looks after her.
Author: Michael Ende (1929–1995)
Title: Momo (1973)
Format: English paperback (Puffin), 240 pages
Scope: Fantasy novel for young readers and adults
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0140317538 (ASIN 0140317538)
The Gift of Listening
Momo is known to many people because she has a talent: she knows how to listen, and she regularly solves problems and quarrels. In this cheerful, peaceful city, people live calmly, until the grey men appear: figures in bowler hats and suits who are always smoking a cigar.
The Timesavings Bank
They talk to the townspeople about saving time, depositing it in a savings account that will pay interest after a few years. Most people like the idea, preferring to save time now and live more later. And so the grey men seize one of people’s most precious possessions: their time. Everything changes. Children now have more expensive toys, because their parents do not want to waste time with them; the barber rushes through his work and gives up the hour he used to spend visiting his mother. Many others give up their time and try to do everything as fast as possible. "Because time is life."
Cassiopeia and Master Hora
One of the strange agents tries to win Momo over, but she soon discovers the plot, and with the help of the tortoise Cassiopeia and Master Hora she takes on these parasites who threaten the future of society.
Michael Ende
Michael Ende (1929–1995) was a German writer, the son of the surrealist painter Edgar Ende. He spent many years living in Italy, near Rome, and the warm, Mediterranean atmosphere of Momo’s city, with its ruined amphitheatre and its sociable neighbours, owes much to that experience. Momo, published in 1973, won the German Youth Literature Prize the following year, and six years later Ende published his most famous book, The Neverending Story.
A Fable for Grown-Ups
Although it is often shelved with children’s books, Momo is just as much a story for adults. The grey men persuade people that time spent chatting with friends, caring for elderly relatives or simply doing a job well is time wasted. Once people start "saving" time, their lives become rushed, joyless and empty, and, paradoxically, they have less time than ever. Ende’s critique of a society obsessed with efficiency and productivity feels remarkably modern.
Beppo’s Lesson
One of the most quoted passages in the book is Beppo the road-sweeper’s explanation of how he cleans a very long street: not by thinking of the whole street at once, which makes you anxious and tired, but by thinking only of the next step, the next breath, the next sweep of the broom. It is a small lesson in patience and attention that many readers carry with them long after they have forgotten the plot.
On Screen
Momo was filmed in 1986 by Johannes Schaaf, with Ende himself making a brief appearance as a train passenger who hears the story.
Why It Lasts
Half a century after it was written, in a world of smartphones and constant hurry, the grey men seem more real than ever.
Why Read It
An adventure full of obstacles in which friendship survives every danger and threat, and a fable about time and haste that is even more relevant today than when Ende wrote it. Readers who loved The Neverending Story should not miss it.
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