A rediscovered masterpiece. Norton is reissuing Koeppen’s Death in Rome to accompany it. Let’s hope a new edition of Pigeons...
The first English translation of an important German novel, first published in 1953, whose pointillist complexity offers a searing image of postwar Germany on the perilous threshold of partition and possible rearmament.
Virtually forgotten today, Koeppen (1906–96) was an expatriate member of the literary generation immediately preceding that of Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass, whose self-exile from Hitler’s Germany made him a prophet without honor in the country to which he returned after the war, living out the rest of his long life in undeserved obscurity. Though he published nothing after 1954, Koeppen is remembered for the so-called “Postwar Trilogy” that includes (his previously translated novels) Pigeons on the Grass and Death in Rome—and the present one: a meticulously observed chronicle of the last two days in the life of Keetenheuve, a Socialist Peace Party member of the Bundestag (Parliament) who, despairing over his countrymen’s amoral consumerism and reflexive drift toward militarism, finds he cannot survive in the “hothouse” atmosphere of Bonn, a capitol city sunk in the mire of getting and spending. Most of the story is keyed to Keetenheuve’s tormented psyche, and Koeppen produces numerous spectacular stream-of-consciousness passages—notably, the account of a long stroll through Bonn’s crowded mean streets, which triggers the bitter (and inevitable) hallucinatory ending. But The Hothouse isn’t hermetic: its flexible structure gracefully accommodates flashbacks illuminating its protagonist’s neglect of his weak-willed young wife, equally guilt-ridden love-hate relationship with his culture, and complex relations with colleagues who embody a spectrum of allegiance and resistance to the lingering phenomenon of Hitler’s “revolution.” This rich brew of history and psychological portraiture, further seasoned by subtle allusions to Teutonic myth and literature, is made fully accessible by Hofmann’s fluent, resourceful translation.
A rediscovered masterpiece. Norton is reissuing Koeppen’s Death in Rome to accompany it. Let’s hope a new edition of Pigeons on the Grass will follow soon thereafter.Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-393-04902-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
With only a sliver less suspense, Koontz follows up 1996's Intensity with an afterlife novel about a plane crash. Los Angeles crime reporter Joe Carpenter (ah, those initials) needs resurrecting. One year ago his wife, Michelle, and two daughters, Chrissie and little Nina, actually did die in a devastating plane crash over Colorado: no survivors. In a dive, the plane had rocketed straight into millennial rock, leaving only two pieces larger than a car door. Joe, locked in unbearable grief, has quit work, sold his house, moved to a studio apartment over a garage, and is gnawing himself to death with weight loss. Meetings with a compassionate survivor group haven't helped. Rage and anger with an unjust God in whom Joe doesn't believe takes up all his energy. Then visiting his wife and children's graves, Joe finds Dr. Rose Tucker, a black Asian woman with great presence who's taking Polaroids of his family's burial sites. She tells him she survived the crash! But suddenly two men appear and start shooting at her as she races off. Joe soon finds himself involved in unraveling a suicide plague that has struck relatives of the plane's dead. Rose has taken Polaroids of the graves of other relatives as well—but whoever gets one of her pictures first sees a blissful image of the afterlife, then commits suicide, often horribly. As Joe tracks Rose down, he hears that a little girl survived with her, a girl named Nina. Has mankind reached a turning point, as Dr. Tucker avers, at which science has now proven the existence of the afterlife? Funded by a multibillionaire, a secret but massive scientific effort larger than the Manhattan Project has made fantastic strides in the paranormal and revealed a breakthrough into . . . but some baddies want to use this discovery for their own ends, and thus Joe and Rose—and Nina!—must be killed. Masterfully styled, serious entertainment. These are Koontz's great years. (First printing 600,000; Literary Guild main selection; author tour; radio satellite tour)
Pub Date: Feb. 13, 1997
ISBN: 0-679-42526-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1997
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A fable about the consolatory and strengthening powers of religion flounders about somewhere inside this unconventional coming-of-age tale, which was shortlisted for Canada’s Governor General’s Award. The story is told in retrospect by Piscine Molitor Patel (named for a swimming pool, thereafter fortuitously nicknamed “Pi”), years after he was shipwrecked when his parents, who owned a zoo in India, were attempting to emigrate, with their menagerie, to Canada. During 227 days at sea spent in a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger (mostly with the latter, which had efficiently slaughtered its fellow beasts), Pi found serenity and courage in his faith: a frequently reiterated amalgam of Muslim, Hindu, and Christian beliefs. The story of his later life, education, and mission rounds out, but does not improve upon, the alternately suspenseful and whimsical account of Pi’s ordeal at sea—which offers the best reason for reading this otherwise preachy and somewhat redundant story of his Life.
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-100811-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
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