Status
Available
Genres
Collection
Publication
San Diego : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982, c1965.
Description
A playfully postmodern novel exploring questions of identity from a major Swiss writer. A man walks out of a bar and is later found dead at the wheel of his car. On the basis of a few overheard remarks and his own observations, the narrator of this novel imagines the story of this stranger, or rather two alternative stories based on two identities the narrator has invented for him, one under the name of Enderlin, the other under the name Gantenbein.
User reviews
LibraryThing member thorold
This was Frisch's third mature novel, written after his break-up with Ingeborg Bachmann, a complicated exploration of fiction and role-playing as they enter into both real life and the occupation of storytelling.
The "I" figure of the book works through a baffling and contradictory series of
The idea seems to be that social identity is always a kind of pretence, or at least that we can never be sure that we experience an interaction or a relationship in the same way as others do. Frisch talked about truth as the absence that is left when we have explored all the fictions. I'm not sure! What stuck with me from this book was not so much all the sophisticated stuff about men in suits and women in smart costumes who spend most of their time in airports and business hotels and are obsessed with getting their smoking behaviour and whisky-drinking right, but the weird, untethered stories that open and close the book: an unidentified man who has left a hospital in panic, wearing only spectacles and a wrist-watch, runs through the centre of Zürich; the body of an unknown man floats serenely down the Limmat pursued by the police who have inexpertly been trying to fish it out, and does not come to rest until it has left the city centre altogether.
The "I" figure of the book works through a baffling and contradictory series of
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possible scenarios involving himself and a character called Enderlin, who sometimes seems to be himself and sometimes a separate person. Enderlin in turn imagines himself as Gantenbein, a man who is pretending to be blind, and in that capacity marries the actress Lila, who seems to be (but isn't necessarily) identical with a woman Enderlin (or possibly "I") has met on a business trip to another city. Gantenbein also makes friends with a woman called Camilla Huber: his assumed blindness allows him not to notice that her pretended occupation of manicurist is just a front for prostitution, so he gives her pleasure by going to have his nails done whilst telling her stories. These stories are the only parts of the book in the past tense — everything else is narrated in the present or future/conditional/subjunctive ("But what if...?"). The idea seems to be that social identity is always a kind of pretence, or at least that we can never be sure that we experience an interaction or a relationship in the same way as others do. Frisch talked about truth as the absence that is left when we have explored all the fictions. I'm not sure! What stuck with me from this book was not so much all the sophisticated stuff about men in suits and women in smart costumes who spend most of their time in airports and business hotels and are obsessed with getting their smoking behaviour and whisky-drinking right, but the weird, untethered stories that open and close the book: an unidentified man who has left a hospital in panic, wearing only spectacles and a wrist-watch, runs through the centre of Zürich; the body of an unknown man floats serenely down the Limmat pursued by the police who have inexpertly been trying to fish it out, and does not come to rest until it has left the city centre altogether.
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LibraryThing member colligan
Well, if ever a person was unprepared for "Gantenbein", it was me. Even having read that one reviewer referred to it as an "anti-novel or non-novel", I was still flummoxed. First let's give credit where credit is due. "Gantenbein" is an exceptionally well written work. The author captures persons,
So, is it a proverbial "good read" in my eyes? The book can certainly be tedious at times. Once the reader gets the idea of what the author is doing with his "story" there is a tendency to say "enough already, I get it". Another aspect that can get irksome is the content of many of the topics of external and internal conversations. The book was written in the mid 1960's and, at times, that shows. That's a not so delicate way of saying it is a tad dated.
Should you read it? At the risk of being trite, I would say it's worth the experience. Also, if you are student of literature (or just very interested) it certainly is a work that has a place in the development of the modern novel.
You decide!
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situations, and relationships with precision and insight. The work is also incredibly inventive as reviewers have observed. The plot, yes the plot. There's the rub. The work contains numerous sometimes parallel, sometimes perpendicular stories. The book is like a whirlpool floating down a river. It moves along but what that "it" actually is, is ever allusive. At one point the author refers to an experience in search of a narrative. Overall the work tests the limits of "story" itself. But, the work is in no sense absurdist. It is also not "post modern" in the sense we usually understand. One could say it is a work that plays with creativity itself.So, is it a proverbial "good read" in my eyes? The book can certainly be tedious at times. Once the reader gets the idea of what the author is doing with his "story" there is a tendency to say "enough already, I get it". Another aspect that can get irksome is the content of many of the topics of external and internal conversations. The book was written in the mid 1960's and, at times, that shows. That's a not so delicate way of saying it is a tad dated.
Should you read it? At the risk of being trite, I would say it's worth the experience. Also, if you are student of literature (or just very interested) it certainly is a work that has a place in the development of the modern novel.
You decide!
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Language
Original language
German