The narrative then shifts to Arthur’s sons, now grown men. The next day, Arthur takes his passport, cleans out his bank account and sends a telegram to his wife, informing her that he’ll be away a long time.
Lindemann does, however, succeed in hypnotizing Arthur, and during hypnosis, Arthur reveals that he wants to get away from his current life. The unemployed Arthur boasts to Lindemann: "You can’t hypnotize me….I know how works" and suggests that the hypnotist find a more pliant subject. They have not been close-in fact, they scarcely know each other at all-but their appearance with their father that afternoon in some ways informs the rest of their lives. The oldest son is Martin, and the other two (by a different mother) are twins Ivan and Eric. The central event of the novel occurs in 1984, when Arthur Friedland takes his three sons to see the Great Lindemann, a hypnotist, in a public performance. (Aug.An elusive novel whose events remain cryptic and largely unexplained. The novel that emerges is both bizarre and bleakly humorous, a slim manifesto on the divide between people’s dreams and their destinies. Kehlmann sometimes presents the same scene from different brothers’ perspectives, thereby illuminating their skewed experiences of the world. Together, the hapless trio face their existential crises.
Martin has become a shiftless priest who doesn’t believe in God painter Ivan feels disillusioned with the very concept of art and money manager Eric is losing both his mind and his Ponzi scheme of a business.
Meanwhile, Martin, Ivan, and Eric spend the next few decades dealing with their feelings of abandonment. One afternoon, the foursome go to see “The Great Lindemann,” a hypnotist whose words of advice prompt Arthur to go home, empty his bank account, and vanish, emerging years later as a successful, if eccentric, author. Middling writer Arthur Friedland spends his days penning novels no publisher would print and his off-hours devising ways to entertain his three sons: identical twins Ivan and Eric, and an older son, Martin, from a previous marriage. Three brothers struggle to find their place in the world in this novel from German author Kehlmann ( Fame).
0 kommentar(er)
