Chez Max

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Chez Max is the third novel by the German writer Jakob Arjouni and was published in 2006. Chez Max is a dystopia on the development of the world after September 11, 2001.

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Chez Max is set in Paris in the year 2064. The world is divided into two camps by a gigantic fence - a progressive, democratic and a backward, dictatorial and religious fanaticism . Europe and China are the two great powers that rule the 1st world . After invading Iraq after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the USA failed there, went bankrupt and was converted into an agricultural state , but nevertheless still belongs to the First World. The Great War of Liberation was carried out as part of a European-Chinese confederation , "at the end of which all military equipment in the southern hemisphere was either destroyed or transported away and the fence completed." Both the fence itself and life "in front of" the fence - that is, in the first world - are monitored by the so-called Ashcroft offices . The Ashcroft offices, named after former attorney general ( Attorney General ) John Ashcroft , are a kind of super-police that carries out intelligence surveillance. Their approach is based on the principle of preventive crime prevention.

Max Schwarzwald, the narrator of the novel, is an Ashcroft man and works undercover for the Ashcroft authorities. He is allegedly the owner of Chez Max - cuisine allemande , a small restaurant in the eleventh arrondissement of Paris . At the beginning of the novel Max watches as Leon, a good friend of his, is arrested at his instigation. Leon not only smoked, which is already forbidden, but also tried to import and distribute drugs on a large scale, and was finally betrayed by Max. Max feels his actions and especially the circumstances of the arrest as treason to Leon: “Although it was my job and duty to betray Leon, and I mean my duties and duties as an Ashcroft man as socially necessary and in most cases for honorable, this time I would have liked to see as little as possible of the consequences of my betrayal. "

Two days after Leon's arrest, Max and his partner Chen Wu, with whom he shares surveillance over part of the eleventh arrondissement, meet in their shared study at Ashcroft's Paris headquarters. Max is still disturbed by Leon's arrest and wonders why he hadn't overlooked it: "It wouldn't have been a problem, after all, smoking wasn't one of the crimes that really endangered anyone or anything." Max realizes that he was only Leon betrayed because he was currently neglecting his duties, concentrated more on his restaurant and the search for a partner and urgently needed a success. He fears that his partner, Chen, will raise the situation and reproach him morally. Chen, who to date has an incredibly good crime detection rate, mercilessly analyzes the weaknesses of his fellow human beings and keeps them in mind. At first, however, the conversation turns out to be a moralizing lecture by Chen about the wickedness of the world and people, before Chen expresses himself critically about the conditions in the areas behind the fence: “I don't know whether you are suffering from some kind of partial loss of consciousness suffer. In any case, I should like to remind you that in many areas behind the fence there is no talk of 'enough to eat', let alone of 'high level'. "Chen's statement, which can be considered an" attack on the Euro-Asian community of values ​​", brings Max out of the concept and he immediately considers reporting this statement to his supervisor, but then doesn't really believe that Chen seriously takes this opinion. The conversation then turns to the surveillance of a house on the border between Max's and Chen's territory, in which there are allegedly illegal immigrants , about which Max was informed by the peacekeeping group , but Chen was not. When asked if he knew about the illegals, Chen replied that he was monitoring the house himself. Finally, Chen brings up the Leon case and hits Max with a blow: "Who will tell a friend about a little cigarette trade?" The conversation ends shortly afterwards and Max, who is deeply affected by Chen's statement about Leon, suddenly has thoughts of murder:

"I, on the other hand, stared at his black, straight hair, which was so often stuck in the sink, and, to my slight shock, watched my mind as I smashed [Chen] in the skull with an ax."

After talking to Chen, Max sits in a brasserie , drinks beer and thinks about his partner and the house with the illegals. He wonders why Chen hadn't informed him, but only found out about it by chance, and wonders what the house is all about. Against the background of Chen's critical testimony about the areas behind the fence, he suspects that Chen could be a terrorist himself: "Was it possible that Chen had been fooling me and the entire Ashcroft department for years?"

Max convinces himself that Chen simply has to be a criminal and sees this as an opportunity to get rid of his unloved partner: “Not only did I detest Chen from the bottom of my heart, I also considered the possibility that he has been in the service of international terrorism for years , and yet he was always on my neck with his contemptuous talk. ”He literally climbs into the opinion that all of Chen's previous behavior had always indicated criminal machinations, he just hadn't recognized it before. That same evening, Max begins to observe Chen, which is relatively easy for him because Chen's pretended job is a gardener. He watches Chen at work in the evening, on a rendezvous with a woman and even follows him home, but cannot see anything suspicious.

The next morning, Max first takes care of his restaurant and has Alexi, an employee, get an ax and use it to remove the ivy in the courtyard of the restaurant. While Alexi sits at work, Max, meanwhile completely convinced of Chen's betrayal, thinks about how important it is for him to convict Chen. It becomes clear that his obsession with Chen's betrayal is an attempt to make amends for the betrayal of Leon: “Chen had to pay for the arrest of Leon! Or to put it another way: If Leon was in prison because of me, I wasn't allowed to let someone like Chen run around freely. ”When Max wants to set out to observe Chen again, Chen places him in his own apartment above the Chez Max because Chen had Noticed Max's observation the night before. A dispute develops, in which Max does not mention his suspicions about Chen; instead, he invites the upset Chen to dinner in the afternoon to discuss their problems. As he walks, Chen addresses exactly the suspicions that Max has:

“Oh, and by the way: It is a matter of fact that I follow my speeches with deeds. I'm far too comfortable for that and probably too cowardly. But I'm not blind or stupid either. And not completely cynical either. But above all, I'm an Ashcroft man. "

However, Max is already so convinced that Chen is really a terrorist that he takes the statement exactly the opposite: “But above all, I'm an Ashcroft man ... That I didn't laugh! The best proof that he was above all not an Ashcroft man, but was hiding something, was precisely this sentence. "

Later that afternoon, Chen appears at Max's in the otherwise deserted restaurant to find out why Max had been watching him. Max finally describes Chen as a terrorist, becomes aggressive and goes into a downright madness. Chen then wants to leave the restaurant, but is murdered by Max with an ax:

“And while Chen was still looking at me anxiously and at the same time as if imploring - as if I was somehow crazy - I took a step back and reached behind the grill for the ax handle. The rest was just a kind of choreography. ”He dismembers Chen's corpse and sinks the body parts, which are packed in garbage bags, into the Seine. Max is convinced of his deed, which also had a cathartic effect for him : “I had done my duty. I was a worthy heir to Ashcroft. The world was rid of Chen. And I had no doubt: the world was now a better one. "

When Max is approached by his superior, Commander Youssef, about Chen's disappearance, he tells him that he had been observing Chen for a long time and that he had met with terrorists, which he saw with his own eyes - but that was a lie. Max claims Chen probably took refuge behind the fence to avoid punishment. In order to avoid his department getting into trouble because one of the best employees was a terrorist, Youssef asks to keep quiet, which of course is entirely in Max's interest.

Max then gets a new partner and, cleansed and with new strength, is enthusiastic about his work again. Last but not least, he receives a letter from Leon from prison, in which Leon tells him that he can now paint again - he hadn't been able to do that for years due to a mental block and had told Max about it. In a short period of time, Max Leben turned positively into the opposite:

“It was as if fate had finally tapped me on the shoulder and said: 'Against all odds and all doubts you went your way and did your duty. Despite the betrayal of your best friend, you did not become weak; on the contrary, you drew the necessary energy from it to finally see what was going on with your Ashcroft partner. You liberated Chen's society and in the end - as he himself says - saved the life of your friend. Well done Max, my respect, you are a remarkable guy. '"

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  1. ↑ p. 40
  2. ↑ p. 10 f.
  3. ↑ p. 43
  4. ↑ p. 62
  5. ↑ p. 79
  6. ↑ p. 79
  7. ↑ p. 79.
  8. ↑ p. 95.
  9. ↑ p. 169.
  10. ↑ p. 189.
  11. ↑ p. 189f
  12. ↑ p. 202.
  13. ↑ p. 203.
  14. ↑ p. 222.