This book will save your life
This book will save your life (original title: This Book Will Save Your Life ) is the title of a book by the American author AM Homes from 2006. A German version was available in 2007 in a translation by Clara Drechsler and Harald Hellmann.
The novel tells the sudden change in life of the successful stock speculator Richard Novak after he lost control of his life due to sudden pain.
content
Richard Novak lives in Los Angeles . As a retired, wealthy stock trader, he has taken care of things. In his villa with a view of the city he enjoys the full care of his housekeeper and has his own nutrition and fitness advisor. His daily routine is structured.
One day, a stabbing heartache hits him, he becomes an emergency and his life changes.
It seems that in his luxury Novak had professional company, but no friends. So he wonders who to call on in the face of death. He has long been separated from his wife, he has a son from this marriage whom he has not seen for a long time. Not enough that his health is at stake, one day a huge crater gapes next to his house. His life is moving, it's starting to get unusual. Richard Novak acts and he meets people. He takes the tips of those around him and goes out step by step. He tends to a horse that falls into the crater next to his house and gets to know his neighbor, a movie star, in the process. Slowly his way out of anonymity begins and Richard passes on what he can to others. In a donut shop he meets Anhil, an immigrant. He meets happy people. But he does not always find understanding to help with his good will. When he feels the longing for his abandoned family, he seeks contact with his son. As a father who left his marriage and family overnight years ago, his sudden interest in his growing up son overshoots the mark. But Richard Novak does not give up.
Narrative
Homes writes from Richard Novak's perspective. Richard thinks analytically, seeks his goal. Since he has lost the human perspective, he has to learn to see the world anew. The author conveys a picture of the society in Los Angeles by describing the behavior, eating habits and dependencies of the residents of the city without judgment. So even Richard doesn't find anything strange, he accepts everything by following the recommendation of his doctor without resistance and engaging in psychological pain therapy with a guru.
interpretation
The title of the book points to the field of help literature. In fact, however, the midlife crisis of a man is described who discovers that his life, although structured and cared for, has become joyless and friendless.
reception
AM Homes, one of the most famous writers in the USA, is almost unknown in German-speaking countries. The German feature section received the novel largely positively, but with critical comments.
“But you should definitely not be fooled by the lightness of Homes' prose. It is the work of the incorruptible chronicler. This is especially true for the unusually cheerful mood in the latest work. “LA comes across as a flawless surface,” says the author, “as a pale, blank slate. That is what makes the city so fascinating and at the same time so terrifying. The strange thing is that all residents tell you that they value the city for the weather. For me, the weather in LA has more biblical dimensions: It rains pouring down, there are flood disasters, forest fires, mudslides, from time to time the earth even swallows something - but everyone says: ›We love the wonderful weather here.‹ «[ ...] The good mood in AM Homes' new novel shows in the end less a way out than the true extent of the disaster. "
Kai Wiegandt (SZ of March 20, 2007) assesses the work more critically. Despite the positive assessment of the satirical attacks on LA, the work is too much of a screenplay for the already planned Hollywood film.
"The story" Unemotional disgust turns into a great guy and turns his life inside out "can be read in countless books and seen in the cinema every month, most recently in the film" Stranger than Fiction "."
Edo Reents reminds the title This book will save your life (FAZ March 9, 2007) of Gustave Flaubert's The Education of the Heart . Unlike Flaubert, AM Homes' educational project focuses on the worries of the modern city dweller, health problems, isolation and everyday stress.
“In the book it goes like this: Richard orders a vodka martini in a bar. The keeper asks: "dry, dirty, with lemon zest, olive, pearl onion, spicy filled mushroom?" It is obvious that one immediately becomes desperate about it. Richard says: “Pure. Pure and pure, without anything floating around in it. ”The keeper does not give up:“ And which vodka? ”Richard holds out his gun:“ You decide. What you would drink yourself. ”How much of a lifetime can be wasted on such a thing? For the individual, surely as much as you need to read or even write such a thick book as this. "
literature
- AM Homes: This book will save your life . Publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-462-03767-8
Web links
- Book review by Denis Scheck, ARD ( Memento from August 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Reviews at Perlentaucher
- Review in the ZEIT
- FAZ review by Edo Reents