A perfect friend
A perfect friend is the third novel by the Swiss author Martin Suter . It was published in 2002 by Diogenes Verlag and is the last part of the Neurological Trilogy , which contains the two earlier works Small World and The Dark Side of the Moon .
The novel was awarded the German Crime Prize 2003 in the National category.
content
After 33-year-old Fabio Rossi wakes up in the hospital after being hit on the head, he ca n't remember what happened in the last 50 days. But what happened breaks in on him in the form of a new girlfriend, Marlen, new friends and the quit job as a journalist on Sunday morning .
His old friends despise him (e.g. his entire editorial team) because of his arrogance and the self-important manner that Fabio has shown since working on "a big story". He learns that he has switched to a completely different scene: he used to be out and about a lot with his boyfriend Lucas and his then girlfriend Norina, but recently he has been with his former schoolmate Fredi. He hangs around in strip bars and luxury restaurants and otherwise lives on a large footing.
When he wakes up after being unconscious, he first seeks help from Lucas and Norina, but they refuse him due to the past argument. Above all, Norina completely cuts off contact, Lucas tries to help a little despite everything, but makes allusions that it would be better for Fabio not to remember the last 50 days. Nevertheless, Fabio takes professional help to remember and to train his memory again. He finds this in the person of Doctor Vogel.
Since his discharge from the hospital, Fabio has lived with Marlen, although he cannot develop feelings for her because he still loves Norina. One day he finds out that she can help him reconstruct the time of his blackout. Besides Marlen, there is only one person who supports Fabio: Sarah Mathey. She is the secretary in the editorial office and turns out to be a real friend. Sarah openly tells Fabio that he has behaved extremely unsympathetically and that it is no wonder that people turn away from him.
After a while he finds out that all the data from the time of his amnesia are missing on his powerbook and handheld . He really wanted to find out more information about the big story he was on. He suspects that Marlen and Lucas deleted the data. This and other incidents build up more and more anger in Fabio at Lucas and Marlen. Then he breaks up with Marlen and moves out with her. From now on he lives in a stuffy studio, which Fredi got him temporarily. When his first "island of memory" about Norina's father's birthday appears in Tai Chi thanks to a smell, he takes heart. He continues to track his memory by playing his own detective in the story. In his last report about suicides who threw themselves in front of the train, he remembers Mrs. Jacqueline Barth. Her husband, a laboratory assistant at LABAG, had invented a method to detect prions in food before he committed suicide. Prions are proteins that cause BSE in animals , and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans . In his files Fabio finds a tape on which, strangely enough, almost everything has been copied except for a last sentence by Jacqueline Barth. This is obviously related to the big story he had been working on recently. Dr. Barth succeeded in identifying prions in a chocolate bar from LEMIEUX, the world's largest chocolate producer. Although Ms. Barth vehemently denies this, it is suggested that LEMIEUX paid Mr. Barth to remain silent. This would explain the widow's wealth and suicide due to guilt.
Despite the fresh relationship between Norina and Lucas, Fabio and Norina are now getting closer again. They meet several times to talk about Fabio's past. The anger at Lucas, on the other hand, increases because of various events, for example because he sees Lucas with the alleged director of the company LEMIEUX. Fabio now thinks that Lucas has deleted his data on the Powerbook and the handheld in order to cover up the big story and to get the fame or the money for it himself. The documents on the prions that Fabio had received from Frau Barth have also disappeared without a trace. When Fabio asks Lucas about it, Lucas weighs it down and pretends to know nothing.
Then one day Lucas is found dead in a river. The reader is not informed as to whether or not it was suicide. There is a reason why the LEMIEUX company, for example, could have killed him: Lucas was not bribed. Because Fabio now experiences, again due to a smell, another island of memory that concerns the day of his "accident". He had argued with Lucas, because he had resisted that Fabio let himself be bribed by LEMIEUX and not published the story. Fabio had become so angry because of this that he attacked Lucas and the latter knocked him down in self-defense. Fabio and Norina now find their way back together without Fabio telling her about this memory. Only after the death of Lucas does Fabio find out what a great disproportion between his anger at Lucas and his loyalty. He had done everything to protect Fabio from LEMIEUX and, for Fabio's best, had deleted the data and told him nothing about their argument. Apparently he had still admired him and helped him where he could and he thought it was right. A perfect friend?
The last article by Lucas Jäger "The Chocolate Shock - Prions in Chocolate" appears 2 weeks later on the front page of Sunday morning .
characters
Fabio Rossi is the main character in “A Perfect Friend.” Fabio, thirty-three years old, wakes up in hospital with a head injury and a blackout of fifty days. As a result, he tries to reconstruct what happened during this time. Sometimes it is difficult for him to understand his own actions. Fabio as he sees himself - the "original Fabio":
- He has no interest in money and is a non-smoker. As a talented journalist, he works on Sunday mornings
- Norina is his girlfriend and Lucas is his best friend
- He has no interest in luxury restaurants
- He is sociable, friendly and sporty
- He is proud of his Italian roots, sometimes a bit arrogant and quick-tempered
The "new" Fabio during the last, forgotten 50 days:
- In the editorial office and with his friends, he makes himself unpopular with his arrogance and self-importance
- He smokes
- Money is so important to him that he becomes corruptible
- He quit his Sunday morning job and is now unemployed
- He lives with Marlen in her apartment
- He realizes that he cheated on Norina
- He spends the nights in dubious (strip) clubs that belong to his old school colleague Fredi
- Under Fredi's influence, he considers his previous life to be stuffy
Lucas Jäger is Fabio's best friend. The novel is probably named after this role. Lucas and Fabio met when they were young at journalism school. Until Fabio resigned, Lucas and Fabio were work colleagues on Sunday morning . In contrast to Fabio, Lucas finds it difficult to formulate texts. For this he is considered a reliable and persistent researcher, which is why Fabio often uses him for his research. In the course of the book, the friendship between Lucas and Fabio breaks when Fabio finds out that Lucas is with Fabio's ex-girlfriend Norina. In addition, Fabio finds out in the course of the plot that Lucas stole Fabio's story, which he himself called a "big deal". At the end of the book it turns out that Lucas admired and protected Fabio even when he changed so much and distanced himself more and more from Lucas.
Norina Kessler was the friend of "old" Fabio. She works in film production, a profession related to journalism. In addition to her professional life, she is committed to social organizations and abhores immoral behavior. She separates from Fabio during the 50 days. After that, she changed a lot outwardly and formed a bond with Lucas. The relationship with Fabio was not easy for her, also because he cheated twice. She herself was always loyal to him and finds the trust that has now been lost important. When Fabio changes a lot, she breaks up. She needs a while to process the unsuccessful relationship and therefore needs some distance from Fabio first. At first she is very stubborn and adamant in this posture. As the book progresses, however, she realizes that Fabio has changed again, and she is more willing to help him work through his memory gap. In the end, Norina reconciles with Fabio, but without knowing the whole truth.
Marlen Berger is a young, blonde, attractive woman who was Fabio's girlfriend before the amnesia. Because of this amnesia, Fabio can no longer remember her, but the press officer of LEMIEUX AG struggles despite Fabio's dislike and tries to help him find his memories again. She doesn't show how much it gnaws at her that Fabio can no longer remember her and so she tries to rekindle the love between them by sleeping with Fabio. But she cannot compete with Norina, who is almighty in Fabio's heart. After separating with Fabio, however, Marlen quickly gets over him and has a new friend.
Fredi Keller and Fabio have known each other since they went to high school together. From the time they played on the soccer team together, Fabio remembers him as a big, strong boy. There is nothing more to be seen of the athletic figure. Fredi must have put on 30 kilograms, and the expensive suit he wears suits his cocky demeanor, but not his inelegant demeanor. Fredi doesn't have a wife, but she does have a yacht. He manages Fabio's fortune and, after his memory loss, tells him nothing about it until Fabio finds out himself.
Samantha is an attractive young woman who works for Fredi as a dancer in a night club. She comes from Guadeloupe and misses her home because she cannot be satisfied with her life in Switzerland. Part of her job is that she has to take men from the club home with her in the evenings so that she can pay Fredi's horrific rent. Despite her difficult lot, she is a happy person and likes to drink a local rum with her friends and Fabio Rossi from time to time. She spends a few casual hours with Fabio.
Sarah Mathey is the secretary of the editorial office where Fabio works. She is Fabio's only contact person. She is very direct and honest with Fabio. Sarah helps and informs Fabio.
Reviews
“Martin Suter's third novel is an exciting, story-dense crime story. Suter has mastered what a really great of the genre, Raymond Chandler, called the set: he rarely needs more than three or four sentences to literally illuminate the special atmosphere of a scene or the relationships between his characters in a novel. Suter in no way hides his experiences as a screenwriter, on the contrary: ›The Perfect Friend‹ is one of those books that seem like a literary blueprint for a future film adaptation to the reader. "
“In Martin Suter's› A Perfect Friend ‹readers hunger for information like the main character. Every new bite is served in style: no frills, no lengthy descriptions, many, but no superfluous details. Action is trump, Suter the ace. "
“Martin Suter basically prepares the ground for a thriller of the very classic style: for that loss of identity in which repression and crime are not far apart. But Suter, who as a narrator is above all an incorruptible and extremely meticulous observer of society, makes much more of the material. A virtual love drama, a morality about male friendship, a crime study from the world of high finance. Its quality: dialogues of cool wit and above all a wonderful feeling for secondary characters. "
expenditure
- Martin Suter: A perfect friend . Novel. Diogenes, Zürich 2002, ISBN 3-257-06306-7 (paperback edition: Diogenes-Taschenbuch 23378 , Zürich 2003, ISBN 3-257-23378-7 ).
- as a radio play: Martin Suter: A perfect friend . Der Audio-Verlag, [Berlin] 2004, ISBN 3-89813-359-1 (production: Norddeutscher Rundfunk, speakers: Boris Aljinovic, Nicolette Krebitz; director: Annette Berger, editing: Susanne Hoffman).
- as audio book: 5 audio CDs, abridged reading, 384 minutes, speaker: Sebastion Koch, director: Margrit Osterwold, audio book Hamburg, Hamburg 2002/2006, ISBN 3-89903-721-9
filming
A perfect friend (Un ami parfait) was made into a film in 2006 under the direction of Francis Girod with the actors Martina Gedeck , Marie-France Pisier and Carole Bouquet .