Finally silence
Finally silence is a novel by Karl-Heinz Ott .
overview
The book was first published in Germany in 2005 by Hoffmann und Campe Verlag ( ISBN 3-455-05830-2 ) in Hamburg . In 2007 it was published as a paperback by Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag in Munich. In addition, Endlich Stille was also read as a sound carrier by Bernd Geiling under the direction of Brigitte Landes by Hoffmann and Campe in 2007 on 4 CDs ( ISBN 978-3-455-30496-1 ).
action
When the narrator stops in Strasbourg on his way home from Amsterdam to Basel and is looking for a hotel, he meets a stranger named Friedrich Grävenich who, after making contact, goes to the same place as the protagonist. Upon arrival, he suggests spending the evening in a brasserie around the corner, with the main actor agreeing. In the pub, the stranger begins to tell stories from his life and practically overwhelms the narrator, as he hardly gets a word. Friedrich's stories show that he is a pianist at a Mannheim music school and once had a relationship with a Cameroonian prostitute in Zurich. While he repeatedly empties wine bottles and orders new ones, he reports endlessly about his youth and philosophizes about. He was thrown out of the bar for being drunk and both ended up by taxi in a bar, from which they were immediately expelled. When Gravenich asked the main character to give him his address, the latter invented one because he felt annoyed by Friedrich's constant chatter. After another taxi ride, they arrive at a brothel, where the narrator escapes and, after he has often gotten lost, arrives at the hotel, packs his suitcases and is taken to another train station, from where he takes the next suitable train to Basel.
The protagonist, who is also a philosophy professor at Basel University, spends his semester without any major disruptions. Although his ex-lover Marie is in a relationship with a set designer, the main actor and his former wife still spend evenings and nights together. When Marie and her boyfriend left for Sumatra for four weeks, the professor received a call in which Friedrich announced himself. Although he tries to avoid the musician, he still meets by chance when he picks up his old student friend Benno from the train station. In the evening in the pub, Benno and Friedrich get along very well, the main character just sits there in silence. When Benno leaves the next day, but Friedrich remains a guest, a constantly repeating daily rhythm emerges: around noon they both eat in the Mister Wong restaurant and in the evening they both get drunk in the “Am Krummen Turm” bar. While the protagonist initially dragged the musician on sightseeing tours around Basel to escape the tightness created by the uninvited guest, they later only stay in the apartment and live at the same rhythm every day. Since the host feels more and more oppressed by the presence of the new roommate, he even gets drunk to the point of unconsciousness in the evening in order to get better to sleep. A bad conscience keeps the professor from asking Friedrich to leave. Using the pretext of attending a good friend's funeral, he escapes his own apartment and hopes that the besiegers will leave it as soon as he realizes that the protagonist is no longer coming. The main actor also wants to use this time to get in contact with Marie, who has since returned, but fails because she cannot understand why he is not simply throwing the "occupier" of his apartment out. She also notices that the protagonist has developed into an alcoholic through the constant visits to the pub and is nervous.
When the professor went home after 3 days, he still discovered Graevenich there, who, however, was afraid because he received death threats from a taxi driver due to circumstances in a brothel that were not further explained. The narrator's suggestion to flee to the Alps, more precisely to Liechtenstein, to protect himself from the taxi driver, he accepts with great displeasure. Because the professor begins to make decisions himself again and does not allow himself to be suppressed by Friedrich, he regains power over himself and sees himself as the winner of the game played by Grävenich.
When both climbed a mountain there in bad weather conditions, the drunk Grävenich fell into an abyss. The protagonist walks calmly down the mountain and doesn't even call the police. It remains unclear whether the fall was caused by an accident or by the influence of the "hero".
Effect and criticism
By writing long and complex sentences that are written hypotactically, one can discover "the author's subtle narrative talent, his musical-rhythmic talent, his intelligence" . Although many little side stories have been incorporated into the novel and leaps and bounds are often caused by the narrator's submergence in thought, these carry the plot forward or increase the possibility of empathizing. They also do not interfere with the flow of reading. In the double occurrence of the word "" I "" in the name Friedr ich Gräven ich one can also recognize the self- fixation of the musician.
The author even manages to present Grävenich's death, which could easily be interpreted as murder, as justified. However, the reader does not live too much in the person of the narrator, as some of his actions are not clearly understandable. The book received very good reviews and was even awarded three prizes:
- The Alemannic Literature Prize,
- the Candide Prize of the Minden Literary Association and
- the price of the LiteraTour Nord.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
- Review notes on Finally Silence at perlentaucher.de
- Book review by Angelika Overath in Neue Zürcher Zeitung from September 10, 2005, at lyrikwelt.de