F (novel)

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Daniel Kehlmann: F (2014)

F is a novel published in September 2013 by the Berlin- based writer Daniel Kehlmann . This novel is about a father and his three sons, each of whom are cheaters, forgers or hypocrites. The novel was included in the long list of the German Book Prize 2013.

Table of contents

Arthur:

Arthur Friedland has three sons: Martin, Eric and Iwan. At the beginning he drives them to a hypnotist show, where he is presented by the hypnotist Lindemann. Humiliated, he drives his sons home. Thereupon he gives up his dreary, upright life and retires to a remote country house to write and later only to read. Among other things, he writes the story “Family”, in which the family tree of his family is told, and “My Name is Nobody”, in which interesting parallels occur, especially with Ivan's life (for example, Ivan's death - represented as a sudden suspension of the sentence - is anticipated in it ). At the center of another story is F., who experiences what will later happen to his son Ivan.

In the end, Arthur reappears. He is now accompanying his granddaughter Marie to the fair, sensitized to the world of young people (which he was not at the beginning), and has a balanced conversation with her that is suitable for young people. When Marie gets lost in the labyrinth, he helps her. Finally, he shows Marie a work of art by Eulenböck, which Iwan painted.

Martin:

Martin, the son from his first marriage, becomes a pastor later in life. He is always hungry and a man of reason: despite his profession, it is impossible for him to believe in God, even if he wants his faith to come. This means that the office becomes more or less torture for him, and he has to ward off deeper questions of faith with a reference to “the mystery”. He is invited to his office by his half-brother Eric, an asset manager. Martin gets involved in a conversation and appears in the office, where he meets the completely absent-minded Eric who is constantly playing around with his phone. Martin doesn't learn much from Eric, and suddenly he says goodbye. Back at the parish office, Martin gets assigned to Ron, a young thug who is supposed to do his social service in the parish office.

Eric:

Among other things, Eric manages the estate of old man Klüssen and leaves him in the dark about the fact that his entire fortune has been used up. So at this point Eric is the hypocrite. As a result, Eric becomes increasingly paranoid. He no longer knows who he just called and who is standing in front of him - or not. His wife Laura wants a break from him. Eric has a child with Laura: Marie. The marriage fails and Eric later moves to the parish office, where he doesn't last long.

The financial crisis is a blessing for Eric. In the wake of the general uncertainty, he deceives Kliessen about the reasons for the loss of his assets. After this unexpected turnaround for him, Eric regains his faith and sees a miracle in what has happened and God's watch over his fate and feels chosen by God. However, he does not succeed in convincing his brother, who is giving him shelter, of his newfound faith.

Ivan:

Ivan is the artist of the three sons and Eric's twin brother. It is often emphasized that the two can hardly be distinguished. Likewise, one experiences this in the form of inner focus, both often feel no clear boundary between them, and sometimes the personalities threaten to blur.

Ivan himself is an art critic and artist at the same time, but he does not reveal this. He criticizes Eulenböck's works, even those that do not yet exist because Ivan has not yet painted them. He is known in the art world as an art connoisseur. One day when Iwan leaves the house, he meets a group of young people who are kicking another young person. Normally Ivan would have walked past them. But internally, his brother-ego is already interfering, he turns around and involuntarily shows moral courage. As a result, Ivan is also dejected. He gets up again and is stabbed to death. The thugs flee, the previously beaten steals Ivan's wallet and also flees. Assuming that the young people could return, Iwan withdraws to his forger's studio (which nobody knows about) and dies delusionally from his stab wound.

Marie:

Finally the reader gets to know Marie. She is the daughter of Eric and Laura, who both live separately. Marie has neither a permanent home nor contact with her grandfather. Her situation changes when she meets Arthur one day on a message from Arthur and drives him to the fair. There they meet the hypnotist from the beginning of the book again. He has lost his sense of sight and hearing. In addition, he has run out of audience, he is now stunted at the fair and fails to read tarot cards.

It also turns out that Eric inherits Ivan's legacy and will come with it through the time of the financial crisis. Ivan has been missing for four years now. He lies dead in his secret studio, abandoned in a rundown part of town.

Finally, Eric, who now goes to confession every day and repents, initiates a soul mass at which everyone except Arthur is present again. The funeral procession begins, led by Martin and the acolyte Ron, whom Marie refuses to ask to go out with him. Ron is one of the kids who beat up Ivan.

Narrative technique

The individual large sections “The Great Lindemann”, “The Life of the Saints”, “Family”, “Business”, “Of Beauty” and “Seasons” are written in different narrative positions. The three brothers are each presented in a first-person perspective with an inside view. This happens particularly vividly in “Shops”, in which the story of the paranoid Eric is told. In “Jahreszeiten” and “Der große Lindemann” there is an authorial narrator who occasionally takes it upon himself to look into the inner workings of the characters, and sometimes ironically pointed comments on the events.

subjects

The title already touches on the tension between facts vs. Fiction, poetry vs. Truth. This is exactly why the stories of the three sons also revolve, each of whom has to keep up appearances over a hollow core. The doubting pastor, for example, always has to resort to a mystery that he cannot explain when he is asked a sensitive religious question, which ends the communication at this point. Likewise, the investment advisor must protect the appearance that the investor still has assets, which, however, are in fact already dissociated.

On the other hand, the novel poses the question of a fate, a fate underlying human behavior. To what extent the actors are freely acting characters is an open question. Especially in the first scene with the hypnotist this is illustrated vividly by looking inside the figures.

  • literary allusions: Arthurian legend, Star Wars, My name is nobody ( Gantenbein ?), Schiller, ...
  • Chance and fate: financial crisis, powers of God, ...
  • Adult-to-youth relationship

Reviews

expenditure