Nervous fish
Nervous Fish is a 2004 crime novel by Heinrich Steinfest .
content
Chief Inspector Richard Lukastik is called to the roof of a residential building in Vienna , where a corpse mutilated by a shark is lying in the pool. The only valuable trace is a hearing aid. While following this trail, two police officers disappear, but Lukastik tracks them down. The main suspect also disappears with the involuntary help of the chief inspector, but soon meets with him again to commit suicide in front of his eyes after making a confession. Eventually Lukastik also disappears and meets the ominous sharks of the common ground shark in a funeral ritual that was not planned for him . He is freed from this almost fatal situation by his assistant Peter Jordan, who had previously been saved by him, the last person the chief inspector would have wanted to be saved.
shape
The story follows a chronologically linear structure, even if the descriptions of the various traits of the chief inspector often lead to the fact that their origins or history are presented in expansive form in the past. In general, a lot of space is given to the detailed explanations of Lukastik's inner workings. After such debauchery, the abrupt change back to the main plot is noticeable. The individual storylines are linked to one another through causal connections.
people
Chief Inspector Richard Lukastik: A forty-eight-year-old man living with his parents, whose religion is Wittgenstein's teaching and whose Bible is the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus . His behavior is characterized by tics and arrogance towards others, which makes him appear unsympathetic and strange. He puts himself in danger by going it alone which is not well thought out. His relationship life is limited to the memories of the incest with his sister. Chief Inspector Richard Lukastik also played a role in the novels Ein thickes Fell (2006) and Mariaschwarz (2008).
Inspector Peter Jordan: Lukastik's assistant, who constantly gets to feel his authoritarian behavior.
Egon Sternbach: Hairdresser from Zwettl .
Tobias Oborin: graphologist and author, the shark mutilated victim of the novel.
Narrative perspective
The novel primarily uses a personal narrative attitude from the perspective of Lukastik, whereby this is also replaced in sections (chapters 19 and 20) by Jordan's perspective.
Example of the personal narrative from the inside: 1) Lukastiks: "But Lukastik decided against this possibility. [...] He did not see why one should encourage them to be even more cheeky by wasting them unnecessarily much money. [ ...] But because Lukastik didn't trust the Zwettl gendarmerie in the slightest, considered this whole bunch to be typical faux pas, and was also not at all ready to inform so-called colleagues about Jordan's and Boehm's assignment, he decided - exactly in the moment when he had finished his second glass - to take care of the whereabouts of his two employees himself. "(p.92 *)
2) Jordans: “Jordan couldn't have said whether it was a good or a bad night. And even less would he have guessed what Kosáry had felt about this story. […] That you kept up despite everything was certainly the better solution. At least found Jordan. "(P. 268 *)
However, the personal narrative style is replaced by an authorial narrator who adopts an ironic narrative attitude and connects the different levels of action. This gives the reader a broad overview of the relationships between the events and the characters.
“Neither of them knew who of the two was the older one. That ridiculous little secret between them remained like a final bond that does not unite but divides. Of course, it would hardly have been an effort to find out each other's exact date of birth. But both men shrank from it. And that was a good thing. There was nothing less than a deep moral in their shyness. "(P. 6 *)
Narrative style
Steinfest's narrative style is characterized by an ironic view of the characters and Viennese society, which are exaggerated in their absurdity. Although the feelings and the inner workings of the characters, especially Lukastiks, are described in detail, the description remains distant. An explicit assessment of the protagonists and their actions is avoided. The ironic undertone, which conveys the paradoxes of everyday life to the reader in extensive debauchery, is also striking.
place and time
The scene of the crime story is today's Vienna and the surrounding area. Both real and fictional locations are integrated into the story.
The city of Vienna with its inhabitants is not only the main location, but also the object of numerous allusions.
Others
Another novel with the main character Richard Lukastik was published in 2008 under the title "Mariaschwarz".
literature
- Nervous Fish, Munich, 1st edition November 2004, at: Bastei-Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach. Newly published in 2008 by: Piper Verlag GmbH, 320 pages. ISBN 3-492-24280-4
Individual evidence
- ^ Krimi-Couch.de: Heinrich Steinfest. In: krimi-couch.de. Retrieved on August 22, 2012 (German).