Show yourself, murderer

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Show yourself, murderer (English original title: Killer, Come Hither ) is a novel by the American writer Louis Begley . It was published in 2015 by the New York publisher Nan A. Talese. In the same year the Suhrkamp Verlag published the German translation by Christa Krüger. In Begley's first foray into crime fiction , an American war veteran tries to hunt down those guilty of his uncle's suicide .

content

Jack Dana, son of a philosophy professor from Cambridge , Massachusetts , is studying Ancient History at Yale . After the death of his parents, his uncle Harry, a partner in the major law firm Jones & Whetstone in Manhattan , is his closest contact person, and he spends his vacation in his apartment on Fifth Avenue or the summer house in Sag Harbor . Perhaps it is the rumors about the cowardice of his uncle who, unlike the other men in the family, withdrew from military service that prompted Jack to give up his promising academic training and join the army after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 . As a US Marine , Jack fought in Iraq and Afghanistan until an injury forced his return to America.

While still in the Walter Reed Military Hospital , he wrote his first book about his war experiences, which his uncle arranged for a renowned publishing house to appear and which became a bestseller. A second novel follows and turns the former soldier into a celebrated writer. But after a vacation in South America, he receives the shocking news of his uncle's suicide. Will Hobson, the firm's leading partner, hints that Harry's most important client Abner Brown, multi-billionaire and head of a company syndicate embroiled in dubious business, has released Harry from his mandate because of increasing errors. Hobson himself claims to have noticed signs of dementia in his partner. The move into retirement, which he then suggested to Harry, could not get over it.

Jack, on the other hand, considers his uncle's sudden illness to be just as implausible as his suicide. In addition, Harry could never have let out a hair of his cat, Plato, who was found dead. Together with his friend Scott Prentice, a CIA agent, and Harry's colleague Kerry Black, with whom Jack starts an affair, he investigates the death of his uncle. A cell phone recording documents Harry's execution by a Serbian hit man. Other documents from Harry's estate show Abner Brown to be involved in criminal transactions that the lawyer no longer wanted to support. When Jack confronts the billionaire with the results of his investigation, he gossips and calls the Serbian killer "Slobo". From now on, Jack is only concerned with one thing: to tempt Abner Brown to put the killer on him too, so that he can practice vigilante justice on his uncle's killer .

A showdown takes place in the holiday home in Sag Harbor, in which Jack overpowers his adversary with the help of a mannequin, a dummy pistol fitted with an explosive charge and a tranquilizer rifle and bleeds to death from his injuries before calling the police. The US Attorney's Office is bringing charges against Abner Brown. Hobson, in cahoots with him, has to leave Jones & Whetstone, but takes over the defense of Brown, who makes threats against Jack and staged a smear campaign against Harry for alleged blackmail attempts. Jack appears to be a hero in public, but his relationship with Kerry breaks up when Kerry cannot forgive his vigilante justice. Jack retires to the island of Torcello in the Venetian lagoon . Here he is writing a novel about what happened and reflecting on the current rule of law in the United States .

background

The dedication of Show yourself, murderer is “For Anka, this departure” and is addressed to Begley's wife Anka Muhlstein . In fact, the novel, which focuses on murder and violence, differs greatly from Begley's previous works. However, its editor, Nan A. Talese, emphasizes that Begley's sensitivity, observation, and precision fit this change of direction very well. Although the novel is often classified as a thriller , the author does not assign it to any other genre than his earlier works. It is a novel in the tradition of realism . Both the locations, Manhattan and the Hamptons , as well as the milieu of the major law firms arise from Begley's own experience and are known from his earlier books. The big difference, in his opinion, lies in the more action and more radical characters that are part of a story of ruthlessness and bloody vengeance.

The idea of ​​the novel stems from Begley's pronounced fear of burglars, which he attributes to his childhood experiences when he had to hide from the German occupiers as a Jew during World War II . The fact that he doesn't sleep with a Glock under his pillow is only due to his wife's objection. In addition, the novel was preceded by Begley's thoughts on the state of the American army, whose soldiers now predominantly come from underprivileged sections of the population. Begley imagined a novel hero from a well-to-do family who nevertheless committed himself to military service. For Begley, Jack Dana was a welcome change from the circle of his previous protagonists at an increasingly advanced age. The writing of the novel gave him an unusually great pleasure, so that in 2016 he followed up with A Life for a Life and is even thinking about a third book with Jack Dana.

reception

American critics had mixed reactions to Killer, Come Hither . While Corinna Lothar in the Washington Times finds the novel “as cool, funny and elegant as Mr. Begley's earlier novels”, Michael D. Langan in the Buffalo News considers the subject of the novel to be “strange and unsuccessful” and criticizes the “paper- thin and unconvincing “figures. According to Publishers Weekly, “the incredibly noble, effortlessly successful” hero is particularly “tiring”. For Brenda Cronin in the Wall Street Journal , Begley does not shy away from the darker sides of his characters in his “polished literature”. Fred Volkmer of the East Hampton Press and Southampton Press thinks the fun Begley has in exposing "the more anarchist parts of himself" is contagious. Kirkus Reviews counters this: "Maybe the author had fun with it, but the result will not particularly captivate fans of Begley or fans of thrillers." In the Washington Post , Patrick Anderson sees the whole novel as a "joke." It's hard to believe the author took it seriously, so why should we? "

In the German-language feature sections, the reception was mostly negative. For Hannes Stein , Begley's Show Yourself, Murderer, “entered the wide and dangerous terrain of trivial literature ”, but wrote “an outrageous book” whose cardinal errors (improbable plot, no sensual milieu, no surprises) would not have been made by professional thriller authors . Christian Schröder criticizes the "accumulation of stereotypes " and "implausibilities" and misses any ironic "distancing from the trivial excesses of the action thriller". Even a serious writer like Begley can be overwhelmed by the demands of a crime novel. For Patrick Bahners , Begley only offers "realism from the spirit of the appointment calendar and expense report". Anna-Lena Scholz reads “auto-erotic heroism ad nauseam”. Sylvia Staude says: “Flat plot plus flat style, but that doesn't work at all.” Katharina Granzin fluctuates in her assessment between “Punch and Judy Theater” and “ Doris Day Film ”. Begley misses the current issue of vigilante justice, but it remains the "beautiful narrative flow of his prose".

Show yourself, murderer causes discomfort with Bettina Balàka . A “moral image of a society that has basically not got out of the war since 1945” and oscillates between “prosperity and fear, civilization and inhumanity”, however, allows one to overlook the weaknesses of the plot. She recommends reading the book "more as a psychological coping strategy than as a plea for lynching by a lawyer disappointed by the rule of law". In the novel Gerrit Bartels discovers “something sympathetically archaic: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth ”. He too wonders whether Begley no longer trusts the American legal system with its many pitfalls after September 11th. The fact that the protagonist also becomes a murderer in the end gives the title “a disturbing ambiguity”. Peter Pisa thinks Show Yourself, Murderer, is a welcome change from memories of a marriage . The author remains “elegant, old-fashioned” in the new genre.

expenditure

  • Louis Begley: Killer, Come Hither . Nan A. Talese, New York 2015, ISBN 978-0-385-53914-2 .
  • Louis Begley: Show yourself, murderer . From the American English by Christa Krüger. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-518-42466-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Aileen Jacobson: From Relationships to Murder and Mayhem . In: The New York Times of March 27, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b Louis Begley: Louis Begley on Character and Genre . In: Signature of April 7, 2015.
  3. ↑ Mark Rubinstein: 'Killer, Come Hither': A Conversation with Louis Begley . In: The Huffington Post, June 4, 2015.
  4. ↑ " Killer, Come Hither is as cool, witty and elegant as Mr. Begley's earlier novels." Quoted from: Corinna Lothar: Killer, Come Hither by Louis Begley . In: The Washington Times, July 30, 2015.
  5. ↑ "This new novel seems to me a strange and unsuccessful topic for Begley. I find his delineation of character paper-thin and unconvincing ". Quoted from: Michael D. Langan: Review: 'Killer, Come Hither' by Louis Begley . In: The Buffalo News, April 19, 2015.
  6. ^ "But the implausibly noble, effortlessly successful Dana becomes tiresome". Quoted from: Killer, Come Hither . In: Publishers Weekly .
  7. ↑ "exquisitely honed fiction". Quoted from: Louis Begley: A Society Scribe Shifts to Thrillers . In: The Wall Street Journal of March 24, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Mr. Begley clearly had fun writing “Killer, Come Hither” and giving vent to the more anarchic strains of his personality. The fun is infectious. ”Quoted from: Fred Volkmer: Louis Begley Unlocks Thrilling Depth . On: 27east.com April 27, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Perhaps the author had some fun with this, but the result isn't likely to engage fans of either Begley or thrillers." Quoted from: Killer, Come Hither by Louis Begley . In: Kirkus Review of January 22, 2015.
  10. ↑ “ Killer, Come Hither winds up feeling like a lark; It's hard to imagine that the author took it seriously, so why should we? ”Quoted from: Patrick Anderson: 'Killer, Come Hither,' a legal thriller set amid New York's upper crust . In: The Washington Post, April 12, 2015.
  11. ↑ Review notes on Show yourself, murderer at perlentaucher.de
  12. ↑ Hannes Stein: "We fought until we both could no longer" . In: Die Welt from January 6, 2015.
  13. ↑ Christian Schröder: The evil that comes from Texas . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of January 7, 2015.
  14. ↑ Patrick Bahners: He said the name! He actually said it . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of January 9, 2015.
  15. ↑ Anna-Lena Scholz: Feet too big . In: The time of February 12, 2015.
  16. ↑ Sylvia Staude: A serious topic . In: Frankfurter Rundschau of January 27, 2015.
  17. ↑ Katharina Granzin: Being is vengeance . In: the daily newspaper of February 27, 2015.
  18. ↑ Bettina Balàka: Vengeance, not right . In: Die Presse on January 9, 2015.
  19. ↑ Gerrit Bartels: The first thriller of the lawyer . In: Deutschlandfunk from January 9, 2015.
  20. ↑ Peter Pisa: The contract killer must not be tortured . In: Courier of January 10, 2015.