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This is a book for Disorderlies!
- Thread starter maureen
- Start date
“Some books are a hard sell. Some are well nigh impossible to recommend.
And then there’s Jonas Lüscher’s “Kraft.” It’s an exceedingly cerebral comic novel about Leibnizian optimism translated from the German....
Our hero is Richard Kraft, an ambitious professor in Germany whose academic career soared after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Nowadays, though, his once-radical ideas on laissez-faire economics have grown as comfortable as an old sofa, and Kraft finds himself struggling to generate the same attention. Worse: He’s trapped in his second failing marriage and desperate for cash.
His solution to this existential crisis is to enter a philosophy contest founded by a Silicon Valley mogul. The grand prize is $1 million. Each entrant must produce a brief essay that explains “Why whatever is, is right and why we still can improve it.” Picture Alexander Pope giving a TED Talk. ...
Lüscher’s style, a hybrid of intellectual posturing and absurd slapstick, is sharply translated by Tess Lewis, who captures Kraft’s pomposity and the indefatigable march of German syntax. I was reminded of “A Confederacy of Dunces” and a regrettably obscure novel by Christopher Miller called “Simon Silber,” about a composer who removes all the strings from his piano. Other parts of “Kraft” recall the hilarity of Andrew Sean Greer’s “Less” but with a much darker accent. An aside about a grieving artist who creates sculptures of mangled children and his own scrotum provides a telling indication of this novel’s grim farce.
As a devoted fan of academic comedies, I insisted on reading several passages of “Kraft” to my wife, who asked me to please stop. Which is to say that this peculiar book is not for everyone. The philosophical allusions present a hurdle. But a greater one may be the references to late-20th-century European politics, which will challenge American readers who can’t quickly distinguish the economic policies of Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt. One chapter, for instance, ends with a joke about Alexander Lambsdorff’s hips, which probably kills in Düsseldorf, but not so much in Cincinnati. Indeed, as much as I enjoyed “Kraft,” it sometimes felt like the humor was taking place in an adjacent room that excluded me....
And then there’s Jonas Lüscher’s “Kraft.” It’s an exceedingly cerebral comic novel about Leibnizian optimism translated from the German....
Our hero is Richard Kraft, an ambitious professor in Germany whose academic career soared after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Nowadays, though, his once-radical ideas on laissez-faire economics have grown as comfortable as an old sofa, and Kraft finds himself struggling to generate the same attention. Worse: He’s trapped in his second failing marriage and desperate for cash.
His solution to this existential crisis is to enter a philosophy contest founded by a Silicon Valley mogul. The grand prize is $1 million. Each entrant must produce a brief essay that explains “Why whatever is, is right and why we still can improve it.” Picture Alexander Pope giving a TED Talk. ...
Lüscher’s style, a hybrid of intellectual posturing and absurd slapstick, is sharply translated by Tess Lewis, who captures Kraft’s pomposity and the indefatigable march of German syntax. I was reminded of “A Confederacy of Dunces” and a regrettably obscure novel by Christopher Miller called “Simon Silber,” about a composer who removes all the strings from his piano. Other parts of “Kraft” recall the hilarity of Andrew Sean Greer’s “Less” but with a much darker accent. An aside about a grieving artist who creates sculptures of mangled children and his own scrotum provides a telling indication of this novel’s grim farce.
As a devoted fan of academic comedies, I insisted on reading several passages of “Kraft” to my wife, who asked me to please stop. Which is to say that this peculiar book is not for everyone. The philosophical allusions present a hurdle. But a greater one may be the references to late-20th-century European politics, which will challenge American readers who can’t quickly distinguish the economic policies of Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt. One chapter, for instance, ends with a joke about Alexander Lambsdorff’s hips, which probably kills in Düsseldorf, but not so much in Cincinnati. Indeed, as much as I enjoyed “Kraft,” it sometimes felt like the humor was taking place in an adjacent room that excluded me....
Jayson Cohen
Jayson Cohen
Is there a Huffington Post condensed version?
Karen Goetz
Karen Goetz
Sorry your wife doesn't enjoy the same peculiarities! It sounds fascinating....