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What is it with books and exquisite plotting lately? Flanagan’s Narrow Road to the Deep North, St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven and Jane Austen’s Emma (write up to come on that one!). I generally call myself a character novel person. Not that I don’t enjoy a good plot, I do! Most of the time though it seems that the best books are the ones centered on character with plot happening in order to provide the character with something to do. The meaning of the story lies in the character’s development. Books with meaningful characters and tight, meaningful plots that aren’t clunky or forced are hard to come by. At least in my experience.
But now to the list above I can add a fourth book, F by Daniel Kehlmann. Four books within two months. Unheard of!
F is about what happens when Arthur Friedland abandons his three sons to pursue a writing career. Arthur has a son, Martin, with his first wife whom he divorced. He has two sons, twins, Eric and Ivan, with his current wife. He has regular outings with his three sons and on this occasion he has taken them to see the Great Lindemann, a hypnotist. Arthur is certain he cannot be affected by hypnotism but when Lindemann calls him up on stage something happens. Was he really hypnotized or did Lindemann just manage to hit so close to the bone that Arthur could no longer remain in his mediocre life? Whatever the case, Arthur drops all three boys off at Martin’s house and disappears out of their lives. He doesn’t completely disappear, however, because he eventually becomes a best selling author.
Martin grows up and becomes a priest who doesn’t believe in God. Eric grows up to become a financial manager who begins an honest man but through a number of large investment errors ends up running a ponzi scheme in order to keep himself and his company afloat. Ivan sets out to be a painter but instead becomes a forger of paintings.
The story is told in sections. The first is the events with Lindemann. The second section belongs to Martin. This is followed by a section that is a portion of a book Arthur wrote about his family history which may or may not be fiction. The next section belongs to Eric and events in this chapter neatly coincide in places with Martin’s section while also moving forward in time. The fifth section is Ivan’s and it continues to move the story ahead while also fitting in with events that happened in Martin’s and Eric’s sections. The final section brings them all together again with the addition of a third generation, Marie, Eric’s daughter. This too, ties in with events that happened in earlier sections but also moves forward in time.
There is much in the book about work, choosing a path or having it chosen for you, determination and lack of it. Also, what happens when you aim for big things but discover you are only average?
What does it mean to be average — suddenly the question became a constant one. How do you live with that, why do you keep on going? What kind of people bet everything on a single card, dedicate their lives to the creative act, undertake the risk of the one big bet, and then fail year after year to produce anything of significance?
And what is work and all the things we do in life about anyway? Is it all just meant to fill up time until we die?
All the same, a day was a long time. So many days still until the holidays came around, so many more until Christmas, and so many years until you were grown up. Every one of them full of days and every day full of hours, and every hour a whole hour long. How could they all go by, how had old people ever managed to get old? What did you do with all that time?
Something only a child can ask.
The “F” of the title is never defined. It could mean all kinds of things: Friedland, family, faith, fate, forgery, fraud, father and probably a few others. The writing is fairly unadorned, there is no fancy styling here, just good, competent prose.
F has gotten a bit of buzz. While I was impressed with the plotting, I didn’t especially love the book. It might be because it has a rather bleak outlook on life. No one in the book is happy about anything. And when there are moments of happiness they tend to be fleeting or arise from escaping punishment. It all kind of feels pretty close to nihilistic. Of course the gray skies I have been living under for the past two weeks probably didn’t help matters. If the sun had come out once or twice I might have felt differently. I think it’s time to pull a more upbeat book from the reading pile!
It sounds like a fascinating novel that you have to read at the right time. There is very much a place for downbeat novels. F reminds me a little of a rather forgotten novel from 1965 by the English conservative poet CH Sissons called Christopher Homme. This book goes backwards from the character’s death through a life of mediocrity, failure and the whole gamut of original sin. Oddly enough it isn’t a completely depressing book (the title gives a clue why) but it is not a book to read when feeling depressed! Anyway, I shall look out for F and cheer myself up by noting the 25th anniversary today of the first episode of the Simpsons!
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Ian, it is a fascinating novel that raises all sort of questions we don’t like to think about. I think I would not have felt depressed at the end if I had not just finished a bunch of emotionally heavy novels. And the addition of the constantly gray skies did me in. I’ve not heard of the Sisson book before. I will have to investigate. It’s hard to believe the Simpsons started 25 years ago! I remember when it was part of the Tracy Ullman show!
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Sorry about banging on about obscure novels in these replies – its a really bad habit!
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Don’t ever be sorry about that Ian! I spite of have piles of books and lists miles long I am always on the look out for good stuff I have never heard of! 🙂
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This sounds like it would hit too close to home right now. I didn’t choose a career path, so now it’s F for failure. (“Write a book or get a dog.”)
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Jeanne, I completely understand! I thought I had chosen a career path and then life happened and I realized what I wanted to do and the reality of it didn’t match up. sigh.
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I believe “F” is meant to mean fake. Your review leads me to get an iPad sample from Amazon. It’s hard to write about happiness and happy people.
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Richard, yes it could definitely mean fake as well. The “F” applies to a good many things in the book. Hard to write about happiness? Yes, Tolstoy said it best, eh? 🙂
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I have a great upbeat book for you…”Where’d you go, Bernadette?” I am usually not crazy about audio books, but can’t seem to drive without them. This one was wonderful however, and the reader’s voice was very pleasant. I was at Thanksgiving dinner and mentioned to my daughter-in-law that she might like it, when her Mom exclaimed, “Oh, I loved that book.” (she read the physical book) So nice to have affirmation. It increases my confidence in recommending it.
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Grad, thanks for the recommendation! I will keep it in mind in future. But since I did not have it to hand, I began reading Dirty Chick and was laughing out loud after the first two sentences 🙂
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This book definitely raises some interesting questions, but I think it’s a bit too bleak for me, especially now during these dark, wintry months!
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Belle, yes, if dark and cold have gotten you down, don’t read this book. Save it for some brighter hour.
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Shame about the nihilism! I am probably a plot person sliiiightly more than a character person, although ideally I’d like to have both, and I do tremendously enjoy a tightly plotted book. But not nihilism. That is not my fave.
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Jenny, those Germans, they know how to do nihilism! It’s not quite full-on, but it certainly flirts heavily with it. I also enjoy a tightly plotted but I feel guilty sometimes as though liking a good plot is somehow cheating. What I am cheating on I have no idea. Perhaps it is my English lit background rearing its sometimes ugly head.
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My faves in films are the character-driven ones. I’m not sure about books though; while I relish character development, sometimes I’d like to see where the story lead, the twist and turn, and where they all end up. What you have here is definitely an interesting book with intriguing characters, but if as you say in your conclusion, this just may sound too bleak. And, nothing compares to an Austen novel when it comes to ending. 😉 BTW, my Top Ripples 2014 just posted.
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Oh boy, what a typo. I meant ‘relish’. Pls. make the correction. Thx! 😉
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I dunno, I kind of like the idea of ravishing character development 😉
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Arti, you know, I am just the opposite! I like movies with good plots! Of course I enjoy character driven movies too but if you ask me whether I want to watch a Woody Allen film or the latest Avengers movie I’ll go for The Avengers every time 🙂 While the other heavy books I have read recently could also have been bleak there was always something that kept them from crossing that line. This one though was a real downer in many ways. I will be stopping by to see your top Ripples soon!
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I first saw this reviewed on Susan’s site (My Life in Books) and thought it sounded intriguing – she didn’t let on how dark it was though! I do love a neat plot, however, so that’s a definite tick in the box. As for its more depressing aspects, let’s just not talk about my career path, which is a muddy track petering out in a wilderness! 🙂
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Litlove, heh, my career path is a hardly discernible trail through the woods most of the time so I completely understand! I bet you would find this one really interesting for the family aspects of it and the psychological damage the abandonment does to the three boys. But you should wait until you are in a happy place to read it 🙂
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While I haven’t read Station Eleven yet, nor the book you reviewed here, I am one for a stupendous plot. The Narrow Road to The Deep North really packed a punch for me, on several counts. However, when I compare plot to what we’re reading (or trying to) with Proust’s Guermantes’ Way, I come up cold. I don’t think Proust ever heard of the word plot. In fact, while I’m halfway through Part One, I’m getting a little tired of the whiny, self-absorption and analysis of every. single. detail. I fared better with Within A Budding Grove, and Swann’s Way. I will continue Guermantes’ Way, but goodness…just had to vent a bit here.
Plus, I will look for F. after reading your thoughts. xo
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Bellezza, the Flanagan book did have a great plot. I am with you on Guermantes Way! I gave up on it on my first attempt a few years ago for all the reasons you are outlining. I have been told it gets better but there is still a lot more whine to get through before it does!
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