By Herman Koch
Hogarth, 2014. 400 pgs. Fiction
This book follows Dr. Marc Schlosser and his interactions with his rich and famous celebrity patients. He is cranky and bored and a little arrogant, and as he deals with the complaints and ailments during his day, his mind wanders. When Marc meets the wife of famous actor Ralph Meier, he hopes for a romantic fling. With these hopes in mind, he makes a pretty elaborate plan to "run in" to the Meier family near their summer home. They do end up spending some time at the nice summer home until something terrible happens. This one creates numerous questions, as I tried to figure out who did what. And during all this, a decision made by Marc, may directly kill Ralph.
The start of this book was not as quickly paced as Koch's previous book, The Dinner. It took me a couple tries to get in to the story. Dr. Marc Schlosser was not interesting to me so it was hard to read this since he was he main narrator. However, after getting to the real tension and suspense that makes the story one of Koch's twisted tales, his character was exactly what it needed to be. It isn't a read for everyone as there is some dark and crass humor, and an uncomfortable event. The last half of the book was very quick, and very intriguing as the mystery unraveled.
EW
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