F

June 16, 2014
Three brothers struggle to find their place in the world in this novel from German author Kehlmann (Fame). Middling writer Arthur Friedland spends his days penning novels no publisher would print and his off-hours devising ways to entertain his three sons: identical twins Ivan and Eric, and an older son, Martin, from a previous marriage. One afternoon, the foursome go to see “The Great Lindemann,” a hypnotist whose words of advice prompt Arthur to go home, empty his bank account, and vanish, emerging years later as a successful, if eccentric, author. Meanwhile, Martin, Ivan, and Eric spend the next few decades dealing with their feelings of abandonment. Martin has become a shiftless priest who doesn’t believe in God; painter Ivan feels disillusioned with the very concept of art; and money manager Eric is losing both his mind and his Ponzi scheme of a business. Together, the hapless trio face their existential crises. Kehlmann sometimes presents the same scene from different brothers’ perspectives, thereby illuminating their skewed experiences of the world. The novel that emerges is both bizarre and bleakly humorous, a slim manifesto on the divide between people’s dreams and their destinies.

June 15, 2014
An elusive novel whose events remain cryptic and largely unexplained.The central event of the novel occurs in 1984, when Arthur Friedland takes his three sons to see the Great Lindemann, a hypnotist, in a public performance. The oldest son is Martin, and the other two (by a different mother) are twins Ivan and Eric. They have not been close-in fact, they scarcely know each other at all-but their appearance with their father that afternoon in some ways informs the rest of their lives. The unemployed Arthur boasts to Lindemann: "You can't hypnotize me....I know how [hypnotism] works" and suggests that the hypnotist find a more pliant subject. Lindemann does, however, succeed in hypnotizing Arthur, and during hypnosis, Arthur reveals that he wants to get away from his current life. The next day, Arthur takes his passport, cleans out his bank account and sends a telegram to his wife, informing her that he'll be away a long time. The narrative then shifts to Arthur's sons, now grown men. Martin has converted to Roman Catholicism and become a priest. (He's also an expert solver of the Rubik's Cube puzzle and participates in national contests.) Eric becomes a fraudulent investor who can't get through a day without doses of anti-anxiety and antidepressant medicines, and Ivan becomes an art forger in league with the mediocre, yet in-demand, artist whose work he fakes. Meanwhile, the reclusive Arthur has become a best-selling author whose cynical semiautobiographical book, My Name Is No One, featuring a main character named "F," has led to a rash of suicides by readers who take its message of hopelessness to heart.German writer Kehlmann (Fame, 2010, etc.) takes us on a strange and enigmatic journey here.

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July 1, 2014

This offbeat and entertaining novel centers on a family in Germany. Arthur, seemingly an eccentric deadbeat, is father to three sons: Martin by one woman; twins Ivan and Eric by another. Arthur takes the boys to see a performing hypnotist, and even though he is totally skeptical, Arthur ends up undergoing hypnosis on stage. After bringing the boys home, he abruptly vanishes from their lives. After his disappearance Arthur resurfaces as a successful and famous author. The novel then devotes long sections to each boy's later lives. Martin has become a priest who does not believe in God. Eric is a formerly successful financial manager who has now become a Bernie Madoff-type schemer, avoiding disgrace and bankruptcy on an hourly basis. Ivan is a talented painter who devotes himself to producing works using a deceased artist's name, and is enjoying great success with this fraud. Woven into these stories are events and conversations seen from multiple viewpoints, leading to a tragedy for one of the brothers and a surprising resurrection for another. Traces of mythology and magic occasionally surface as the sons blunder through their lives under the spell of their vanished father. VERDICT This appealing, well-written novel by Kehlmann (Measuring the World) realistically portrays the brothers' everyday lives as they occasionally stumble into shadowy and mysterious areas.--James Coan, SUNY at Oneonta Lib.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2014
Kehlmann, best known for Measuring the World (2008) and Fame (2010), here delivers a confounding novel on the nature of fate and the difficulty of finding meaning in the world. Crotchety Arthur Friedland takes his three young sons to see the Great Lindemann, a famous hypnotist, and, after undergoing a transformative experience while on stage with the wizened maestro, promptly leaves his family, retreating from the world to write books. His three sons never fully recover from the abandonment: Martin becomes a priest, although he has no faith; Eric is a devious, deeply neurotic businessman; and Ivan, a painter, recognizes that he will never be a great artist and becomes a great forger instead. Shifting the perspective among the three miserable sons, Kehlmann emphasizes the discomfort of people never fully at home in the world, always striving to cover up the deep emptiness of a life lived wholly on the surface. He does, however, end on a note of optimism, as Arthur's granddaughter, at the tender age of 16, is already excitedly formulating a life built around art, medicine, and travel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)