Herscht 07769 A novel

Florian Herscht, the simpleminded hero of this magnificent single-sentence opus from Hungarian postmodernist Krasznahorkai (Satantango), desperately attempts to warn German chancellor Andrea Merkel of a looming apocalypse. As is often the case in Florian's life, his conviction is born from a misunderstanding, having interpreted a lecture on the big bang theory to mean the planet will imminently collide with pure antimatter. By day, Florian is a flunky to "the Boss," a neo-Nazi gang leader in their Podunk town. A Bach obsessive, the Boss regulary slaps Florian and makes him scrub graffiti from monuments to the composer. The mistreated Florian elicits sympathy from kindly librarian Frau Ringer, whose husband vocally opposes the gang and its alleged influence on the community: "Almost everyone here is a Nazi, even the ones who don't realize it yet." After the Boss is murdered, the Ringers fall under suspicion. Then wolves begin attacking the locals, and Florian moves into a cave, where he nurses an obsession with one-eyed gang member Karin. "Apocalypse is the natural state of life," Florian writes to Merkel, a line that doubles as an artist statement for Krasznahorkai's brilliantly cacophonous novel, which conveys the sense that the end is already here, and that the trappings of civilization are easier to scrape away than paint from stone. This stands with Krasznahorkai's best work. (Sept.)

Krasznahorkai's latest postmodern experiment explores small-town discontents in post-unification eastern Germany. "Your voice is so fucking insipid, Florian, are you some Jew or what?" So bellows "the Boss," the head of a clutch of neo-Nazis in a Thuringian backwater smack in the heart of the new Germany. Apart from idolizing Hitler, the Boss is also a hectoring concertmaster who owns a cleaning company (its ominous all-caps slogan "ALLES WIRD REIN, ALL WILL BE CLEAN"). It's good for business but enraging all the same that someone is spray-painting sites associated with Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the Boss' many obsessions, with graffiti signed "WOLF HEAD." The subject of the Boss' meltdown is Florian Herscht, a gentle and dim giant who is fascinated by particle physics, even if he doesn't understand it, and harbors fears of dentists, tattoos, and the end of the world. About the latter he regularly writes to German premier Angela Merkel, warning of the impending apocalypse. Reminiscent of the similarly dim but good-hearted giant of Günter Grass'sThe Tin Drum, Florian strains to understand what is happening in tiny Kana, now populated by immigrants from Eastern Europe and from even as far away as Vietnam. While the Boss rails against his neighbor Ringer, "a Jew, meaning he was part of the conspiracy," the wolves are indeed returning, as are magical birds and other signs and portents of the very apocalypse that Florian worries about. In a long book with only one terminal punctuation mark, not easy to read but graced by a certain poetry, Krasznahorkai allegorizes globalism and nationalism, gets in digs at complacent burgers and ardent environmentalists, and illustrates, through Florian and other characters, how thinly the veneer of civilization lies atop a thick crust of savagery. Brilliant, like all of Krasznahorkai's books--and just as challenging, though well worth the effort required. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.