Gantenbein

"A man has been through an experience, now he is looking for the story of his experience"That is the starting point of this breathtaking pseudo novel. And here I am not trying to debase the book by using the word pseudo: it is just that I have the sensation that Frisch has been writing down notes aimed at something else that is supposed to be a novel. He's got the man; he's got the experiences; now he must build the story. And with this purpose, he explores every feasible event that may occur to the character.He proposes for example: "Let's say my name is Gantenbein." and goes on, "Let's pretend I am blind". And he deals with all the possible consequences that may be derived from his assumption. What does it entail to fake blindness in the realm of everyday life, love, and friendship? Is there any room for jealousy when blindness prevents us from seeing the evidence? Now let's call the man Enderlin, let's suppose he's about to die, and let's give him a lover. And let's his lover be Gantenbein's wife. Furthermore, let's Gantenbein even be Enderlin; assume his wife is an actress, and allow her cheating blind-faked Gantenbein, and so on. The result is a beautiful mosaic of characters that makes up the draft for the two main characters, Gantenbein and Lila, just a man and a woman, a modern couple. And of course, there is also "the situation", plotted in all imaginable ways, which may make the reader recognize him or herself sooner or later along the book.

Boring, funny or difficult to read are definetely neither accurate, nor scientifically adequate adjectives one should use to describe and classify a novel (not a book, but a novel). Frisch's Gantenbein is not to be evaluated emotionally, but rationnally. It should therefore not be grasped as a love story, or one about (so-called) human feelings, but as a text mainly dealing with the problem of identity, about a decentered I. Frisch manages to create not only an excellent experimentalist piece of art, but aswell a representation of the internal tension of personality, including extremely insightful auto-reflexive passages on Art and Literature. Definetely one of the finest writers of German language of all times.

Gantenbein tells the story of a man who sees his love and marriage falling apart. In his attempt to look for a rescue, he envisions different scenarios (which may, to the superficial reader, appear to be inconsistencies) that would help him to find a way around the unavoidable. The different scenarios are both, very funny and also insightful. This is an outstanding novel.

Gantenbein is a fantastic book. The inconsistency of the plot the other reviewer mentioned is intended and part of a certain ideology. Most of us are Gantenbeins, not being able to identify with who we are in reality and dreaming of another existence. I was disappointed when I found out that this fabulous book is not in print anymore, it would have been such a good presentsk