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A review by page51
Dear Mr. M by Herman Koch
5.0
A little note of interest: This book (amongst other things) is about a book. My version (Bolinda - an Australian audiobook publisher) has this book titled The Payback. I hear that some other English versions have The Reckoning instead. That intrigued me. I dug deeper but found only one translation into English, by Sam Garrett. Now I wonder what is the story behind that changed title.
Now back to the book:
If you've read the Goodreads blurb, which is the same across the book universe including libraries, bookshops, bloggers and reviewers, you might think that this is some action filled thriller about an unsolved cold case. If that's what you are expecting put it away now and find something else, preferably half the size.
It took me a while to get started on this book and by the time I did I already forgot about these promises so wasn't expecting anything and it was just as good, because otherwise I'd struggle through the first chapters waiting for action. This way I didn't expect action but still found it hard to get into it - just wasn't my kind of a story. What kept me going was the style of writing, the language, the merciless sharp insights, the unforgiving disdain, the inside out of the human condition. Cool, I thought, and then the story itself drew me in. By then the plot was shifting, often the same scene seen from multiple points of view, the style flowing along, accommodating, smooth like water over many shaped river stones. Yes, it is a story about a teacher who disappears in the suspicious circumstances. Yes, it is about a writer who takes that story and turns it into a bestselling novel. Yes, in the end we will find out what happened, but the what is not really important, it is the why and the how and it is about the people the story touched, then and many years after.
It is a slow, deep story. I didn't find it a "hair raising tour-de-force"; perhaps my hair doesn't rise easily or perhaps I was able to see beyond these glittery ornaments. Could be because I listened to an audiobook and there is no rushing with audiobooks, no turning pages half read. When you listen long in the night with a small lamp and a knitting project as your only companions perhaps you can reach deeper into the book, beyond the words, right into the author's mind, be it dear Mr Koch or Mr M.
Now back to the book:
If you've read the Goodreads blurb, which is the same across the book universe including libraries, bookshops, bloggers and reviewers, you might think that this is some action filled thriller about an unsolved cold case. If that's what you are expecting put it away now and find something else, preferably half the size.
It took me a while to get started on this book and by the time I did I already forgot about these promises so wasn't expecting anything and it was just as good, because otherwise I'd struggle through the first chapters waiting for action. This way I didn't expect action but still found it hard to get into it - just wasn't my kind of a story. What kept me going was the style of writing, the language, the merciless sharp insights, the unforgiving disdain, the inside out of the human condition. Cool, I thought, and then the story itself drew me in. By then the plot was shifting, often the same scene seen from multiple points of view, the style flowing along, accommodating, smooth like water over many shaped river stones. Yes, it is a story about a teacher who disappears in the suspicious circumstances. Yes, it is about a writer who takes that story and turns it into a bestselling novel. Yes, in the end we will find out what happened, but the what is not really important, it is the why and the how and it is about the people the story touched, then and many years after.
It is a slow, deep story. I didn't find it a "hair raising tour-de-force"; perhaps my hair doesn't rise easily or perhaps I was able to see beyond these glittery ornaments. Could be because I listened to an audiobook and there is no rushing with audiobooks, no turning pages half read. When you listen long in the night with a small lamp and a knitting project as your only companions perhaps you can reach deeper into the book, beyond the words, right into the author's mind, be it dear Mr Koch or Mr M.