On 2009-09-13 frumiousb, Amsterdam, the Netherlands wrote: I expected to like this book more than I actually did. No, that´s not actually what I mean to say. I mean to say that I expected to enjoy this book more than I actually did. I found it admirable, painful, bleak. I guess that I was influenced by all the copy I had read before I bought the book that described it as funny, light, and ironic. The irony I certainly see, the qualities of lightness and humor weren´t things that I saw at all.
Gert Hofmann was a German novelist and academic who died in 1993. A number of his books (including this one) have been translated into English by his son, Michael Hofmann. (I picked up this book as a result of knowing the younger Hofmann´s poetry.)
Luck tells the story of the destruction of a family in a small German town. It is set on the day that the father finally moves out and that the mother´s new lover will be taking possession. The belongings are to be split; the children are parceled out-- the boy with his father and the girl to stay with the mother. All love is gone between the two adults, and the woman sees her life and happiness at stake. The story is told through the voice of the young son.
It isn´t to say that Hofmann doesn´t reach for humor. He does. It is more that I just plain old didn´t find it funny. To me, it was a symphony of pain-- and it didn´t get far enough past the pain to earn the bitter humor that I find in some of Beckett´s pieces. Luck for me was simply sad-- and often quite difficult to read.
So. I didn´t enjoy the book-- not as I would a book which is described on the back cover as a ´beautiful, bittersweet novel´. Although Hofmann captures much of what I didn´t think could be captured about childhood, I would use the world ´bleak´ much more readily than ´sweet´ to describe the project.
Recommended.. And summed up by saying admirable, painful, bleak. Currently Luck has an overall rating of 6 over 10.
Luck can also be found in the following searches:
Michael Hofmann claimed A beautiful, bittersweet, and very funny novel about growing up, Luck is perhaps Gert Hofmann´s finest book, and is translated into English by the author´s son, the wonderful translator Michael Hofmann. Luck is the story of a nuclear family: father, mother, daughter and son. But all is not as it seems, for Mother is in love with Herr Herkenrath, and now father and son will have to leave home. Or will they? The mother sits in her room, squirting herself with perfume, waiting for her new man to arrive and her old one to go. Everyone makes their own luck in this life! she tells her children. The father sits in his room, planning another novel. Why doesn´t his writing sell? Is it just bad luck? Thomas Mann´s first book was rejected five times, after all. When he takes his son for a walk, the townspeople wish them all the luck in the world. We´ll see about that! he says. The little sister is the lucky one: she gets to stay at home. Then again, the son won´t have to put up with Herr Herkenrath´s annoying habits and his smelly feet. So maybe he´s lucky to be going. But will they really leave for Russdorf? Or is it Berlin? Or Africa? Or will Father manage to win Mother round at the very last minute? Only time will tell, but time is running out. The moving van is on its way. Soon Herr Herkenrath will arrive and the whole family will sit down for the last time to coffee and crumb cake. But maybe, with any luck, Herr Herkenrath will choke on the crumbs. A child´s-eye view of a family in decline, Gert Hofmann´s Luck mixes humor and suspense with a heartbreaking pathos.