Dave Eggers – The Every

Dave Eggers – The Every

After the company “The Circle” took over the Internet, it bought an online retailer named after a south American jungle to also operate online buying and selling. With the new name “The Every”, Mae Holland can now control large parts of the people’s every-day life. Delaney Wells has done a lot to become a part of The Every, yet not out of fascination for the company but because she is seeking revenge. The company is too strong to be attacked from the outside, she needs to get inside to destroy it. Together with her roommate Wes, she develops a strategy: making more and more absurd suggestions for apps so that people see what the company is really after. However, their idea does not work, instead of being repelled, people eagerly embrace the new ideas which limit their lives increasingly.

I was fascinated by Dave Egger’s novel “The Circle” a couple of years ago. “The Every”, the second instalment, shows the mission to destroy what he has created. Delaney Wells is a clever and courageous protagonist who consistently follows her goal. Yet, the novel could not fully meet my expectations, it was a bit lengthy at times and the developments were quite foreseeable.

Delaney’s strategy of proposing ever more absurd apps to control people – which words they use, rating their interaction with others and their capacity of being a “friend” – push the development further and further. The line of argumentation that The Every uses is quite convincing: who wouldn’t prefer to live in a safe place where people use words which do not create bad feelings in others, who wouldn’t like to be a better person and most of all, who wouldn’t be willing to abstain from harming behaviour to protect nature?

Eggers just goes one step further and shows how the characters fall prey to the traps which actually are quite obvious. However, this is what they want since it makes life easier. They do not have to make decisions anymore, everything is foreseeable and in good order. Thinking for yourself is exhausting, so why not hand it over do the company? Even though this aspect is well established, I could have done with less apps, the twentieth invention does not add any new aspect to the plot.

A small group of anarchists tries to resist, yet they are too weak and the intellectuals are not heard. Wes’ development throughout the plot, unfortunately, is also very predictable, I would have preferred some surprises here. Eggers certainly can to better than just use well-known set pieces.

The idea is great and the protagonist is well-created but the author could have made more out of it. Some scenes – Delaney’s trip to the ocean and the aftermaths – are brilliant as is the line of argumentation that the company uses to manipulate. Yet, it is a bit lengthy and unoriginal in its progress.

Dave Eggers – Every

Dave Eggers – Every

Nachdem die Firma Circle schon weite Teile des Internets beherrschte, hat sie sich mit dem Aufkauf eines online Versandhauses, das nach einem südamerikanischen Dschungel benannt war, auch den Konsummarkt gesichert. Unter dem Namen „Every“ kontrolliert Mae Holland nun weite Teile des Alltags der Menschen. Delaney Wells hat viel dafür getan, um bei Every angestellt zu werden, doch weniger, weil sie von dem Unternehmen fasziniert wäre, sondern weil sie Rache nehmen möchte. Von außen ist der Konzern zu mächtig, um ihm zu schaden, das kann nur aus dem Innersten gelingen. Mit ihrem Mitbewohner Wes entwickelt sie eine Strategie: mit immer absurderen Vorschlägen für Apps wollen sie den Menschen die Augen öffnen, doch ihre Idee fruchtet nicht. Statt sich angewidert abzuwenden, nehmen die Nutzer die immer weiterreichenden Einschränkungen begeistert auf und sind gerne bereit, immer mehr Freiheiten aufzugeben. Sie müssen also noch weiter gehen.

Mit großer Faszination hatte ich vor einigen Jahren „The Circle“ gelesen und trotz der etwas flachen Protagonistin konnte mich die Idee des Romans begeistern. Nun legt Dave Eggers den Gegenentwurf, die Zerstörung seiner eigenen Schöpfung, vor. Mit Delaney hat er eine clevere und mutige Figur geschaffen, die konsequent ihr Ziel verfolgt, das auch glaubwürdig motiviert ist, die Umsetzung jedoch bleibt für mich hinter den Erwartungen zurück. Dies liegt vor allem an vielen Längen, die die Handlung nicht voranbringen und der Vorhersehbarkeit der Entwicklungen, hier hätte ich mir mehr Überraschungen gewünscht.

Delaneys Ansatz, immer absurdere Vorschläge zu machen, die die Menschen kontrollieren – welche Worte verwenden sie, wie gut gelingen die Interaktionen mit anderen, wie gute „Freunde“ sind sie wirklich bis hin zu vollständigen Überwachung des Lebens – treiben aktuelle Entwicklungen immer weiter. Die Argumentationsstruktur von Every überzeugt: all dies dient der eigenen Sicherheit und Kontrolle. Wessen Sprache permanent überwacht wird, wird sich bemühen „korrekt“ und rücksichtsvoll zu sprechen und so wird die Welt ein bisschen besser. Die Bodycams zeichnen alles auf, weshalb man auch die kleinen Verfehlungen des Alltags sichtbar macht und sie so nach und nach einstellt. Alle werden zu besseren Menschen. Ein rücksichtsvoller Umgang miteinander, Reduzierung von Gewalttaten und auch noch der Schutz der Umwelt – wer kann sich dem ernsthaft verweigern?

Eggers geht einfach einen Schritt weiter und zeigt schön, wie leicht die Fallen eigentlich zu entdecken wären, in die die Figuren tappen. Jedoch, sie wollen das, denn das Leben wird leichter, wenn einem Entscheidungen abgenommen werden und Ordnung und Struktur herrscht. Nichts ist anstrengender, als selbst zu denken, weshalb man das großzügig an Every abgibt. So überzeugend dieser Aspekt ist, es hätten ein paar Erfindungen weniger sein dürfen, denn die 20. App bringt die Handlung irgendwann auch nicht mehr weiter.

Eine kleine Gruppe von Verweigerern versucht sich all dem zu widersetzen, Anarchisten, die mit ihren Mitteln in den Kampf ziehen, ebenso wie ein paar Intellektuelle, die jedoch nicht gehört werden. Auch Delaneys Freund Wes und seine Entwicklung im Laufe der Handlung bleibt für mich zu plakativ und einfallslos, Eggers kann definitiv mehr als abgenutzte Versatzstücke zu verwenden.

Die Idee überzeugt, auch die Protagonistin ist gelungen, aber der Autor hätte für mein Empfinden mehr daraus machen können. Einzelne Szenen – der Ausflug zu den Robben und die Folgen – sind herrlich, auch das Offenlegen der heuchlerischen Argumente ist gut umgesetzt. Viele Längen und eine doch recht absehbare Entwicklung schlagen jedoch auf der negativen Seite zu Buche.

Caroline Albertine Minor – Der Panzer des Hummers

Caroline Albertine Minor – Der Panzer des Hummers

Drei Geschwister, die unterschiedlicher nicht sein könnten. Ea ist schon vor Jahren aus der dänischen Heimat geflohen, erst nach Italien, aber nach dem Tod der Eltern war das auch noch zu nah, inzwischen lebt sie in San Francisco. Sidsel und Laura schlagen sich gemeinsam durchs Leben, die Restauratorin hat ihrer Tochter jedoch nie verraten, wer ihr Vater ist, ebenso wie jener nichts von dem Mädchen weiß. Der Jüngste, Niels, ist gerade erst von langer Wanderschaft zurück nach Kopenhagen gekehrt. Ihn hat weniger Heimweh als viel mehr die Depression seines besten Freundes hierzu bewogen, als Plakatierer überbrückt er die Zeit, bis es ihn wieder in die Ferne zieht. Über den Kindern schweben jedoch immer noch die Eltern, die in jeder Hinsicht freie Mutter ebenso wie der immer absente Vater. Auch als Erwachsene können sie sich nicht wirklich von den Prägungen ihrer Kindheit lösen.

Die dänische Autorin Caroline Albertine Minor wurde bereits mit zahlreichen Preisen für ihre Kurzgeschichten ausgezeichnet. Ihr Familienroman „Der Panzer des Hummers“ erzählt nur fünf Tage aus dem Leben der drei Gabel Geschwister, nicht einmal eine Woche, die Einblick in verlorene Verbindungen, unerfüllte Erwartungen und das Leben als Ganzes geben. Die äußere Hülle, die Familienbande, hält die drei Geschwister zusammen, doch ebenso wie beim Hummer ist ein Loslösen von diesem Panzer erforderlich, um zu wachsen und neue Bindungen einzugehen.

Jede der Figuren hat ihre eigene Geschichte zu erzählen und einen eigenen Blick auf das Leben. Ea, die mit ihrem Partner Hector und dessen Tochter Coco glücklich ist, jedoch keine eigenen Kinder möchte. Sidsel, die sich von der Begegnung mit Lauras Vater etwas anderes erwartet hatte und letztlich nur wenige Tage Urlaub von ihrem Leben nimmt. Niels, der seinem Freund ebenso wie seiner Tante helfen will und doch nicht weiß, wie er das genau tun soll, wo er sich selbst ja noch gar nicht gefunden hat. Weitere Figuren kommen hinzu, auch die verstorbenen Eltern melden sich aus dem Jenseits.

So interessant die unterschiedlichen Charaktere mit ihren Lebensansichten sind, so schwer wird es jedoch auch, daraus eine stimmige Geschichte zu machen. Für mich blieben sie weitgehend lose nebeneinanderstehen, die kurzen Momente der Interaktion zwischen ihnen sind zu knapp, um wirklich tragfähige Bande zu schaffen, die über jene der familiären Zwangsverbindungen hinausgehen. Auch wenn sich entscheidende Momente in der geschilderten Zeitspanne abspielen, nehmen sie keine Entwicklung, sind am Ende genauso ratlos wie zu Beginn.

Trotz den ansprechenden Schreibstils und beachtenswerter Familienkonstellation konnte mich der Roman nicht wirklich erreichen. Es waren leider nur lose Fäden, die sich nicht miteinander verwebten und mich etwas ratlos zurückließen.

Vendela Vida – We Run the Tides

Vendela Vida – We Run the Tides

It’s the middle of the 80s and San Francisco hasn’t turned into the tech/IT hotspot it is today. Teenager Eulabee grows up in a more well-off part close to the beach and attends an expensive all-girls school with her best friends Maria Fabiola. The girls are still somewhere between being kids and becoming visibly female and with this transformation also come the problems. Maria Fabiola is the first to attract attention from the opposite sex, but her radiant appearance also charms women which is why she gets away with almost everything. Eulabee is far from being that self-confident and therefore sticks to the truth what leads to her being excluded from the girl circles of her school. When Maria Fabiola vanishes, the whole community is alarmed, but Eulabee from the start does not believe in a kidnapping, she has known Maria Fabiola for too long and is well aware of her former friend’s greed for attention.

Vendela Vida still isn’t as renowned as her husband Dave Eggers even though she has published several books by now and has won the Kate Chopin Award. I found her last novel “The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty” quite exceptional in the choice of perspective and therefore was eager to read her latest novel “We Run the Tides”. This time, she goes back in time and has chosen teenage girls as protagonists. The story is told from Eulabee’s perspective and captures well the mixed emotions a girl goes through when becoming a woman. Also the ambiance of the 1980s is convincingly depicted.

The most central aspect of the novel is surely the friendship between Eulabee and Maria Fabiola and its shift when one of the girls develops a bit quicker than the other. Maria Fabiola is well aware of the effect she has on other people and uses this for her own advantage. Eulabee, in contrast, is still much more a girl, insecure in how to behave and what to do about the situation. She does not fight but accept what’s happening. Her first attempts of approaching boys seem to be successful but end up in total disappointment. She is a close observer and can well interpret the relationships she sees, between her parents, her mother and her sister and also the other girls and teachers at her school. Without any doubt she is a likeable character and treated highly unfairly. But that’s how kids behave at times.

I liked how the plot developed and how the vanishing of the girls turned out quite unexpectedly. Yet, I didn’t fully understand why the author has chosen to add another chapter set in the present. For me, the story was perfectly told at a certain point and admittedly, neither was I really interested in Eulabee’s later life nor in another encounter of the two women as grown-ups. Still, I do not really know what to make of Maria Fabiola when they meet for the first time decades later.

To sum up, wonderfully narrated, a great coming-of-age story with a strong protagonist.

Sara Sligar – Take Me Apart

Sara Sligar – Take Me Apart

Journalist Kate flees New York and her job and hopes to have a new start in Callinas close to San Francisco where she is staying with her aunt while working as an archivist for Theo Brand. He is the son of the famous photographer Miranda Brand whose legacy has been stored unattended in their home for more than two decades. Even though Theo is quite reserved, Kate gets on well immediately with his kids Oscar and Jemima; the deeper she digs into Miranda’s work and story, the more fascinated she becomes. Spending hours daily at the Brand home ultimately also brings her closer to Theo and makes her challenge her luck: he explicitly prohibited her from accessing some parts of the home which he considered strictly private. Kate cannot resist and thus finds Miranda’s diary which sheds a completely new light on the artist and her mysterious death.

It only took me a couple of pages to be totally enthralled by the story. Sara Sligar’s debut is a clever combination of an extraordinary artist’s (fictitious) biography, a crime novel and also feminist psychological thriller. Miranda’s death is the central aspect which Kate investigates, but what I found much more interesting was, on the one hand, how Miranda’s relationship with her obsessive-aggressive husband develops and, on the other, how Kate, herself just having recovered from an episode of mental struggles, reacts to it and becomes increasingly fixated. A brilliant study of two female characters who try to cope with psychological issues and being misunderstood by the world around them.

“I must figure out how to be exactly the right level of insane.”

The crime part of the novel is not that obvious from the beginning, it develops slowly and is surely reinforced by Kate’s prying in Theo’s home. It does not seem to make sense why he hides important information from her while paying her to sort out his mother’s legacy. Their getting closer over the time, not surprisingly, makes things even more complicated.

Even though some serious topics are addressed, Sara Sligar keeps a light tone and works on suspense rather than having the novel turn into a too melodramatic story. Added to this, her characters are not just black or white but give an authentic representation of the complex layers of grey which exist when it comes to relationships, violence and mental issues.

Fatima Farheen Mirza – A Place For Us

Fatima Farheen Mirza  – A Place For Us

It’s Hadia’s wedding day and more than anything else she has wished for her brother Amar to show up and take part in it. She hasn’t seen him for quite some time and then he is there. However, things do not turn out so well, but they never have with Amar. Flashback to the times when the kids were still young and all five of them a family: Rafiq who left his home country in the Middle East when he was still a teenager to make a career in the US, mother Layla who came to the country when she married Rafiq, the two daughters Hadia and Huda and their younger brother Amar. Raising three kids in Muslim believe in a foreign country, handing on your convictions and traditions when they are daily endangered by a different set of believes and culture is never easy. Conflicts must arise and so they do until Amar leaves the family. But there are still things none of them knows and Hadia’s wedding might be the day to reveal some secrets.

There is no single word to describe Fatima Farheen Mirza’s novel. I was stunned, excited, angry, understanding, I felt pity for the characters, I loathed them, I could understand them and I just wondered about them. I guess there are few emotions that did not come up when reading it and certainly it never left me cold. Is there more you can expect when reading a book? I don’t think so.

There is so much in it that I hardly know where to begin: there are typical family relationships that are questioned when children grow up. We have the problem of immigrant parents who do not fully assimilate with the welcoming culture but want to hand on something from their native background which necessarily collides within the children. There is love, forbidden love and rules of how a partner is to be found. There are differences made between the daughters and the son, rivalry between the siblings and we have parents who have to question the way they interact with their children and sometimes do not know what to do at all.

It might stem from the fact that I am female, but I liked Hadia best and felt most sympathetic with her. Even though Rafiq explains that he only wanted to protect his daughters, the fact that he limited her in all respects: friends, personal freedom as a child or teenager, even her academic success wasn’t greeted with enthusiasm because the father wanted his daughter to become a mother a take care of a future husband. She had to fight so many wars and was always treated inferior solely because she was a girl, I absolutely fest sorry for her.

Rafiq never reaches the point where he can fully accept his daughters as equals and this is the point where I most detested him. He understood what he did wrong with his son, but he makes masses of excuses and justifies his parenting with his own experiences and upbringing. This is just pitiable because he is stuck in a view of the world which he could have overcome in all the years in a western society. I can follow his thoughts at the end of the novel and surely this is quite authentic, I know people in reality whose world view shares a lot of similarities and I surely would like to know how one can open their eyes and make them overcome the stubborn ideas of women being inferior and parents knowing everything best. I was actually pretty angry at the end when Rafiq finally gets a voice and can ultimately share his thoughts since there isn’t much I could agree with.

 All in all, an outstanding novel which addresses so many of today’s issues and surely shouldn’t be missed.

Rachel Kushner – The Mars Room

Rachel Kushner – The Mars Room

Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility is Romy Hall’s new home, convicted to life sentence. What brought the mother of a young boy to this institution? And how can she cope with the rules that life in prison follows? Romy Hall remembers her life outside, her addiction and most of all The Mars Room where she stripped for a living. This is also where she met the man who was to change her life. Now, her life only consists of surviving, not getting in the way of the leaders or staff who have their own laws behind the bars. Life inside mirrors the outside, there are ruling classes and those ruled. And sometimes both spheres interact – often not for the better.

Rachel Kushner paints a blunt picture of life inside a prison. The idea of such a place as somewhere you can become a better person and atone for your wrongdoings is far from what she describes. It is a constant struggle of surviving and of adapting to the unwritten laws. Life is a series of disappointments, visitors who never come, news which do not reach you. And outside, there isn’t much waiting for you either.

It wasn’t that easy for me to sympathise with the protagonist Romy. This might be due to her role; even though she is inside, she remains an observer somehow. At the same time, there is so much unsaid about her that makes it difficult to form a whole picture of her. The fact that the reason for her imprisonment isn’t given immediately, on the other hand, adds to the underlying suspense of the novel. Slowly you get closer to the culminating point which reveals what happened. Additionally, the other characters are, obviously, those at the margins of society, people you wouldn’t actually socialise with and which sometimes repel you as a reader.

What I really liked is Kushner’s style of writing. The protagonist’s narration flows like a stream of consciousness which makes it quite realistic and lively. Furthermore, she often hints at what is to come without saying too much, just enough to arouse your interest. When Romy talks about her life and most of all about her future, she is quite direct – well, there isn’t much reason to embellish anything and therefore, her words sound absolutely authentic.

Andrew Sean Greer – Less

Andrew Sean Greer – Less

Arthur and Freddy have spent so many years together, but now, Freddy is going to marry somebody else. This already would be enough, but Arthur’s situation is even worse: he is about to turn fifty, thus, officially old. How to avoid the dreadful wedding and his birthday? The solution is close at hand: he accepts several invitations bringing him first to New York, then Mexico, afterwards across the ocean to Italy, Germany and Morocco before returning home via India and Japan. However, leaving behind your everyday life does not mean that your worries also stay at home. They follow Less around the word as constant companions at his side.

Andrew Sean Greer had been quite successful with his short stories before he started writing novels. His sixth, “Less”, was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer prize for Fiction, after he had already received the California Book Award and the O. Henry Award among others for his works.

It is hard to find words to adequately describe the novel. I simply adored it every minute. First of all, there is this extraordinary protagonist Arthur Less who is, in his own view, so plain, ordinary, normal and uninteresting and yet seems to fascinate everybody he meets, makes them fall in love with him instantly and puts a kind of spell on them they cannot escape. The reader also falls for him at once – albeit I cannot explain why this is exactly the case. It is surely not because he is outstandingly good-looking or especially witty, he seems to have some kind of charisma that attracts people.

Second, the narrator. He seems to be acquainted with Less, even though he merely hints at when and how they met and what their relationship is like. Often he recedes and just tells the story, but now and again, he talks to the reader, comments and readjusts the reader’s perspective. Even though a lot of disasters happen to Less on his journey and despite the fact that the two major loves of his life are lost, his life isn’t too bad.

Watching Less stumble through his journey, his anxiety about ageing – his is 49, not 50! – his being mainly known for having spent years at the side of a successful writer while his own work did only find small recognition – all his little flaws make him even more likeable. His modesty, his shyness – he is not less, but much more. A wonderfully written novel, full of love and compassion.

Robyn Harding – The Party

Robyn Harding – The Party

The Sanders are the perfect family: Jeff has a successful career, Kim is the loving mother who takes care of the home and the two children Hannah and Aiden who have the best marks in school and sophisticated hobbies where they also excel. For Hannah’s sixteenth birthday, the parents allow her to party in the basement – yet, with strict rules: no alcohol, no drugs, no boys. But Hannah wants to be part of the IT-crown and then her party turns into a complete disaster: her friend Ronni falls into a glass table after having consumed ecstasy and alcohol. When Hannah looks at her, there is something really wrong. Ronni has seriously hurt her eye and might not recover. Ronni’s mother is furious and knows exactly whom to blame: the wealthy Sander will pay for what they have done.

Robyn Harding’s novel unmistakably shows how your perfect life can turn into a nightmare from one minute to the other. First, I was just expecting some kind of teenage drama where finally all is sugar and spice and everything’s nice. But the author does not offer the easy ending, she goes down to the wire and exhibits all the mean and ugly sides of human beings.

The strongest aspects are definitely the characters and their emotions. E.g. Kim, she does not only pretend to be perfect, she really wants her life to be perfect. When the facade cracks, she is ready to fight even though this means that some people will have to be disappointed and even suffer. She has to readjust her point of view. Hannah, on the other hand, is the typical sixteen-year-old teenager who is caught between wanting to please and to be popular in school and her good heart which tells her to act differently. But sometimes she has to decide for one or the other and she seriously struggles with it. Jeff as a role model and father is really weak, but this is fruitful for the character since he shows an authentic behaviour where people make mistakes and are sometimes lead by emotions rather than by common sense. Lauren is the mean teenager who does not care about anybody. She is definitely interesting for the story, but a bit too stereotypical and one-sided for my linking. It would have appreciated a more complex story about her, yet, she is rather a minor character, so this is acceptable.

The plot was meticulously constructed what I found quite fascinating after having finished to novel. The next strike always comes, not completely unexpected, but sometimes the direction is a surprise.  That such an incident, or rather an accident, has an influence on all areas of life and does not leave any of the family members unaffected is quite natural and that’s what Robyn Harding makes use of. Their lives are devastated to the full extent, not omitting a single aspect. So, no sugar and spice and everything’s nice but the blunt reality.

Jonas Lüscher – Kraft

Jonas Lüscher – Kraft

„Theodicy and Technodicy: Optimism for a Young Millennium“ – diese Fragestellung ist es, die den Rhetorikprofessor Richard Kraft aus seiner finanziellen Not retten soll. In einer guten Viertelstunde soll in der ehrwürdigen Stanford Universität von den Bewerbern die Frage erörtert werden, dem Sieger winkt eine Million Dollar gestiftet von einem Internet Milliardär. Da er sich in seinem Tübinger Zuhause nicht in der Lage sieht, angemessen konzentriert an die Arbeit zu gehen, fliegt Kraft schon zwei Wochen vor der Veranstaltung nach Kalifornien und wohnt dort bei seinem Freund István, mit dem er einst in der Westberliner Enklave das Leben studierte und die Politik diskutierte. Bei der Suche nach der Frage, weshalb alles, das ist auch notwendigerweise gut ist, kehrt Kraft gedanklich auch immer wieder in seine Vergangenheit zurück und lässt seine Zeit mit István ebenso Revue passieren, wie die Zeit mit den drei Frauen, die sein Leben geprägt haben. Je näher der Tag der Präsentation rückt, desto weiter entfernt sich Kraft von der Überzeugung, dass in seinem Leben und in der Welt alles zum Besten steht.

Der Roman des Schweizer Autors Jonas Lüschers ist vom Feuilleton direkt nach Erscheinen begeistert aufgenommen worden. Es ist vermutlich die erstaunliche Verbindung, die Lüscher in „Kraft“ schafft zwischen der philosophischen Frage nach der Gerechtigkeit Gottes, der politischen Lage eines geteilten Deutschlands, das dem angloamerikanischen Neoliberalismus zu Beginn der 80er Jahre nur Helmut Kohl entgegensetzen kann, den weltbeherrschenden Internetgiganten des Silicon Valley und dem Leben eines einzelnen Mannes, der immer dann beruflich auf der Karriereleiter emporsteigt, wenn gleichzeitig die Frau an seiner Seite den Abstieg hinnehmen muss. Hierin Sinn zu finden und zu begründen, dass dies die bestmögliche aller Welten ist – kein leichtes Unterfangen, wie der Protagonist zunehmend verzweifelt feststellen muss.

Der sprechende Name des Protagonisten dient hervorragend als Ausgangspunkt zur Dekonstruktion des Romans. Richard Kraft – steht der Vorname für die Eigenschaften reich, mächtig und stark, fügt der Nachname diesen Einfluss, Wirkungsfähigkeit und Veränderungsfähigkeit hinzu. Sieht man sich die Figur an, so ist Kraft zunächst einmal finanziell abgebrannt. Zwei Ehen und vier Kinder haben ihn ruiniert, er ist dringend auf eine Geldspritze angewiesen. Macht und Stärke hat er eigentlich qua Profession, er war im frisch vereinten Deutschland eine Größe auf seinem Gebiet, scheint aber seine große Zeit hinter sich zu haben und nur wenige ergiebige Gedanken produzieren zu können. Mit dem Vortrag in Stanford erhält er die Chance seinen Einfluss geltend zu machen, eine positive Wirkung auszuüben und etwas an den bestehenden Verhältnissen zu ändern. Doch statt in der Ferne neue Gedanken zu kultivieren, sinkt er Grübelei und hängt der Vergangenheit nach. Eine Lücke klafft zwischen dem, was ist und dem, was sein könnte; ein Riss, der den Protagonisten selbst durchläuft und sehr passend auch auf dem Cover stilisiert ist.

Der eigentlich leistungsstarke und intelligente Mann wird überrollt – so wie in seinen Gedanken San Francisco von einer mörderischen und zerstörerischen Welle erfasst und zerstört wird, kann auch er den globalen Trends gesteuert durch die Ökonomie der Internetfirmen nichts entgegensetzen. Hat Gott den Menschen nach seinem Bild erschaffen, so erschafft nun der Mensch den Roboter, der alsbald droht die Macht zu übernehmen und als das bessere Wesen zu regieren. An dieser Stelle wird Kraft zum Sinnbild des modernen Menschen, der sich machtlos ausgeliefert fühlt und für den sich nicht erschließt, weshalb diese Welt, die bestmögliche sein soll.

Ein starker Roman, der sich nicht einfach nebenbei weglesen lässt, sondern immer wieder komplexe Diskurse mit dem Leser führt und ihn so mit der Ausgangsfrage konfrontiert.

Ein herzlicher Dank geht an den C.H. Beck Verlag für das Rezensionsexemplar. Mehr Informationen zum Buch finden sich auf der Seite des Verlags.