Kai Maristed

Book Review: “My Marriage” — An Extraordinary Rediscovery

August 12, 2016
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Despite the pain of inhabiting Alexander Herzog’s disintegrating world, I absolutely could not put My Marriage aside.

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Book Review: “The Last Weynfeldt” — The Virtues of a Wry, Cosmopolitan Vibe

March 15, 2016
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In this enjoyable novel, Martin Suter has chosen to sidestep depth in favor of colorful characters fine-honing their hopes and dreams..

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Book Review: Michel Houellebecq and the Wages of “Submission”

November 30, 2015
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If you’ve recently been mourning the end of the Novel of Ideas—take heart. And dig in, for Submission offers a smorgasbord.

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Book Review: “Imperium” — A Shock-Packed Pastiche of History

August 10, 2015
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In this entertaining satire of empire, Christian Kracht makes use of a nihilistic magic realism, without the sweetness one normally associates with that mode.

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Book Review: The Fiction of Norway’s Per Petterson — The Early Bonds That Bind

May 19, 2015
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I Refuse is one of those novels that only truly comes clear on a second reading, when certain initially apparently innocuous, easily passed-over sentences reverberate with revealed meaning.

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Book Review: “Blood Brothers” — Down-and-Out in Germany’s Zero Hour

March 10, 2015
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Anyone interested in understanding Europe in the 20th century, or in the fascinating metropolis that is Berlin, or in a riveting depiction of down-and-out youth who refuse to surrender to the system–will want to pick up Blood Brothers.

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Poetry Review: “Breathturn into Timestead” — A Magnificent Guide to the Enigmatic Poetry of Paul Celan

February 25, 2015
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Once you have wrestled with Paul Celan’s poetry, you may find yourself with a changed and sharpened sensibility to image and language.

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Book Commentary: Patrick Modiano — An Oddly Elliptical Choice for the Nobel Prize for Literature

October 23, 2014
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Patrick Modiano’s simple sentences pull one in; the nostalgia of loss and pain of youth and the hunt for a vague, romantic Other are easy to relate to.

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Book Review: Daniel Kehlmann’s “F” — An Amusing Look at Our Disjunctive Modern Life

September 24, 2014
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In F, vertigo is often palpable. Evil exists. “The terrifying beauty of things” does, too.

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