Indecision

A long time ago, I can't even remember the month, I was on my way to a party, when a friend of mine asked me to pick up a cheap slim vase to put in a rose or something. So I went to Camden High Street around the corner where I knew there were some charity shops. I found a reasonably priced flower container, and on my way to the cashier I passed a book shelf. That's where I picked up this book. For one ninety-nine. 

It is one of those books that I had thrown on the pile of other unread books and soon forgot about. Then, some weeks later, I picked it up and thought I had made a mistake. The author's name, Benjamin Kunkel, was clearly a German name. And why would I read the English translation of a German novel when I actually feel at home in the German world of words. So I tossed it back on the pile and never looked at it again. 

One day I was sitting at my desk and avoiding to work, when I stumbled across it again. It was lying on the front cover so that I could notice the praises for the story on the back. They were given by American magazines and papers. No, I thought, could it be? I looked up Benjamin Kunkel and lo and behold, he's from Eagle, Colorado, USA. Son of a bitch, it happened again. Glad about my mistake I finally started reading it.

Same mistake happened, by the way, with Jonathan Franzen's Die Korrekturen and Die 27ste Stadt. I purchased both of them before I left for a long trip to Korea, where I know of only few bookshops that carry more than student course books in the German section. Then, upon arrival of the ordered books, I found out that Jonathan Franzen is an American novelist, not German. He's from Illinois and he writes in English.

I'm only halfway through, so I can only speak for the first eleven chapters, but I must say, I really enjoy the story. Mainly, I suppose, because the main character, Dwight, is a twenty-seven-year old guy who goes through a midlife crisis, paired with a great inability to make decisions, and possibly in love with a girl he met a million years ago. The writing is quick and not always simple, but very clever and diverse. Very entertaining.