At the border between self-story and fiction, Eurotrash by Christian Kracht is a literary continuation of both in form and content from his debut Faserland, in 1995. The mixture between fiction and autobiographical elements remains, the characters - the author and his mother - as well as the ironic road-movie feature. Only that this time the playground is Switzerland, compared to Germany in the previous novel.
In the American-English slang, Eurotrash refers to the kitschy part of Europe, praising postcard perfect locations and idealizing the lifestyle. The storyteller of the story, named Christian Kracht feels the world is his oyster, is used to the boarding schools, comes from a rich family, his father being - as real Kracht´s - a successful part of the Axel Springer successful entreprise after the war. There are former Nazis in the family, as there are in - the real and fictional - Switzerland he is crossing from Zürich to Gstaad with his drug and alcohol-addicted 80-year old mother.
The private, public, author´s, characters memories do intertwin as it may happen in the post-modern (literary) realities of the writing. I´ve found personally the dialogues between Christian and his mother the most moving part of the story. Storytelling is healing, connecting the estranged parent and child after years of physical and emotional distance. The trip he takes to the mother - promising he will take her to ´Africa´ - is tracing fragments of the past, revisiting memories - visual, emotional, childhood, taste-like.
Eurotrash was shortlisted for Deutscher Buchpreis 2021, alongside with another Swiss-based author Dana Grigorcea, and for the Schweizer Literaturpreis 2022. Kracht reported extensively on Asian issues, being based for years in India, and currently living in LA with his family.
Rating: 3 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment