Das Narrenschiff by Christoph Hein

In the written and visual tradition of the early Renaissance, the Ship of fools refers the idea of ignorant leaders - religious but political as well - taking their subjects to nowhere but clearly to perdition. A ship led by fools, cannot stand the power of a storm in the middle of the sea. They are all meant to disappear.

The expression, used with the same meaning until today, was branded by a poem in German by the Basel author Sebastian Brant. There are many variants of European communism - the Germa one, among them - perfectly fitting the poem´s description. 

Hence, my interest in readng the monumental - 700-page plus - work with the same name - Das Narrenschiff - by author and French-translator Christoph Hein. In the German tradition of Bildungsroman - formative roman, at the end of which the character is reaching its own potential only that in this case, the main character growing up, foolishly, is the GDR/DDR itself - the author is following the destiny of three families, bureaucrats/apparatchiks, from the last years of the WWII until the end of the German Democratic Republic.

Deemed for mediocrity, either personal or professional, the characters are ´alive´ only within the political/ideological interactions. Even if tbey may think critically the decisions of the government and even their Soviet experiences, they are unable to reach out of their limited circle of friends. They are fools governed by fools, leading fools to perdition. 

The book is extremely precise when deals with communist bureaucratic procedures and mechanisms. From the chain of command to the chain of denial, everything is very well researched and possibly well known - the author worked as a journalist and author in East Germany. But, as much as I acknowledged the historical precision, I was mostly disappointed about the literary life of the characters, who - I understand they are mediocre - but are mostly existing only to show how decisions operate without depth or even emotional existence. 

I was personally more story flesh and literature, but I´ve stoically resisted until the very end of the book - at least for the language and vocabulary - highly specialized.

I fully acknowledge that I´ve let myself fooled with this book, but partially it encouraged me to do a bit of more research into the GDR´s history. And maybe I will stumble upon some better literary references as well.

Rating: 3 stars