The “fresh reading material for the Frankfurt Book Fair” is a novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, which he did not take with him when he fled Paris and which has only now been published. Jakob Augstein probably wanted the idea of “War”; he considers Céline to be the best French writer of the 20th century. The camera shows Eva Menasse’s face. She doesn’t think so.
But now there is war. And Céline was a notorious anti-Semite and Nazi collaborator. That’s why the moderator Thea Dorn says she always defends the separation of author and work, but in this case and on this evening it is difficult. Jakob Augstein can justify his opinion very plausibly. And Eva Menasse also has her opinion. Mithu Sanyal is Céline’s unlikely defender, calling scenes involving war veterans and a sadistic nurse interesting.
Sometimes there is unity, sometimes it gets nasty
Everyone agrees on Daniel Kehlmann’s “Lichtspiel”, the novel of the season that is celebrated by everyone. Even the rough-and-tumble Augstein has to agree that it is a fabulous work of linguistic art.
Everyone also agrees on “Gittersee” by Charlotte Gneuss, which won the ZDF Prize for the best debut novel. Only the question of whether an author born in the West after 1989 is allowed to describe the GDR in 1976 has discursive potential. Thea Dorn just asked. And Eva Menasse says she didn’t even think about it. Of course you can do that.
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Augstein gets nasty when talking about “Father’s Sea” by Deniz Utlu. Mithu Sanyal is deeply moved by the story of a boy with a migration background whose father succumbs to locked-in syndrome after a stroke. Eva Menasse thinks Utlu is talented. Thea Dorn objects that there are too many flowery orientalisms.
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However, Jakob Augstein noted what the critic Mara Delius said about a text from the book at the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize: “flat”. Sanyal then says that she had already defended Utlu at this very competition, where she was also one of the judges. Augstein complains that you only had to read this book because the author…
Almost as beautiful as it once was with the original line-up with Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Sigrid Löffler and Hellmuth Karasek.