[Battwenue]

For various reasons, when her latest novel, Corpus Delicti: Ein Proze?, came out, I picked it up. It?s my first Zeh novel, and in many ways, it?s said to be an atypical effort, so my impressions of the book will not be transferable to other Zeh novels. That said, it?s an ok read. It?s not great, not even very good, and Zeh, as many contemporary German novelists, is an excruciatingly bad stylist, sometimes, but you won?t regret reading it and it has some good moments. Most of the good moments are, of course, ?borrowed?, that is, they are not due to Zeh?s original writing and/or thinking, but to the source material she used to cobble together the intellectual construction of the book. Corpus Delicti is a science fiction novel, albeit with the SF aspect toned down as much as possible, which depicts a dystopian, in some respects vaguely dictatorial society; as could be expected, the novel owes much to greats of the genre such as Huxley?s Brave New World and Orwell?s 1984. Sadly, taking a SF framework seems to give Zeh the excuse to go for caricatures instead of characters, for puppets instead of persons. Stylistically, and especially in what concerns atmosphere, other important references are stories by Kafka (reading the book, the word ?Kafkaesque? comes to mind repeatedly), or by Kunert (for instance the justly celebrated story ?Zentralbahnhof?). As with Davis? collection, Zeh?s novel, too, never transcends her predecessors or is able to beat them at their own game.


This is not a bad thing, however. Zeh?s novel is less an effort to create an original work of Art (note the capital letter), it?s rather an angry screed against developments that Zeh perceives to be harmful in her society; it is meant to be much more disposable than your everyday novel. Zeh doesn?t allow her readers to read the book as an idle or entertaining exercise in thought, instead she hammers home the topicality of it all time and again. The book is a good though preachy read, a quick read, enlivened by the anger of Zeh who thinks we?re ceding control over our bodies. the rest here Disorder: Juli Zeh?s “Corpus Delicti” shigekuni.

hm

[Ruiceara]

Great review, thanks. Sounds like I might want to pick this one up, but with lower expectations... I like rant-type books occasionally, and it's not like the subject doesn't deserve some satire. There's a good chance this will get translated, so I'll wait and see what her Swedish publisher does.

[KlaraNovikoffa]

the rest here Disorder: Juli Zeh?s ?Corpus Delicti? shigekuni.

hm

M.,
Oh, you know I would give this a try if there were more than 24 hours in a day. But, alas, scientists haven't found a way to give us more time. And as you probably have heard, time is our most valuable commodity. Thus,
I must take your word for the fact that Zeh is an "excruciatingly bad stylist," even though I would love to discover this for myself. What can I say? I trust you. Or did you know that already?

At any rate, this is a very good review. I'm going light on the praise
just because I want to please you. I'm such an angel. My halo is simply glistening these days. Don't believe me? I'll send you a picture .

Incidentally, if anyone could persuade me to give this book a try, I'm 100% certain it would be you.

yours,
T.