THE LAKE, or, DER SEE by GERHARD ROTH
SUMMARY
Paul Eck is a representative for a pharmaceutical company who is travelling to various Doctors' offices and offering his drugs to them. He takes many pills to improve his cognition, aid digestion, relieve allergies, induce drowsiness, and reduce pain, and is dependent on the drugs he takes. Paul Eck's parents divorced 30 years prior to the start of the novel. He has not seen his father since the divorce, although his father is wealthy from a hunting and fishing business and continued to pay for Eck's medical studies after they ceased contact. Eck's father participated in the Hungarian resistance movement and was involved in smuggling guns from Switzerland through Hungary to Serbia. Eck's mother committed suicide exactly one year before the novel begins, and Eck was forced to mop up his mother's blood after she'd died.
Eck takes a bus to a historic castle and accidentally wanders into a former concentration camp. The next day, he tries to sell drugs to Professor Basaglia at a medical clinic where there are many sick and hopeless people. Eck meets two women in a cafe who pleasure him sexually and then he is robbed of his money, wallet, and passport by a group of men who were alerted by the women that Eck had money. After he awakes, he sneaks across the border to return to his home and checks into a hotel to rest. He decides to not accompany his father for a boating trip which Eck's father invited Eck to, and a storm breaks out on the day of the trip.
The next day, Eck reads in the newspaper that his father went missing in the storm. Eck visits a friend of his who is a mechanic and takes Eck on a boat trip across a river where Eck sees a trailer park which rents rooms by the night, and Eck checks into the trailer park. He then goes to see his family doctor who uses acupuncture, and spiritual healing, as well as brutal surgery and recommends his drugs.
A boy named Hermann asks Eck for a ride and Eck obliges, first stopping at a hunting store to buy a gun using a false identity and steps outside where two policemen find Eck and ask him to come to the morgue to look for Eck's father's body. After identifying the body, Paul Eck is announced as a suspect for the murder of his own father, and told to stay in the trailer park by police. He is approached by a strange man who knows that Eck was invited to the lake by his father and tells Eck to be careful.
Eck visits his grandfather's home in Hungary and is followed by a blue Toyota for the whole trip. A police officer emerges from the Toyota the next day and accompanies Paul Eck and his friend named Robert on a boat ride while they look for a clue Eck's friend claimed to have seen. While they are gone, Eck's trailer is stripped and searched. A journalist who is interested in the story approaches Eck and offers to help piece together information on the case. The next doctor Eck visits is named Dr. Goriupp and tells Eck of his father's involvement in the gun trade.
A gypsy who previously worked for Eck's uncle finds the car in which Eck's father was murdered before the body was chopped up and put in the ocean. Eck sees his stepbrother there and they plan to go fishing to discuss family matters the next morning. On their fishing trip, Eck and his stepbrother fight and capsize their boat, resulting in a cut on Eck's forehead.
To get his wound stitched, Eck returns to Dr Goriupp. While stitching Eck's head, the doctor begins coughing blood, and Eck hallucinates that the doctor is a cannibalistic monster, causing Eck to shoot the doctor in the eye. A short while later, Eck awakes in the gypsy's home after experiencing drug-induced amnesia. When Eck returns home he meets the journalist who tells him the police suspect a military man named Laposa of shooting both Dr. Goriupp and Eck's father. Eck and the journalist go to the military base where they witness Laposa being arrested and confessing to killing Eck's father.
A gun fight breaks out in the trailer next to Eck's trailer which sparks a fire. Eck takes some LSD he was given by a Swiss colleague. Paul Eck and Robert fly away in Robert's plane.
ANALYSIS
There are many references to genocide in this novel. Eck visits both a Jewish and a Serbian cemetery. He also sees a former concentration camp, a Swastika, and a racist meeting in his journeys. Paul Eck clearly feels guilty about the crimes of Nazis and the Bosnian Serbs. Eck mentions that he feels like the stains of the past are haunting him presently when he discusses cleaning up his mother's blood. I believe the purpose of the thematic inclusion of wartime material is to emphasize that the aftermath of genocide still haunts Europe.
Some silverfish infest Eck's trailer. Although they appear to fall with gravity after the murder is resolved, Eck sees them the next day when he opens the Bible, which he falsely swore on earlier in the novel. He leaves the trailer where the silverfish are contained. The silverfish resemble most closely his conscience, and after the trailer park burns down, it is implied that Eck feels relieved as he hallucinates becoming one with the birds under the influence of LSD.
Throughout the novel, Eck experiences many discomforts within his body. The reaction of his body to alcohol, and drugs, is well documented. Every stomach ache Eck endures in The Lake is well documented and it is clear that he likes to tense his abs, and feel warm and full. Why Roth shared these facts about Eck, I don't know. To be honest, spending so much time as a reader swimming around inside of Eck's body as well as spotty translation made this book sort of dull for me. Next week, I promise by book will not have anything to do with genocide, as that seems to be a recurring theme in my selections.
SOURCE
SUMMARY
Paul Eck is a representative for a pharmaceutical company who is travelling to various Doctors' offices and offering his drugs to them. He takes many pills to improve his cognition, aid digestion, relieve allergies, induce drowsiness, and reduce pain, and is dependent on the drugs he takes. Paul Eck's parents divorced 30 years prior to the start of the novel. He has not seen his father since the divorce, although his father is wealthy from a hunting and fishing business and continued to pay for Eck's medical studies after they ceased contact. Eck's father participated in the Hungarian resistance movement and was involved in smuggling guns from Switzerland through Hungary to Serbia. Eck's mother committed suicide exactly one year before the novel begins, and Eck was forced to mop up his mother's blood after she'd died.
Eck takes a bus to a historic castle and accidentally wanders into a former concentration camp. The next day, he tries to sell drugs to Professor Basaglia at a medical clinic where there are many sick and hopeless people. Eck meets two women in a cafe who pleasure him sexually and then he is robbed of his money, wallet, and passport by a group of men who were alerted by the women that Eck had money. After he awakes, he sneaks across the border to return to his home and checks into a hotel to rest. He decides to not accompany his father for a boating trip which Eck's father invited Eck to, and a storm breaks out on the day of the trip.
The next day, Eck reads in the newspaper that his father went missing in the storm. Eck visits a friend of his who is a mechanic and takes Eck on a boat trip across a river where Eck sees a trailer park which rents rooms by the night, and Eck checks into the trailer park. He then goes to see his family doctor who uses acupuncture, and spiritual healing, as well as brutal surgery and recommends his drugs.
A boy named Hermann asks Eck for a ride and Eck obliges, first stopping at a hunting store to buy a gun using a false identity and steps outside where two policemen find Eck and ask him to come to the morgue to look for Eck's father's body. After identifying the body, Paul Eck is announced as a suspect for the murder of his own father, and told to stay in the trailer park by police. He is approached by a strange man who knows that Eck was invited to the lake by his father and tells Eck to be careful.
Eck visits his grandfather's home in Hungary and is followed by a blue Toyota for the whole trip. A police officer emerges from the Toyota the next day and accompanies Paul Eck and his friend named Robert on a boat ride while they look for a clue Eck's friend claimed to have seen. While they are gone, Eck's trailer is stripped and searched. A journalist who is interested in the story approaches Eck and offers to help piece together information on the case. The next doctor Eck visits is named Dr. Goriupp and tells Eck of his father's involvement in the gun trade.
A gypsy who previously worked for Eck's uncle finds the car in which Eck's father was murdered before the body was chopped up and put in the ocean. Eck sees his stepbrother there and they plan to go fishing to discuss family matters the next morning. On their fishing trip, Eck and his stepbrother fight and capsize their boat, resulting in a cut on Eck's forehead.
To get his wound stitched, Eck returns to Dr Goriupp. While stitching Eck's head, the doctor begins coughing blood, and Eck hallucinates that the doctor is a cannibalistic monster, causing Eck to shoot the doctor in the eye. A short while later, Eck awakes in the gypsy's home after experiencing drug-induced amnesia. When Eck returns home he meets the journalist who tells him the police suspect a military man named Laposa of shooting both Dr. Goriupp and Eck's father. Eck and the journalist go to the military base where they witness Laposa being arrested and confessing to killing Eck's father.
A gun fight breaks out in the trailer next to Eck's trailer which sparks a fire. Eck takes some LSD he was given by a Swiss colleague. Paul Eck and Robert fly away in Robert's plane.
ANALYSIS
There are many references to genocide in this novel. Eck visits both a Jewish and a Serbian cemetery. He also sees a former concentration camp, a Swastika, and a racist meeting in his journeys. Paul Eck clearly feels guilty about the crimes of Nazis and the Bosnian Serbs. Eck mentions that he feels like the stains of the past are haunting him presently when he discusses cleaning up his mother's blood. I believe the purpose of the thematic inclusion of wartime material is to emphasize that the aftermath of genocide still haunts Europe.
Some silverfish infest Eck's trailer. Although they appear to fall with gravity after the murder is resolved, Eck sees them the next day when he opens the Bible, which he falsely swore on earlier in the novel. He leaves the trailer where the silverfish are contained. The silverfish resemble most closely his conscience, and after the trailer park burns down, it is implied that Eck feels relieved as he hallucinates becoming one with the birds under the influence of LSD.
Throughout the novel, Eck experiences many discomforts within his body. The reaction of his body to alcohol, and drugs, is well documented. Every stomach ache Eck endures in The Lake is well documented and it is clear that he likes to tense his abs, and feel warm and full. Why Roth shared these facts about Eck, I don't know. To be honest, spending so much time as a reader swimming around inside of Eck's body as well as spotty translation made this book sort of dull for me. Next week, I promise by book will not have anything to do with genocide, as that seems to be a recurring theme in my selections.
- pharmaceutical representative goes on trip to sell prescription drugs
- the representative's estranged father is secretly involved in the illegal gun trade
- the representative's father is murdered and the representative becomes a suspect
- the police discover that the representative's father was murdered by someone involved in the illegal gun trade
SOURCE
Roth, Gerhard. The Lake. Trans. Michael Winkler. Riverside, CA: Ariadne, 2000. Print. Book about a man suspected of killing his estranged father.
No comments:
Post a Comment