Feuer brennt nicht by Ralf Rothmann

V Ralf Roth mann Feuerbrennt r Ralf Rothmann. Feuer brennt nicht. Frankfurt am Main. Suhrkamp. 2009. 304 pages. 19.80. isbn 978-3-518 42063-8 In Wolf, theprotagonist from whose perspective Ralf Rothmann's latest novel is told, Rothmann has suc ceeded in creating a clinically per fectportrait of narcissism. Like his creator,Wolf is a writer who has by now, about to turn fifty, become successful enough to live comfort ably fromhis writing.When he had his firstsmall "hit" with a volume of poems in his early thirties,he'd done theusual book tourwith it. At a small stop on this route comes, as Rothmann puts it, the "almost clas sic" encounter?the author and the bookstore clerk,well-worn copy of his book inhand. And thisnineteen year-old Alina naturally aspires to study literature,and their firstsex ual encounter is equally "classic," cigarette afterward. She follows him toBerlinwhere they live together, inKreuzberg of course, though in separate apart ments?so that the "magic and attraction aren't worn out by too much closeness and habituation" (shades of Rilke everywhere?Wolf never travels without the Duino Elegies along). And so it goes for seventeen years, but now that "the West has become impossible" and Prenzlauer Berg is "nothing but lifestyleand logos," they're looking for a quiet place fartherout. This they find in the eastern suburb of Friedrichshagen, one of the neigh borhoods thathad housed thebetter class of Stasi and other gdr bureau crats, which givesWolf theopportu nity to trotout theusual stereotypes about theOssis who, incredibly,are sometimes unfriendly to the new Wessis in theneighborhood. Alina had once raised theques tionof children,and thathad elicited such a fit of rage inhim that he called offa trip toAmsterdam to celebrate his first novel. The idea ofmarriage is, of course, out of the question?that's about as poetic as "bureaucratic love." Besides, that makes iteasier for him to justify his newly revived affair with an old girlfriendhis own age, Char lotte. This is justabout sex, of course, likehis prostitutes;itisAlina alone to whom his heart belongs. And when she takes him on a trip to Paris to celebratehis fiftieth birthday,he rec ognizes thisas theperfectopportunity to come clean about his relationship with Charlotte.Though initially a tad upset, she accepts this,too,andmakes sure that his shirtis ironed when he's offforan eveningwith Charlotte. Wolf might have passed merely as a run-of-the-mill male chauvin istpig, but his boundless sense of entitlementand exceptionalism, and especially his complete lackofempa thy,are theunmistakable marks of thenarcissist.And perhaps it is the very stereotypicalityof thenarcissist that explains the story's relentless cliches. If the preceding examples haven't sufficed, letme add a final one: The firsttimeAlina comes over = tovisit him inBerlin she shows up = in the proverbial littleblack dress, = of course, and?you guessed it? = with nothing underneath. If,as has = been suggested, the book is auto- = biographical, itworks superbly as = self-satire,andWolf ends as nothing = more than a cipher. = Ulf Zimmermann = Kennesaiu StateUniversity = Ali Sethi.TheWish Maker. New York. = Riverhead Books. 2009. 420 pages. = $25.95. isbn 978-1-59448-875-7| Ali Sethiwrites with grace and poise = inhis debut novel about contempo- = raryPakistan. Sensitive and keenly = observant, Sethi joins anglophone = Pakistani writersMohammed Hanif = and Daniyal Mueenuddin as new = voices that express the complex = nature of a region long defined by = the literary accomplishments of Indi- = anwriters. LikeHanif, Sethi observes = the fluctuationsof national politics. = Like Mueenuddin, he understands = thehopes and insecurities thathaunt = intimate relationships. In The Wish = Maker, Sethi combines these ele- = ments in the character of Zaki Shi- = razi. "I was born into a world of prior = absences that became lacks inmy = childhood.My father was dead from = the start and my mother seemed = always to be going away." At the = heart of Zaki's story is an impos- = sible love forSamar Api, two years = his senior and treated likehis cous- = in, although she is in facthis aunt. = Returning froma visit to Spain, the = adolescent Zaki discovers thatSamar = has been banished to the country- = side afterpursuing an illicitromance. = Sethi's perceptions at such moments = are keen. When he imagines Samar's = removal,Zaki feels"some of thepain

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