Brendel’s Fantasy by Günther Freitag

Austin fiction

Original title – Brendels Fantasie

Translator – Eugene H. Hayworth

Source – Personal copy

After the last two books followed growing up in Germany. We are moving now to neighbouring Austria. And a book from Haus Publishing. A novel by the Austrian novelist Günther Freitag a writer who is also a teacher and has had a number of novels and plays published in German, and he has won a number of prizes over the years. A number of them over the years are around classical music like this one. Here we meet a man at the end of his life as he is dying and wants to see his final and grand ideas. The book follows his decision to move to Italy for a man dying.

CASTELNUOVO SITS ON two sprawling hills, whose slopes are planted with thick vines. Vineyards, a few craftsmen, several shops with food for daily needs, at the edge of the village a manor that has specialised in sheep farming. The ideal place for the Fantasy, Höller thinks on the way to Felsina farm.The rest home is situated on an elevated point from which the entire city can be viewed. In a display case in front of the community hall, a poster annoujncess a meeting of the delegates of the province abd the mayors from the surrounding areaa. A discussion of  enviromental devastation and sale of land to foreign investors.

Maybe this is why he struggles to get his idea off the ground to the local.

 

The book follows what happens when a successful businessman Höller is told that he has a terminal brain tumour. He is at the crossroads of what to do with the time left. Like many in his position, we see a man who has a family that has been pulled apart and affected by his job and work. His with high flying and sons that pay little heed to him now. He has one other passion in his life: Franz Schubert’s works, especially when they are conducted by the Great Alfred Brendal. So what follows is his decision to sell up and use all the money he has left to Go to the sleepy Tuscan village of Castelnuvo. There he decides he wants to put on his own piece of Schubert, the one he has always loved Wanderer fantasy using the locals, which are a bunch of unusual characters including the old man from theold people’s home, a drunken priest a dwarf that is the mayor’s right-hand man these all stand in his way. But he wants Brendel to perform it for him, so he writes a series of letters to grab the great pianist’s attention and bring him to this sleepy backwater. As events unfold, his mind becomes affected, and reality and hallucinations become hard to work out, which is when dreams and reality mingle. But will Höller finally get to see his dream of Franz Schubert done by Albert Brendel in this sleepy Italian village be he shuffles off this mortal coil !!

Back OUTSIDE, Höller imagines the dwarf as an usher. The black uniform with gold braid shall make the deformed man an authority who will not tolerate any rebellion and will squelch every insurrection with his squinting gaze, emphasised by an ominous, dancing Adam’s apple. But he will not be able to buy the uniform readymade.Höller walks to the piazza. More than four hours before the meeting begins. The political bigwig will already have made the journey, sitting in the back of a black Lancia and studying the press reports on the parliamentary sessions of the last week. How did the journalists react to his speech? Do they quote one of his colleagues for his remarks? Does the chairman of the party advance their position? Then he reads letters from his constituents, all written in clumsy sentences and always with the same requests. Can’t you drive any faster? As you command, Onorevole, whispers the pale driver.
The carabinieri drive past Höller in their blue Alfa at a walking speed. The passenger in the front seat looks at him briefly, then the car accelerates and races on toward the centre of town

As he imagines what will happen if it gets it off the ground

This is a dark comedy of the final roll of the dice of one man and the madness of it as he dreams of the great performance he is bringing. This is a smaller-scale version of the dreams of Herzog in Fitzcarraldo when he dreamed of bringing the Italian Opera Tenor Caruso to those in the Jungle. This is an equally bleak journey through the sleepy village and the hurdles they put in the way of his dream. The last effort of a dying man to escape and live in a dream, almost away from his present, will succeed. This is an unusual book mix of death and desire and hopes all in one book are hard to make work.

Winston’s score – B  interesting idea for a book