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readingpanda 's review for:
Summer House with Swimming Pool
by Herman Koch
If you don't mind reading about people with questionable-at-best moral compasses, you may enjoy Herman Koch's books. This one concerns Marc, who as the first line tells us, is a doctor. He's a general practitioner, so he listens to people's day-to-day troubles and reassures them that they are going to be all right. He doesn't really like looking at people's bodies, but he carries out his duty in the Dutch medical hierarchy as he sees it: he is the gatekeeper who prevents patients from swarming to specialists and toppling the entire healthcare system.
Marc's patients tend to be in the arts - this isn't surprising since he has a reputation for listening sympathetically and also for being liberal with prescriptions. One of his patients is the actor Ralph Meier, and this relationship is the one around which all of the conflict in the book revolves. Ralph likes Marc, and Marc finds himself drawn into Ralph's life against his better judgment. The summer house of the title belongs to Ralph, and Marc and his family spend some time there on vacation. Events there spiral out of control in a variety of directions. Since the story is told in a sort of start-at-the-end way, the first things you read about are given more context as you come back around in time to when they happen. Whether or not that context makes Marc's actions more reasonable is really up to you.
Koch likes to bring up big issues in a big way - it's not enough to have his characters muse about ethical matters in the hopes that readers will think about them too. The characters have to go out and cross lines, and Koch doesn't seem inclined to take any stand himself to show how he feels about them. His characters say things that may inspire the reader to judge them, but they're presented without additional commentary. I found myself jotting down thoughts about some of the topics raised by the book. A few I listed were: healthcare; human bodies perceived as merely organisms,; how men appear to those close to them, how they appear to strangers, and how the latter influence the former; where the threshold is for the transition from girlhood to womanhood, and what really triggers it.
Recommended for: people interested in social dynamics, the not-too-sensitive.
Quote: I could put it differently. You're a much bigger lush than Pablo Picasso ever was, I could say. The only thing is, you don't possess a tenth of his talent. When you look at things clearly, it's simply a waste. A waste of alcohol, that is.
Marc's patients tend to be in the arts - this isn't surprising since he has a reputation for listening sympathetically and also for being liberal with prescriptions. One of his patients is the actor Ralph Meier, and this relationship is the one around which all of the conflict in the book revolves. Ralph likes Marc, and Marc finds himself drawn into Ralph's life against his better judgment. The summer house of the title belongs to Ralph, and Marc and his family spend some time there on vacation. Events there spiral out of control in a variety of directions. Since the story is told in a sort of start-at-the-end way, the first things you read about are given more context as you come back around in time to when they happen. Whether or not that context makes Marc's actions more reasonable is really up to you.
Koch likes to bring up big issues in a big way - it's not enough to have his characters muse about ethical matters in the hopes that readers will think about them too. The characters have to go out and cross lines, and Koch doesn't seem inclined to take any stand himself to show how he feels about them. His characters say things that may inspire the reader to judge them, but they're presented without additional commentary. I found myself jotting down thoughts about some of the topics raised by the book. A few I listed were: healthcare; human bodies perceived as merely organisms,; how men appear to those close to them, how they appear to strangers, and how the latter influence the former; where the threshold is for the transition from girlhood to womanhood, and what really triggers it.
Recommended for: people interested in social dynamics, the not-too-sensitive.
Quote: I could put it differently. You're a much bigger lush than Pablo Picasso ever was, I could say. The only thing is, you don't possess a tenth of his talent. When you look at things clearly, it's simply a waste. A waste of alcohol, that is.