Latest Review: "Fame" by Daniel Kehlmann

The latest addition to our Book Review section is a piece by Monica Carter on Daniel Kehlmann’s latest novel, Fame, which is available from Pantheon in Carol Brown Janeway’s translation from the German.

Monica Carter is a regular contributor to Three Percent, and a member of the Best Translated Book Award fiction panel. She lives in Los Angeles and runs Salonica World Lit.

I really want to thank Monica for writing this and articulating part of the reason why I’m not a big Kehlmann fan. Not to give away too much of the review—you really should read it—but this paragraph is perfect:

What is frustrating is that Kehlmann invents a concept and instead of delving into the characters, it feels as if he just stuck a plot and some semi-developed characters around it. So, yes, these stories are creative, but are they worthwhile? Perhaps if he weren’t so seemingly impressed with his own ability to mock the world in which we live, mock his own participation and mock the reader, it would feel less of a one-noter and more like a nuanced orchestral piece.

Click here to read the entire piece. (Which isn’t as negative as it may seem from that example.)