Monday, July 21, 2025

Christian Kracht - Eurotrash (Serpent's Tale, 2024) ****


The cover and the title of the book are somewhat deceptive. Yes, the story takes place in Switzerland, and it relates the story of a middle-aged Swiss man who picks up his mother for a trip around the country. The narrator - called Christian Kracht, so I assume it's somewhat autobiographical - has a hate/love relationship with his mother, not only due to the wealth that his (grand)-parents gathered, partly due to sympathy and collaboration with the Nazi's. He has no qualms about emptying his mother's bank account, and to use it on a spending spree on their road trip. His mother has been in psychatric care for a large part of her older life, and the trip acts as an endeavour to come to terms with his past as well as to reconcile with his mother before she will die. Furthermore, she has a stoma pouch which leads to further complications. 

The story is cynical and funny, primarily because the mother has her own kind of personality: direct, smart and brutal. A woman who no longer cares what people think of her. She drinks what she wants whenever she wants, and self-medicates at her heart's content. In the process of re-builing the mother-son relationship, the story gives a broad cultural picture of our times: novels, politics, economic inequality, the power of the media (his fater worked for Axel Springer of the publishing company with the same name).

The power balance between both characters shifts as the story unfolds. His initiative and relative dominance over his mother gradually shifts, and she takes gradually more control. She is not entirely who he thinks she is, and that is possibly one of the best parts of the book, next to the fact that it is very well written. It's also tightly composed, entertaining as well as relevant. 



 

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