Review

When reading the book's introduction, I fell in love with this writer before even starting a word of the story to follow. It was his responses to several interview questions that had me. When asked what the crucial event of his life was, his reply was “learning to read.” Another time he was asked how he'd like to die ... a morbid question I thought. Yet when reading his answer was “in bed with a book,” I thought exactly! Koeppen also was noted as saying “It is perhaps my only boast, not to have served in Hitler's armies for a single hour.” 

The Hothouse is set in the capital of postwar Germany, the city of Bonn and takes place over a period of two days. Readers will follow thoughts and actions of Keentenheuve, a member of parliament. He has recently returned to his homeland, having been away in England for several years to avoid Nazism. Keentenheuve is a brooding character and wants to work at restoring his beloved county, but isn't sure he can trust his colleagues who each represent different factions. Haunted by their country's involvement in WWII, and the atrocities served by German government, everyone seems to have mistrust, guilt, and a jaded sense of reality.

In the book’s opening chapter Keentenheuve is introduced as a grieving widower. His much younger wife, Elke, has tragically succumbed to an alcohol / drug overdose. This sets a sad tone that stays with the story, as emotions can't improve greatly in just two days. Keentenheuve feels responsible; for neglecting his wife. He has spent too many nights at his government apartment, leaving Elke alone to find company with the wrong crowd.

The writing style of Koeppen is very descriptive, lyrical, and somewhat complex, with sometimes paragraph-long sentences. I also discovered new (sometimes forgotten) words that increased my range of vocabulary. For instance, another way of saying something is odd … can be referred to as something “droll.” Lexicons would love this book, and because of its poetic style, it is very beautiful when read aloud.

Here’s an example of Koeppen’s style and also marks his character's feeling of despair quite well … “He had attended committee meetings, he had spoken in parliament, he had revised legislation, he didn’t understand it, he could have stayed at Elke’s side, stayed on the side of youth, and perhaps, if he hadn’t done everything wrong, it might have been on the side of life as well. One human being was enough to give meaning to life. Work wasn’t enough. Politics weren’t enough. Those things didn’t protect him from the colossal futility of existence. It was a mild futility. It didn’t hurt. It didn’t stretch out long ghost arms to catch at the MP. It didn’t throttle him. It was just there. And it remained. Futility had shown itself to him, it had introduced itself to him, and now his eyes were open, now he could see it everywhere, and it would never disappear, it would never become invisible to him.”

I shared this book with Gerhardt and Johanna from Ashe County’s German Club to get their take on the story. They both agreed that the rambling, and yes sometimes repetetive wording, can be a bit much at times. Maybe something was lost in translation and reading it in its original language would have been more enjoyable for them. Although, others in our book group savored the lyrical phrasing, which often took on stream of consciousness, roll-and-flow-like thoughts. Koeppen lets readers ‘become’ his character with this technique. As always book club fare highlights food mentioned in the story. With this book there were sugared almonds, potato cakes, fizzy lemonade, and Cheryl's delicious version of Beef Steak Esterhazy. I discovered when researching the name Esterhazy, (belonging to a German political family), that it is often descriptive of foods including scorched onions. Karin, another member of the German club, introduced us to stollen, a German fruit bread often served at Christmas … perfect since this story takes place during the holiday season! Reading this book was a cultural experience for me that increased my knowledge in so many areas. If you decide to read this book I recommend digesting it slowly so as not to “choke” on unfamiliar words or miss out on Koeppen's descriptive detail.