F, a novel. Daniel Kehlmann

F is a thought provoking and wonderfully written/translated novel by the young German author Daniel Kehlmann. It is the story of a father and three sons, from two failed marriages, who all are finding their way in the world with some difficulty. The father is a wanna-be writer and free spirit who walks out on two marriages. His children are damaged goods, each in their own way, but with a lot of common ground. Every reviewer speculates what the “F” stands for. Failure? Forgery? Fraud?

Each chapter is in the voice of one of the characters and tells his story and evokes his psyche. Son number one is an athiest Catholic priest. He is quite likeable in his wandering “what do I make of the world” thoughts. A pair of identical twins are from dad’s second marriage. One is a mentally unstable financial advisor, whose agnst is palpable. His twin is, like dad, a wanna-be. In this case he’s a painter, who in fact becomes very successful: by forging a body of work that is sold as the paintings of his long-time lover. I found this character to be quite intriguing and was impressed by Kehlmann's thoughts on making art, the art world, and forgery vs “real”.

That sense of forgery versus real is perhaps the heart of all the characters and the novel. In a very real sense, these men are not frauds. Like all of us, they are trying to find their way to who they truly are in this world and have settled for a compromise version of this. Kehlmann, by contrast, is the real deal. He is an author to watch for.