Summer House With Swimming Pool by Herman Koch — A Review

I love hating the characters I read about. Or just being unsure about their motives, their reliability, their credibility. Summer House With Swimming Pool , just like The Dinner, grabbed me this way. At turns cynical, grotesque, treacherous and wryly humorous, it had all the components of complete fucked-up-ed-ness I adore.

Dr. Marc Schlosser hates his job. Well, hates the filth and wretchedness that is the human condition, and Koch describes it all in loving detail. If you can't stand descriptions of your inevitable doom, you may not want to read this one. We find out right away that a patient of his, actor Ralph Meier, is dead, and it's possibly, probably, (okay definitely) his fault. But why?

 Here's where the summer house comes into play. A vacation with ulterior motives, lust and selfishness, then unexpected tragedy, plays a pivotal role in the Doc's decision to off Mr. Meier.

I won't give everything away, because the structure of the book is so you want to keep turning the page. The filthiness of your psyche, your strange inner thoughts and sick desires makes everyone a bit repugnant in this novel, even the children to some extent. 

But I like the honesty with a touch of the dramatic. It kept me engaged, and made me stop and think once I had reached the end. If you have ever watched Funny Games, enjoyed his previous work, or considered the darker parts of your soul and what you would do for family if faced with a violent and chaotic situation, read this.

Judge the characters harshly in this book if you must, but judge yourself as well.



—visit the authors' webpage (use Google translate, folks!) http://www.hermankoch.nl/



*(I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.)