An emerging threat permeating an enduring community is a familiar subject in many novels by the great Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai. In Herscht 07769, the impending menace is closer to a real identifiable force than was the case in his previous work.
The novel, which is set in Germany, introduces us to Florian Herscht as he writes and rewrites a letter to Angela Merkel regarding his concern about a discrepancy he believes he has detected between matter and antimatter that could threaten the world. With her qualification in physics, he feels she will understand the basis for his fear.
Florian is, in the early part of the novel, akin to Valuska in Krasznahorkai’s novel The Melancholy of Resistance, a man of great curiosity but little intellect. He is slow to realise that the true danger he and his community will soon be subjected to will emanate from the person he refers to as “the Boss”. Together they work on cleaning up footpaths and other surfaces including graffiti with the tag WOLF HEAD that has begun to appear on buildings associated with JS Bach.
Bach is held in the highest regard by the Boss who, on weekends, attempts to bring an orchestra of amateurs to a level that will allow them to play the Brandenburg Concertos; an always frustrated hope met with fury by the Boss. The elevated nature of Bach’s music has little impact on his humanity and his devotion to the composer is puzzling. He is a violent employer with freely expressed fascist opinions who surrounds himself with fellow neo-Nazis. Inevitably, their intimidation implodes into a cataclysm, creating consequences that transform or destroy lives.
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Told in a continuous sentence of 400 pages the novel’s central section is less like the Bach Cantatas that enrapture Florian and more like Ravel’s Bolero, with thematic material recurring incessantly. The plausibility of what occurs is stretched, too, especially with coincidences, as the author himself realises, by giving Florian the humorous aside that “such coincidence only happens in novels, but this isn’t a novel”. Yet, this is a novel. A novel that reaches for wonder and wisdom. A paean to depth and meaning amid violence and death. A novel that finds its greatest poignancy in the blinding of two beautiful wolves.
Declan O’Driscoll is a critic
