Book of the month 2005

© Carl Hanser

"Family history" for Philip Erlach is "a convention invented by those who cannot stand to die and be forgotten". He himself tends to be "unambitious" in matters concerning family – until he inherits his grandmother's mansion and finds out that it is not easy to sort out her home, with its old and heavy furniture and dozens of pigeons in the attic, "who have covered everything ankle and knee deep in dirt." It is even harder to de-clutter the family history, with which he is confronted in letters and documents that he comes across.

The protagonist in Arno Geiger's novel spends the summer of 2001 on the old villa's porch and clears out his family's history. He paints a portrait of three generations by recounting individual days (stretching from 6th August 1938 to 9th October 1989) from their perspective. Through this narrative form a picture of recent political and social developments in Austria, from the beginning of the Nazi area to today, is drawn. The author's main emphasis is, however, on the Viennese bourgeois family's fate. But, instead of applying the objectivity of a chronologist, the author shows interest in his figures' inner life and humorous detail.

Philipp's grandfather, Richard, carved a career for himself as a minister, and was jointly responsible for the Austrian State Treaty – at home he cheated on his wife with the nanny. Later on he suffered from old age dementia and hugged the fire extinguisher. Forgetting and remembering, both are forms of facing caducity. Philipp's father, Peter, who was a member of the "Hitler Youth" movement, lives to see the end of the war in 1945, falls in love with Richard's daughter, Ingrid, and becomes the cause of her break with her family. Ingrid drowns in a swimming accident. When his board game "Who knows Austria" is discontinued, Peter proclaims: "Losing never did me any good."

His son Philipp, an unsuccessful author, is also on the losers' side. He maintains a sporadic relationship with the married meteorologist Johanna and avoids taking any initiative. Philipp develops a friendship with two clandestine workers in the mansion, Steinwald and Atamanov, for whom, in the last chapter of the book, he organises a dreary barbeque which finishes on top of the roof in a thunderstorm.

"We are fine" – the banal book title hints at the routine of everyday life, which makes up the "big history". But is also points towards the illusion, behind which the tragedy of every generation is concealed: its pain and loss.. It is Geiger's family and Austria novel's big achievement, to describe with great linguistic virtuosity and in a touching and credible way the concerns of these generations.

"We are fine" won the German Book Award 2005.

TD

Bibliografic Details
German	English Translations
Hardcover: Geiger, Arno: Uns geht es gut. Carl Hanser, München, 2005 ISBN 3-446-20650-7 EUR 21,50	Hardcover: Not available yet.
Paperback: Not available yet.	Paperback: Not available yet.
Audio-CD: Not available yet.