jarichan's review against another edition
4.0
Noch genau so eindrücklich wie beim ersten Mal lesen - vielleicht sogar noch mehr.
Eine Art Anti-Robinson Crusoe und deshalb viel glaubhafter. Ein Aussteiger mit einem Traum, für den er alles gibt.
Krachts Sprache ist hier äusserst literarisch; manche meinen, unleserlich, aber das empfand ich weder damals noch heute so. Ein krasser Gegensatz zu "Faserland", das ich zu Beginn des Monats gelesen habe, sodass man die Entwicklung Krachts mühelos beurteilen kann.
Eine Art Anti-Robinson Crusoe und deshalb viel glaubhafter. Ein Aussteiger mit einem Traum, für den er alles gibt.
Krachts Sprache ist hier äusserst literarisch; manche meinen, unleserlich, aber das empfand ich weder damals noch heute so. Ein krasser Gegensatz zu "Faserland", das ich zu Beginn des Monats gelesen habe, sodass man die Entwicklung Krachts mühelos beurteilen kann.
badoit90's review against another edition
4.0
4 Stars // Ze Germans at their Wurst
I’ll admit: I chose this book purely by its beautiful cover art. In the end, I came away from this short adventure rather well entertained and impressed by the authors rich language, intrigued to read more by Christian Kracht.
It’s the prose first and foremost that shapes the character of this novel: Intricate, complex sentences paint some beautiful and rich pictures in front of your inner eye. Sometimes the prose is so convoluted though that you have to read the paragraphs a few times to truly grasp the amount of content within. Nevertheless, I have rarely read a book written in such a dense and rich language. The closest I can think of would be Perfume by Patrick Süskind, which also has a similarly poetic prose - just easier to digest. I would therefor highly recommend reading Imperium in Germany, if you are able to do so.
The story itself then is a rather dark and ironic take on the state of the German oversea colonies in the beginning of the 20th century. The novel is not laugh-out-loud funny, but rather subtle in its sarcastic undertone, thereby calling out the perverse cultural appropriation and political insanity we saw at the time. You won’t find many likeable characters in this book - which is the point by the way - but rather a bunch of unfathomable idiots, who desperately try to make things work.
All in all Imperium is a short, dense and mildly entertaining read that had a great graphic designer at work.
I’ll admit: I chose this book purely by its beautiful cover art. In the end, I came away from this short adventure rather well entertained and impressed by the authors rich language, intrigued to read more by Christian Kracht.
It’s the prose first and foremost that shapes the character of this novel: Intricate, complex sentences paint some beautiful and rich pictures in front of your inner eye. Sometimes the prose is so convoluted though that you have to read the paragraphs a few times to truly grasp the amount of content within. Nevertheless, I have rarely read a book written in such a dense and rich language. The closest I can think of would be Perfume by Patrick Süskind, which also has a similarly poetic prose - just easier to digest. I would therefor highly recommend reading Imperium in Germany, if you are able to do so.
The story itself then is a rather dark and ironic take on the state of the German oversea colonies in the beginning of the 20th century. The novel is not laugh-out-loud funny, but rather subtle in its sarcastic undertone, thereby calling out the perverse cultural appropriation and political insanity we saw at the time. You won’t find many likeable characters in this book - which is the point by the way - but rather a bunch of unfathomable idiots, who desperately try to make things work.
All in all Imperium is a short, dense and mildly entertaining read that had a great graphic designer at work.
mick_travel's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
madonnawithoutchild's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
vondergoltz's review against another edition
4.0
While I love the way Kracht writes in German with this clarity of language and elegance - the story itself becomes thinner the more the protagonist fights with his madness and it kind of just fizzles out. But then that's exactly what the dream of a Coconut empire did...
plissk3n's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
miriamschlundt's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
jasonfurman's review against another edition
5.0
I've never read anything quite like this short Swiss-German novel about a man who aspires to lead a utopian movement centered around nudist cocovores--which would be nudists who subsist on nothing other than coconuts (although when he gets too famished, the man ends up cutting off and eating his own thumb). It is a short picaresque largely set in the South Seas, distantly reminiscent of Robert Louis Stevenson's south seas tales, a little Robinson Crusoe, and some T. Coraghessan Boyle and Cervantes. The tone is consistently humorous, even when the novel itself is embedded in Germany history in the first half of the century, including the World Wars which both make brief appearances, and the parallels between the vegetarian protagonist of the novel and future vegetarian leader of Germany. But mostly it is the misadventures of the man and the contrast between his utterly deluded and slightly charmingly naive sincerity with the clear thinking poseur's and frauds he comes across in his journeys. In the end, it reads as somewhat of a critique of the meat-eating, avaricious, expansionary civilization that he leaves behind--but it does not offer any alternative because the "utopia" he creates is one of disease, decay and failure. Just about the only undeluded, noble character is shot by a firing squad--which pretty much says it all.