Spoiler alerts.

I have never before read a book with such misleading back cover copy. Apparently this is "a harrowing portrait of a man without values, making his way trough a world almost as immoral." Um... no. Klump certainly *ends up* as a man who "takes care of the family business," but before he gets there he's been a publisher, a freedom fighter, a political prisoner and so on. Klump certainly has problems (particularly with women); he is no saint. But this text makes KK sound like an investigation of one man in late capitalism.

It's actually an investigation of the political developments of the twentieth century, something akin to Ourednik's Europeana; but whereas Europeana abstracted from individuals towards simple historical statement, KK focuses on individuals in an unnamed country, which goes through the colonisation/civil war/oppression/neoliberalism cycle, as more or less every state did. Klump is a member of the eventual business elite, content to ignore his previous life. Anyway, both books are abstract, but in strikingly different ways, which is great fun to think about.

Whether you'll find this book great fun to read is another question. It's not particularly difficult, but it is disconnected and unpredictably hews to or ignores traditional novelistic techniques. I'm still not sure what I think about this; sometimes it was tiresome, sometimes wonderful. ( )

This strange, dark and choppy novella is set in an unnamed war torn country in, presumably, the last quarter of the 20th century and concerns an amoral man who is incapable of feeling love, hate, joy or despair. He is a modestly successful book publisher before the war, but during the strife he is captured and imprisoned by government soldiers for a crime that is not clear to this reader. After his escape from prison he joins the resistance and becomes a feared guerrilla fighter, and at the conclusion of the war he takes over the family business, finding success through determination and sheer ruthlessness.

Other characters are present in this book, but seem to be more ethereal than real, and Tavares breaks up the narrative with frequent comments about war and the human condition which are apparently meant to convey wisdom and understanding, but left me cold, confused, and annoyed with the unwanted interruptions in a mildly interesting story.

Gonçalo M. Tavares (1970-) is one of the most acclaimed contemporary Portuguese novelists, whose books have been translated into English and other languages. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to be an author for me, and I cannot recommend this quirky novella. ( )

Disclaimer: I received an advance reader's copy (ARC) of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own, and no monetary compensation was received for this review.

The book is due to be published on June 5, 2014 (Dalkey Archive Press).

It’s always with some trepidation that I start reading Tavares’s work. I might discover that what I fear the most is learning about myself... This time there was no danger of that happening. I knew beforehand the dangers that awaited me.


You can read the rest of this review on my blog. ( )

"There is a chilling spareness to Tavares’s prose that lends much to the imagination as his analogies, non sequitors, and random observations never really tell you what is going on. "
read more: http://likeiamfeasting.blogspot.gr/2014/11/a-man-klaus-klump-goncalo-m-tavares.h... ( )