Dear Mr. M

Koch, Herman. Dear Mr. M. New York: Hogarth 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

Dear Mr. M,

I'd like to start by telling you that I'm doing better now. I do so because you probably have no idea that I was ever doing worse. Much worse, in fact, but I'll get to that later on.

Description:

Here is a very challenging, maybe I should say "odd," book: Herman Koch's Dear Mr. M. What starts out as a possible thriller with a stalker narrator evolves into a teenage coming-of-age romance, friends vacationing together, student pranks on stodgy professors, literary insights from a mediocre writer, and finally a mysterious disappearance of an odd teacher. 

These elements are poked at by a series of unreliable narrators whose identities are often difficult to ascertain immediately. The exposition of events is not told chronologically, adding to the confusion. But somehow it all works, and immediately after finishing the book, I wanted to re-read it to see piece together these different components.

Basically, the plot centers around a present-day best-selling writer (Mr. M) who feels he is near the end of his popularity. The first chapter of Dear Mr. M consists of an anonymous letter written to Mr. M by someone who apparently knows quite a bit about the author, including buried secrets. The tone of the letter is slightly ominous, and hints of new information that might be valuable to Mr. M for another book, something Mr. M would sorely love to have.

Then the story slips into the past to examine an early relationship between twol high school students: the skinny, outcast Hermann and the beautiful Laura. Both have image issues that somehow disappear when they are together, whether vacationing with friends at Laura's parents' isolated cottage or secretly filming the reactions of teachers to the antics of students.

But everything changes when Landzaat, Laura and Hermann's history teacher, has a brief affair with Laura and then disappears without a trace while walking with Hermann. HOw does that happen? Murder? Suicide? Amnesia? Turns out the aforementioned author, Mr. M, wrote a best-seller about this very disappearance and these students, proposing his own theory about what happened between Landzaat and the teens.

OK, that all sounds very disjointed, but believe me it works mainly because the writing is so strong and the characters so conflicted and interesting. Just when you think you have things figured out, author Koch throws in another curve told by yet another narrator. Who is narrating each of these events? Who wrote the initial letter? Who should you believe? And what should you believe?

Give it a shot. The first chapter was enough to hook me to the end, and I hope it does the same for you.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Krabbe, Tim. The Vanishing  

A woman disappears from an ordinary rest stop in rural France and her boyfriend  cannot accept that she is gone and obsessively digs into this mystery for weeks, months, and years, searching for the answer. Tremendous tension.