Even Robert de Niro talks about it – Diepresse.com

Leckmann or something similar is the author: Shallow star Robert de Niro has already heard of the novel « Lichtpiel », or rather by « The Director », as it is called in the USA, written by the German-Austrian author Daniel Kehlmann. Someone recommended this to him, De Niro recently told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. As a book of the hour, to a certain extent to the new era of Trump and the behavior of the artists in it, because, according to de Niro: « In America we have to be good again in America who is ready to make a good expression of a good expression for the sake of career. » The artists should not be tempted now.

Experior reviews, always with reference to Trump, recently existed to the publication of the English -language edition (the Germans were released in 2023): from the two -time reporting « New York Times » to « Washington Post » or the « Wall Street Journal ». The author was seen on CNN and other TV channels. Daniel Kehlmann’s international bestseller “The measurement of the world” had also hit the United States. The fact that his recent novel “Light Play” is so much in conversation there is a specific US phenomenon. And does not have so much to do with the fact that Kehlmann is currently living again in the United States than with the enormous concern and the horror in view of Trump’s policy since he took office.

Director G. W. Pabst slips into the fellow runner

« Light game » tells how a historical figure, the famous Austrian film director G. W. Pabst, under the impression of the threats of the Nazi regime against him and his family slips step by step into fellow runs and finds itself as a cog in the Nazi film industry-by being taken into account not clearly convicting. Many and especially people in the cultural industry are now supposed to find acute parallels to their own presence in this story, which plays in Austria, Germany and the USA – and pressing personal questions: How now? How far « play »? In a word: what to do?

This has nothing to do with clumsy comparisons between Trump’s politics and the Nazi era. The current United States is away from her. Nevertheless: On the one hand, pressure and threats, problems in accordance with the other lure resources … The mechanisms that Kehlmann demonstrates based on the history of the director Pabst (« The joyless alley », « The DreilroSchenoper ») can be observed in all political systems with authoritarian tendencies.

« Light game » is a lesson for everyone

Kehlmann leads the slip into the fellow runs step by step into the smallest nuances. It shows not only the exterior, but also the inner constraints of his figure: the network of pressure and fear – especially about relatives -, the urge for artistic realization … In the end, Pabst finds himself in a situation that himself is horrified, but from which he no longer finds out. The quality of the novel lies, among other things, that he shows this development in all its shades: a lesson for everyone.

He is now looking « with a completely different sharpness, another horror for the situation of cultural workers in Russia, » said the author in Interview with the « Press » 2023. On artists, « they try to do their work in spite of everything. And every day have to wonder which compromises are still okay. » Even with that, the current situation in the USA cannot be compared. But the mechanisms of fellow runners are always the same, in small and large, in all possible social contexts. Therefore – and not just because « play of light » is masterfully written, touching and entertaining: once again a big reading recommendation.

« Experienced reviews, always with reference to Trump, recently existed for the publication of the English -language edition. »