Runaway Horse

by Martin Walser

Book Overview

Ein Fliehendes Pferd (German Edition) This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805003592
• ISBN13: 9780805003598
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Mid life trouble

Martin Walser has been writing wordy bestselling novels since 50 years or so. His early stuff was quite good, but then he became more and more talkative and said a lot of nonsense and wrote it down as well. He is in the current bestseller lists in Germany with a novel (?) about Goethe's last love. I have stayed away from his books since the 70s, but then, recently, I let myself be talked into trying the Runaway Horse. I have not regretted it. This is a short novel or long story about two couples. The 'hero' is a middle aged teacher, a German 'Studienrat', which implies tons of conceipt. His wife is a colleague, apparently more youthful than he, though same age. Love is over. They spend their vacation on the shore of Lake Constance, as always. They are creatures of routine and resignation. Then disaster strikes: he meets a classmate from highschool. That man is with an attractive young woman and he is the most obnoxious big mouth and boaster. Full of himself and his success as a book author and journalist and lover of a woman 20 years younger. The hero hates him. There are confusions. The hero falls in love with the young woman. The wife falls in love with the big mouth. Hatred grows. The men go on a sailing turn on the lake. Hero hates all about the other man... Then disasters strikes even worse, and there is surprising suspense. We learn, as expected, that nothing is as expected. A beauty of a novelette. It has just been turned into a fairly good movie, which however twists the point of the tale to near unrecognizability. Warning: do not confuse the man Martin Walser with the much greater and much less known Swiss writer Robert Walser!