We read to explore the unknown, but also to recognize ourselves in
others. Arno Geiger's "We Are Doing Fine" offers both pleasures.
This fourth novel (winner of the German Book Prize 2005) of the
1968-born Austrian writer highlights events in the lives of three
generations of a Viennese family as viewed through the eyes of
Philipp, who has inherited the villa of his recently deceased
grandmother. While cleaning - no gutting - the house and ridding it
of most reminders of its former occupants, the grandson is forced
to think about his family more than is to his liking. In a
brilliantly sparse and precise language, Geiger mixes crucial
incidents of Austrian history with both everyday and tragic
occurrences in the family's private lives. His ear for and empathy
with the characters, particularly the women in the story, is
exceptional. A dysfunctional family emerges and is even more
poignant because the specific Austrian background only makes the
universal in such families more apparent. Philipp is following
family tradition when he tries to make clear to his married
girlfriend that he neither knows much nor wants to find out more
about his family. This is the crux of "We Are Doing Fine" and the
reason why it has more than regional appeal. Austrians have
sometimes been accused of having a selective memory, of an aptitude
to gloss over uncomfortable truths, and of a penchant for
appearances. Geiger's characters display all of these
characteristics to various degrees, but one cannot help but notice
that such shortcomings are by now shared by most of society as we
know it. Maybe one only can make it through the day when one surfs
the surface and when one uses a pat response to all inquiries about
one's general state of being: "We are doing fine".
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