Dog Days

A novel that can be read with pleasure for its fine irony and exact portrayal of exterior and psychological detail. While Alexander Sovtschick's wife is away from their home in Germany on her summer vacation, the aging `serious writer,' who's supposed to be working on yet another masterpiece, spends his time watching a lot of TV, flipping through porno magazines and deflecting requests that he join a local writers' group. Desperate for company, he hires a young university student and her sister to help with the cooking and housework, and, to the horror of his neighbors, Sovtschick's opulent country estate turns into a sort of harem. Midstream, the novel abruptly changes course and what started out as an amusing send-up of literary pretensions turns into a detective novel, with Sovtschick the chief suspect in the murder of a retarded local girl. The nasty investigations into Sovtschick's background by police and press have a salutary effect on his book sales, however, and turn the writer into an overnight sensation. Kempowski makes a perfunctory stab at solving the murder, but the novel never recovers from this inexplicable turn in events. Sovtschick's interminable musings make this lengthy novel, a bestseller in Germany, a slow read.