Wednesday, October 6, 2010

novel two


Rosa
The story of Rosa comes from the famous socialist revolutionist Rosa Luxemburg. What is interesting about this book is not the lead character, who's death sets in motion the story of the book. Instead it is the character Chief Inspector Nikolai Hoffner. Hoffner is investigating a grizzly series of murders and when Rosa's body turns up matching the M.O. of the serial killer. The case becomes complicated as "political" overtones come into play and Hoffner's life suddenly gets a great deal more complicated.Rosa takes place during that tension-filled time just after World War I when chaos and violence ruled Germany; when socialists sought revolution only to create a society that would ultimately lead to Hitler.
Hoffner, whose roots are strangely both Russian and Jewish, is caught up in this tension as he tries to solve his case while fending off the "Polpo" or political police. His best friend and partner having been killed in the war, and he has recently been assigned a new, naive, assistant whose girlfriend Hoffner feels drawn to. At the same time his devotion to his work has caused his relationship with his family to deteriorate. Hoffner is a weary man stuck in a world teetering on the brink of destruction.
Hoffner is not really that sort given his cheating on his wife and largely ignoring his kids. In this case the setting made a difference. There is something about the inter-war period that made Hoffner's character work. The despair, the constant tension, the sense of impending doom, all of this helps explain Hoffner's situation if not his actions. The socialist martyr Rosa is the only character who really seems to have a moral being. What makes Hoffner an interesting character is his drive to finish the case in a life, and in a society that has fallen apart in so many ways the only thing he has to hang on to is doing his job. The satisfaction from completing a case is the only thing that really gives him pleasure and is the only thing he feels competent to do.

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