LiteraturSchweiz

Reading tip

Thomas Hürlimann, Der grosse Kater: Thomas Hürlimann’s «Der grosse Kater» subjects Swiss politics to critical historical analysis in a polyphonic, subtly woven work of prose. It is a piece of political satire, philosophical reflection, autobiography and a family saga all rolled into one. The novel moves back and forth between two poles: while the President of the Swiss Confederation entertains the Spanish royal couple on a state visit, his security chief has arranged a visit for the lady to the clinic in which her son lies dying. The tragedy unfolds in a narrative spanning 20 hours, structured with chronological precision. The wife suspects her husband lies behind the shameful blunder and kicks up a diplomatic scandal. The novel’s epicentre focuses on the fringe of politics in the grey area between official representation and familiar intimacy, which ultimately destroys them both. In flashbacks that are constantly breaking through into the concentrated sequence of events, Hürlimann tells the story of a cunning tactician who will stop at nothing to get to the top. The latter’s meteoric career is influenced by a motherless home in the village blacksmith’s, upbringing in a monastery, initiation to politics in the province and male camaraderie in the military and student fraternity. Along the way, he becomes intimately familiar with the world of politics, which soon infiltrates his family life. «Der grosse Kater» plays out in the twilight between fiction and fact. Hürlimann continually makes use of cues, particularly of a biographical nature. However, thirty years after the events that underlie the novel, the author has managed expertly to free himself from the roman à clef genre through convincing literary manipulation of the truth. (Beat Mazenauer, transl. by Andrea Mason Willfratt)