num_pages: 131
description: At first glance Charade appears to be a novel of the mid-life crisis of one Erich von Langheim, a Munich gallery owner of aristocratic antecedents, who is something of a sophisticated snob in matters of painting and comfort, and scarcely a figure to feel at home all his life long among the regionalists.We meet Langheim at his retreat in an out-of-the-way rural spot during the off season for a period of reflection and emotional recuperation. But Langheim has not just gone "fishing" to the fairly unspoiled Klamm valley to mull over his foundering marriage, he has fled from dealing with the infidelity of his younger wife and gallery partner Karin, who, aptly enough, is still caught up in a foolish art scene and is having an affair with a thoroughly disposable artist, self-named Moevenpieck, after a fast-food chain.But here, in this countryside, the novel also turns into a reflection on country life versus existence in the city. Not that country life - in all its coarseness, ignorance, and farmer's shrewdness in the exploiting of tourism - is here idyllicized. Yet the Langheim "prism" affords the uniting of the narrative's several themes - mid-life crisis, the "natural" versus the "artificial" life, instantly entwined and deepened as they are with the novel's most important erotic obsession and art.
language: English
title: Charade
titlecomplete: Charade (STUDIES IN AUSTRIAN LITERATURE, CULTURE, AND THOUGHT TRANSLATION SERIES)
publisher: Ariadne Pr