Phantom Pain
Select Format
Select Condition 
Book Overview
A one-time literary novelist of some respectability, now brought low by the double insult of obscurity and crippling debt, Robert G. Mehlman is a man in need of money and recognition, fast. But... This description may be from another edition of this product.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:1590511263
ISBN13:9781590511268
Release Date:May 2004
Publisher:Other Press (NY)
Length:286 Pages
Weight:1.30 lbs.
Dimensions:1.1" x 6.3" x 9.1"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
Grunberg at his very best!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Fantoompijn is the story of Robert Mehlman, a neurotic mythomaniac. Mehlman claims to be a larger than life novelist but as readers we find him at a point in his life where he got caught in a downward spiral. The only book that he can still expect to get published is on the Polish-Jewish Cuisine (in 69 Recipes). Grunberg describes in excruciating detail the adverse impact Mehlman has on everyone in his life. Mehlman the womanizer drags down the women in his life. His son Harpo tries to come to terms with his father's problematic legacy (Harpo's account frames the book). Scenes range from tragicomedy and slapstick to pure madness as Mehlman is looking for cathasis in Atlantic City, Albany and Yonkers. Grunberg at his very best!
Greatest Novel I've Read Since 1997
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
I bought a German translation of Grunberg's novel while vacationing in Holland in the fall of 2005 and it quickly became the first favorite book I have had since reading Hesse's "Glass Bead Game"; I've given the English translation as a gift, and have also compared some passages in English, Dutch, and German: these passages are not always translated properly, or even the same way; to wit: the reception of Mehlmann's cookbook by German literary critics is completely spoiled in the English. Otherwise the English translation captures the dark ironies of the original (or at least of the German translation) and provides a fine study of a functional sociopath riding the waves of fortune with brief moments of empathy that impart a tragic aura to the work. Blue Mondays and Story of My Baldness are also excellent.
Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
