Summer House with Swimming Pool by Herman Koch REVIEW

 

First impression: How long before I start to feel perturbed by this novel?

Oh, almost instantly, got it!

Marc Schlosser is a skillfully cynical General Practitioner who has more asshole qualities about both his job and his life than Paul did in The Dinner. He is married to Caroline and has two daughters, Lisa (11) and Julia (13). The story begins with a medical procedure that goes terribly wrong and actor extraordinaire Ralph Meier dies and Marc as the only suspect in his death. With summer having come to an end, Affairs flying high, and almost nothing resolved, we are left alone with Marc as he retells the grueling adventure his family underwent at the Meier's summer home, all with Herman's witty sarcasm, instant abandon of human morals and with an extra cup of common sense, or lack thereof. We are driven way past the point of sound arguments, etiquette, and above all else, human reasoning. What was supposed to be a vacation for the family turned out to be a roller coaster of 'what else could possibly go wrong?' This is my review on Summer House with Swimming Pool by Herman Koch, a unique experience indeed.

The term 'Extraordinaire' is quite an extravagant word to use in that description, but if you were to ask Ralph how I should describe his part of the review, he would lick his lips, size my document up and down and would say I'm not using it often enough. He'd probably invite me to a seafood dinner and then yell at me for not going after all the women in the world. Quite the contrary to most of Ralph's family, Judith his wife and his two sons, Alex (13) and Thomas (10), he seems to be the only one who shares his energy. So for the first six chapters of the novel, we are introduce to Marc Schlosser and his current sticky situation: Judith received news from the Board of Medical Directors that Marc was a prime suspect of an operation on Ralph that should have been a referral to a specialist, but was instead performed "poorly" which lead Ralph to his death.

Around Chapter seven we are whisked back in time to the first time everyone met and how the story of Marc and Ralph started and by chapter ten, I was hooked. Through dark humor, and some grotesque character traits, we are introduced to the play actor who not only womanizes Caroline, but places advances in the form of a invite to a summer house. Marc gets ugly with jealousy and can't stop thinking about Ralph and his offer. Besides, it's not so hard to ignore when Judith shows up to his practice. So much so that Marc gets his family together and begins an early trip to a campground that is close enough to the Meier's Summer House.

A purposefully, and well- executed camping trip turns to upside down when Lisa just so happens to run into the Meier's during a visit to a beach near the camp grounds. This is probably the first sign of Marc’s crafty behavior. His wife, however, catches on and tries to put the pin on the whole trip, but she too was as curious. Needless to say, the Summer House is where the novel takes place. It's there where we meet Stanley, a fat, dirty, film director of an old man, Emmanuelle, Stanley's young female girlfriend and Vera, Judith's mother. Thomas and Lisa tag along and Alex and Julia seem to hit it off almost instantly. Marc seems to be seduced by Judith and Marc has a strange obsession that Ralph is after Caroline. Welcome to the Summer House with Swimming Pool, where nothing is what it seems.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

 

STOP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW BECAUSE I TECHNICALLY GIVE THE STORY AWAY.

GO TO THE = SIGN TO CONTINUE WITHOUT SPOILER.

The twist and turns surrounding Marc and his unhealthy obsession with Ralph spiral out of control after he discovers that his daughter Julia was raped and left on the beach during a firework show out by the shore. He tries to retrace everyone's steps and tries to play detective, only to come to one conclusion: Ralph must have done it, obviously, and it is this conclusion that leads him to his downfall, or so I would say, but technically he gets away with it. Marc is a terrible human being.

I love how Herman gets us here, though. I have to admit I was skeptical at first, but its how Herman wove the fabric of each of these individual lives that resonates with me. It was Marc's own buildup surrounding Ralph and Caroline that lead him to make excuses to either stay at the house or leave so he would have a point to prove to Caroline; that Ralph was indeed eyeing her like a hound staring at a piece of meat. It was these decisions that led Marc to engage Judith in acts of adultery and ultimately what leads Marc to believe someone caught them and overthinks whether it would be a good idea to reawaken any memories in Julia when she recovers from her situation. It’s the perfect storm, to be honest. You have a sleazy film director who has been taking sneaky pictures of Marc's daughters behind his back and sending them to agencies and posting it to his website, you have Ralph who is most definitely a womanizer, an unhealthy amount of drinking occurring at almost every part of the day, a love affair, and a rape victim who not only scarred a thirteen year old Alex when it all happened, but who also lied about being dizzy or forgetful. If this was me, I would have torn myself into 4 pieces and lit myself on fire. That is way too much to handle on what was supposed to be a family getaway. But not for Marc. You see, Marc gets his way, and for most of the novel to boot. This is precisely why I hate him so much.

The father figure he represents is that of a pathetic excuse for a man. Who in their right mind lets their daughter play with grown ass men and two other younger boys at a water game called "Mrs. Wet T-shirt"? Who allows their daughter to run off with a boy her own age into the black of night, at the beach, to some beach club without proper supervision? Caroline stayed at home. She's 13 for crying out loud. What parent would allow some random boy they just met to put his arms around his daughter while they all watch movies on a laptop in bed? If you ask me, he should have stepped in to correct everyone's behavior right from the start. Also, Caroline did nothing! She just sat there and drank her white wine almost the entire book. What was happening? Why was there this much careless abandon going on? I get their on vacation, but come on! You have to have SOME boundaries. You don’t just go around Not giving a fuck about everyone and everything and then have to glue the pieces back together again when it all falls apart.

I'm still having a hard time trying to figure out which situation was worse. (Let me also add this: rape is wrong. It is top tier worst possible situation ever, and no person (child or adult) should ever have to go through something like this.) So lets see what we have: The part where Julia gets raped, the part where Ralph's death stirred up some medical questions about Marc's practice and possibly the revocation of his medical license, the part where Stanley was literally admitting to having taken pictures of his daughters in the shower for some "photo opt" that required Julia to take her top off, the part where Judith and Marc are never caught for infidelity and never admits to Caroline that he actually had an affair with her, but instead lies about how it all went down, the part where Marc allows Stanley to drive recklessly down to the beach, crashes against some other car, and later finds out that the car never left the scene of the crime, the part where we find out that Ralph actually enjoys toying with girls and was seen kicking a girl at the beach and calling her an ensemble of horrible words? Or the part where we find out that the rapist was the guy who came by to repair the water at the summer home and who also took pictures of Marc's daughter and who threatened Alex and Julia to say nothing about that night at the beach. How Caroline was a useless character from start to finish. Marc could have been single and it would not have made a difference, but for the sake of his adultery with Judith I guess it was necessary.

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I shake my head and I shake it vigorously because I can't help but think of SO MANY WAYS that all of this could have been prevented. Marc is utter trash and I hate him for being the main character in this story. But that in itself is why this novel was as riveting as it was. A complete page turning from start to finish. It is after all a Herman Koch novel. What more can I say except "brilliantly executed".

Happy Readings Everyone! Till next time.

 

    Herman Koch is a Dutch author and actor. His most famous novel, The Dinner, was published in 2009 and translated into 21 different languages. Is he also known for contributing to radio, TV, and columns all starting in the 1980's. He is well known for creating characters that are disagreeable, have ugly traits and are badly mannered. His first novel, The Passerby, was published in 1985 and his latest novel, Finnish Days, is set to be released in 2020. You can find him at your local book store, Barnes and Noble, and On-line for E-Reader versions.