AW: To the German-Speaking P-listers

[Thomas Eckhardt]

An article of mine that deals with Pynchon's possible influence on three
contemporary German novelists will appear in the forthcoming Pynchon Notes
issue "Site-Specific: From Aachen to Zwölfkinder—Pynchon:Germany":

http://www2.ham.muohio.edu/~krafftjm/forthcom.html#sitespecific

One of the novelists I am concerned with in that essay is Tobias O.
Meissner. I am still only familiar with "Starfish Rules": To me, the novel
seemed definitely to be influenced by Pynchon, even though there are no
unmistakable allusions whatsoever. Yet, as I learned later on, Meissner has
stated that he read his first Pynchon novel - the shortest of the bunch,
i.e. TCOL49 - only after many reviewers had compared his writing in
"Starfish Rules" to Pynchon's, and that he did not like it at all. Of
course, one does not necessarily have to trust the author...

In any case, "Starfish Rules" is a wonderful novel in its own right and also
rather unique in German literature. It is a pity that it has not been
translated into English, as it can be described as an extended riff on US
history and popular culture from a contemporary German POV.

Best regards,
Thomas