Icon in Love

What if Goethe had been born in 1919? This question is posed by novelist (Kassandrus) and nonfiction author (The Brothers Hambourg) Koch, who was, in fact, born in 1919, and his answer takes the form of a murder mystery as well as a rumination on the politics of authorship. Koch's Goethe is a refugee in Switzerland during WWII who moves back to Germany afterward, becoming in this 20th century context the prophetic star author of Werther, Faust, The Elective Affinities, the poems. Koch engages in witty chronological reversals, for example, tracing the influence of Thomas Mann's Dr. Faustus on Faust. But Koch never penetrates his hero's cold facade, and so the trappings of modern celebrity--his Faust as a rock opera, his popularity on TV shows--are like so much glitter thrown on a bust. Goethe's infatuation, at 70, for 19-year-old Ulrike takes place around the time he wins the Nobel Prize, in October 1992. The murder plot unfolds at the media circus of the Stockholm ceremonies, the self-serving politics of which Koch farcically skewers. Koch gives us a cast of Nobel Prize winners, much like one of those English country house mysteries with all the suspects lined up in one place. The roster includes Edward Graziano, the honoree in medicine, who plays the contemptible character who is poisoned by another winner. The poison is nearly undetectable, but Graziano, before he dies, tells Goethe the truth, but doesn't give the identity of the saboteur. With Ulrike conveniently related to a top-ranking Swedish homicide detective, we go from Goethe, artist, to Goethe, sleuth. Koch's heavy hand with cross-references and a thick plot often overpower his characters' subtle romantic nuances and his ingenious historical recontextualization; in the end, this is too labored an effort to count as a true jeux d'esprit. German rights sold to Fischer Verlag. (Jan.)