Are the two elderly gentlemen Pierre Arronax and Archie playing a game as they set off for America, or for El Paso to be more precise?
In any case the two men, somewhat frail and reaching the end of their days, learn over the telephone that they have won a trip around the world. And they have always been interested in playing games. As former citizens of East Germany, they have for some time been the creators of wild, confused scenarios; one cannot always be sure whether these take place in reality or in their minds. They result in screenplays or novels where »assembly technology à la Fellini is combined with absurd comedy à la Groucho Marx«. Or at least ideas for screenplays or novels.
True to the motto of the town musicians of Bremen »You can find something better than death anywhere«, the two men set off on their adventure, in female company. The journey soon turns out to be a race initiated by secret services: one of them travels along the east coast of America, the other along the west coast, heading south. Further instructions and the purpose of the journey are not to be revealed until they are en route. As if this were not enough, Fries involves his heroes in a constant dialogue with the three critics from the novel »2666« by Bolaño.
A dynamic novel that swirls a mixture of dream and reality together with breathtaking enthusiasm.
»It is time that the literary scene gave back Fritz Rudolf Fries the status he deserves.«
Helmut Böttiger, Deutschlandfunk
The Author
Fritz Rudolf Fries, born in 1935 in Bilbao as the son of a German businessman. In 1942 he came to Leipzig to study English, French and Spanish with Werner Krauss and Hans Mayer. Following his studies he worked as a translator and interpreter. His debut novel »Der Weg nach Oobliadooh« (The Way to Oobliadooh), which was refused printing permission in the GDR, was published by Suhrkamp in 1966 (reprint 2012 in "die Andere Bibliothek"). Since then he has written a large number of novels, short stories, essays, radio plays, poems and completed many translations of Spanish and Latin American literature, including »Rayuela« by Julio Cortázar. The author now lives in Petershagen near Berlin.
