Die Besessenen

Somehow I feel like a fool for having read this book in its entirety instead of simply watching a few episodes of »Scooby-Doo«, which could certainly have provided more thrill and excitement. I feel betrayed, too, because I liked the idea of checking out another great Tennis-themed novel.

If Paul Kalinine's afterword to the German edition is to be believed, »Opętani« is Gombrowicz's take on the roman noir (although the setting of the novel is closer to gothic horror than crime fiction) and Gombrowicz plays with the building bricks of this genre here. However, the deliberate use of the genre's stereotypes and tropes does not save the novel from being pulp fiction itself. I would even go so far as to say that this Gombrowicz's second novel even lags behind the pulp fiction genre due to the rare occurrences of shock and horror moments and overall tediousness. One would think that since the work appeared as a serialized novel in two Polish newspapers, Gombrowicz would be able to maintain a level of suspense, and indeed there are a few good cliffhangers. But instead of captivating over the length of the book, the author constantly tries to conjure up something that the characters and the story he is telling do not offer. The story remains too underdeveloped, but by constantly insisting on suddennesses - suddenly his facial features changed, all of a sudden he had a change of heart, unexpectedly he said this and that - the narrator tries to evoke fascination.

»Opętani«tells the story of an bourgeois lady (in decline) named Maja and the new tennis instructor - Leszczuk - on her estate, who are caught up in a strange dynamic of attraction and repulsion, through which they seem to be in danger of falling into madness. It's a constellation that is enigmatically linked to the nearby Mysłocz Castle and its owner, an equally maniac prince. It seems like Gombrowicz wanted to create a Dostoevsky-like story about madness, morality and society here. With a great deal of benevolence, one can also interpret this novel as an examination of class relations. However, the novel offers extremely few interpretative approaches and most of the pages of the book consist of pure storytelling, with little to no theoretical or poetic underpinning. Possibly it'S due to the German translation (by Klaus Staemmler) in which I read the book, but I found virtually not a single interesting sentence in the book. Instead, the book is written all too redundantly and certain tropes recur again and again, such as the aforementioned fickleness of the two main characters, which Gombrowicz tries to convey to the reader in ever new phrases, but rarely adds new dimensions to his characters that would not be predictable. The metaphysical elements, which move the novel in the direction of gothic horror, are also sparse and mainly limited to a sort of third main character: a strangely pulsating towel at Mysłocz Castle, which nobody dares to approach because a demonic force seems to emanate from it. This MacGuffin, which is brought out again and again, eventually becomes ridiculous to the point of being annoying and the resolution of its strange power is pretty bland - as is the whole book. After 300 pages we are fobbed off with a vague morale: that the human approach to the world always consists of fantasy and rationality at the same time and then something about the infallibility of the human character. A conclusion that perhaps arises from the dynamics between the book's characters, if the reader manages to build up any interest in them instead of questioning the practice of fiction writing in general because of this book, as I did.

Waltchak, un jeune moniteur de tennis se retrouve à la pension de Mme Okholowska au beau milieu de la campagne polonaise, pour y entraîner sa fille Maya, jeune joueuse de tennis à l’avenir prometteur. Très vite une atmosphère pesante et intrigante se met en place. Le voisinage du château de Myslotch y est pour beaucoup. Habité par un vieux prince prisonnier dans sa folie, de son valet et de son secrétaire, fiancé de Maya, le château tiendra un rôle important dans l’histoire. Le secrétaire entretient habilement la folie de son prince, tandis que sa fiancée entame une relation étrange avec son entraîneur, faite de répulsion et d’attirance. Le thème du double sera largement exploité tout au long du roman. La recherche de soi, la comparaison et l’assimilation à l’autre est l’une des grandes problématiques du livre.
Le château, gothique et glauque à souhait fait aussi très vite l’objet d’un mystère. Un pensionnaire de Mme Okholowska, historien d’art attiré par les potentielles richesses artistiques du château, se verra impliqué dans sa curieuse histoire. Une pièce prétendue hantée fait la terreur du vieux valet et du prince, délirant et désespéré la plupart du temps. Commence alors une intrigue où l’histoire d’amour et de haine entre Maya et Waltchak se mêle au mystère de la pièce hantée. On suit avec un intérêt croissant leur étrange destin. Malgré quelques longueurs et ce qui pourrait sembler une digression en ce qui concerne le séjour de Maya et Waltchak à Varsovie, l’auteur se remet aisément dans le vif du sujet pour relie tout les éléments avec aisance et finesse.
Le dénouement, digne des meilleurs policiers, et assez surprenant et peut décevoir. Pour ma part j’ai adoré le final, c’est du grand art. Tout le roman, bâti sur du fantastique, nous montre au dernier moment une toute autre réalité. La dimension psychologique est prédominante du début à la fin, mais on ne s’en rend réellement compte qu’au dernier moment. La peur de l’inconnu, le double, la pression sociale, l’autosuggestion, voilà ce qui fait d’un roman qui aurait pu être une suite de clichés un grand livre psychologique. Génial !