In Plüschgewittern by Wolfgang Herrndorf
Published 2008 · 192 pages · 52,800 words · about 3 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction, Coming-of-Age
How hard is In Plüschgewittern to read?
In Plüschgewittern scores 41 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 35 out of 100
- A contemporary German novel of about 53,000 words about a thirty-year-old's trip from Munich to Berlin. Everyday modern language is likely, with cultural and literary references adding some texture. It sits near Beach Read at the plain end, a little above for the references.
- Sentence structure: 35 out of 100
- The material points to a short, colloquial contemporary novel with a present-day trip and memories. Nothing suggests long nested sentences like Ulysses or Lolita. Closer to The Remains of the Day's measured clarity than to Faulkner.
- Abstraction: 33 out of 100
- The plot is concrete: a breakup, a visit to a dying grandmother, a stay in Berlin, a pub meeting with Ines. Memories of Malte, Anja and Desmond are tied to specific people. It stays nearer It Ends with Us than to philosophical fiction.
- Information density: 35 out of 100
- At about 53,000 words, it is a compact book with a modest cast: the narrator, Erika, Desmond, Anthony, Ines, Malte, Anja. Cultural references add some load, but the book is far lighter than Pale Fire.
- Narrative indirection: 50 out of 100
- The relationship between the narrator and Ines stays unclear, and the memories interrupt the present. The final chapter from the brother's view reveals the grandmother's death, which the narrator's account leaves out. Readers must infer more than in Beach Read, less than in Austerlitz.
- Symbolic density: 30 out of 100
- Nothing in the material points to allegory or an elaborate motif system. The book works with a trip, memories and cultural references. It sits near Beach Read, with a little more room for meaning than that.
- Ironic distance: 38 out of 100
- A debut by a writer who later became known for wit, with cultural references throughout. The material gives no clear basis for strong irony, so it is placed in the accessible range.
- Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
- The relationship with Ines stays unclear to the end. The brother's closing chapter does give a definite fact, the grandmother's death two days after the visit. Part is resolved and part is left open, roughly like The Great Gatsby's closed plot with open meaning but looser.
- Structural complexity: 50 out of 100
- The present-day trip is interleaved with memories of Malte, Anja and the Munich residence. The last chapter changes to the brother's point of view. This is more complex than the linear Beach Read, but far simpler than A Hero of Our Time.
How In Plüschgewittern is regarded
In Plüschgewittern holds a literary regard score of 36 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.