All That Counts

By Georg M. Oswald

Book Overview

Winner of the prestigious International Prize and praised for its "gleefully bitter prose" (Los Angeles Times), All That Counts is a sardonic, fast-paced urban thriller whose hardcover publication marked the American debut of a scintillating young German writer. From the bland boardrooms of the bourgeoisie to the dark alleys of the criminal underworld, this searing contemporary satire brilliantly exposes the dangerous attraction of opportunism, loss of control, and the seedy side of life. Thirty-something and married to a public relations executive named Marianne, Thomas Schwarz is certain that he is soon to become department head of Liquidations and Foreclosures at the bank where he works. But after fumbling a particularly byzantine property case, his life begins to unravel: his female boss glibly fires him and his wife walks out. Suddenly acquainted with the giddy thrill of a life unmoored, he falls in with a cocaine-fueled crowd of money-launderers who set out to exploit him. But when the gang is busted, Thomas seizes his chance to escape with the profits and, in a final breathless move, exposes once and for all just how precarious the trappings of society really are. "Clever, informed, sarcastic, and streetwise" (Suddeutsche Zeitung), All That Counts is a provocative, glittering debut. "Savage and funny ... a very supple and clever satire ... full of small, cumulative pleasures." -- Geoff Nicholson, The New York Times Book Review "Reads like the gleeful evil twin of the self-help book." -- Richard Wallace, The Seattle Times

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802139310
• ISBN13: 9780802139313
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Fun read, good characters, interesting tale, different

All That Counts is an enjoyable and easy to read yarn that is sardonic in nature. The way that the main character Thomas Schwarz sees and expresses his thoughts is refreshingly candid and realistic. The book begins with Thomas' job as a banking manager to his slow but steady decline to the seedy underground world of illegal activities. I didn't expect much from this book but was pleasantly surprised. Recommended.

A Terrific Read

After I finished reading Houllebecq, I was in desperate need of other well-written, sardonic novels about men who are alienated from their surroundings. ALL THAT COUNTS does not disappoint, and in many ways, it feels like a more complete story than Houllebecq's first two novels. I can't wait to read more of Georg's work as it gets translated.

What counts over there

Where Ellis and Palahniuk anatomize Greed in America, Oswald (and his continental contemporaries Houellebecq and Brusselmans) register the character and effect of the New Global Order in the Old World. All that counts for the narrator-protagonist Thomas Schwarz is money, but the consequences of his shallow worldview (and personality) ironically lead him to an increasingly desperate reassessment of what really matters. Though written with the fast pace and deft eye of the best of popular fiction, Oswald's novel offers no happy endings or easy solutions (just like life in the new economy in Europe or North America). Though the characters (like real folks) are often unlikeable, the pathos of their situation and their motivations and their consequences result in scenes that are authentically moving, laying bare the humanity that has been ignored by our new social order in general and glossed over by the very people that literally and figuratively buy into it. For the reader curious about the world outside of North America, especially for anyone interested in an intelligent, darkly and subtley funny, and humane--but no less critical--take on contemporary life in Europe, All That Counts is a book well worth the investment. Oswald's sly but penetrating insight into the contemporary state of Western society makes him an author that counts.