Ben Fountain Bücher

»Mit Billy haben wir den Helden für unsere Zeit gefunden.« The Independent Kein Geringerer als der dreifach oscargekrönte Regisseur Ang Lee (›Life of Pi: Schiffbruch mit Tiger‹, ›Brokeback Mountain‹, ›Tiger and Dragon‹) hat diesen so groteskrealistischen wie politischen Bestseller von Ben Fountain mit den Stars Kristen Stewart, Chris Tucker, Garrett Hedlund, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin und Joe Alwin grandios verfi lmt. Halb Groteske, halb Realsatire ist dieser Roman ein Bravourstück über die Dynamik von Kriegs- und Medieneinsätzen, die mitreißende Story eines jungen Soldaten: manipuliert und vom eigenen Land als Held missbraucht, Opfer eigener falscher Ideale und Getriebener, der voller Sehnsucht und auf der Suche nach sich selbst ist.

The well-intentioned protagonists of Brief Encounters with Che Guevara are caught - to both disastrous and hilarious effect - in the maelstrom of political and social upheaval surrounding them. In "Near-Extinct Birds of the Central Cordillera," an ornithologist being held hostage in the Colombian rain forest finds that he respects his captors for their commitment to a cause, until he realizes that the Revolution looks a lot like big business. In "The Good Ones Are Already Taken," the wife of a Special Forces officer battles a Haitian voodoo goddess with whom her husband is carrying on a not-entirely-spiritual relationship. And in "The Lion's Mouth," a disillusioned aid worker makes a Faustian bargain to become a diamond smuggler for the greater good. With masterful pacing and a robust sense of the absurd, each story in Brief Encounters with Che Guevara is a self-contained adventure, steeped in the heady mix of tragedy and danger, excitement and hope, that characterizes countries in transition.