Bruno Kramzer

by A.S. Patric

“Someone must have traduced Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.” So begins The Trial by Franz Kafka.

Bruno Kramzer is the story of the man sent to arrest Joseph K.

“A study of evil at once deceptively simple and tremendously engaging. Bruno Kramzer's strange and troubling tale will only enhance A. S. Patric's reputation as one of Australia's most innovative story tellers.” Patrick Holland.

Bruno Kramzer was shortlisted Viva La Novella Prize 2013.

63 pages, Paperback

First published September 20, 2013

About the author

A. S. Patric is an award winning writer and author of Black Rock White City, listed as one of the best novels of 2015 by The Australian and The Australian Book Review. It has been highly commended by the judges of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2016. He is also the author of Las Vegas for Vegans, a story collection shortlisted in the 2013 Queensland Literary Awards. His debut book is The Rattler & other stories, shortlisted for the Lord Mayor’s Award. He is also the author of Bruno Kramzer, a novella shortlisted for the Viva La Novella Prize. He is the winner of the Ned Kelly Award and the Booranga Prize. His stories have featured in The Sydney Morning Herald, Meanjin, Overland, Southerly, Island, Quadrant, in over 20 other literary journals, and in Best Australian Stories 2010 and 2012. He is publishing Atlantic Black late 2016, The Australian and The Readings Monthly calling it one of the most anticipated novels of the year.

Reviews

[Gerard Elson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this prequel or prelude to Kafka’s The Trial, Patric has authored a bonsai-sized classic-in-waiting. A bold literary love note as well as a singular standalone work, Bruno Kramzer is perhaps most distinguished by Patric’s quiet, complex parsing of the ambivalence and banality that underpin the normalisation of evil. It’s also wickedly entertaining: wry worldbuilding bolsters a healthy absurdist streak, while farcical setpieces worthy of Leo McCarey or Billy Wilder counterbalance the mounting, aptly Kafkaesque sense that we’re all just insects, swarming to evade the ever-looming heel of a fate we’ve done nothing to deserve. Elsewhere, Patric has the good sense to bestow his eponymous ‘professional rogue’ a very human sense of compunction, making the luggish Bruno - a man who bullies innocents for a living - a put-upon everyman for the ages. With this, Patric makes a compelling case that in both vision and talent, he might be this generation’s answer to David Malouf. What’s more, he’s created a tale that can stand proudly to look its timeless forerunner in the eye.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a bizarre little novella (only 60 pages long).
It's a portrait of a quixotic thug: not very bright but with a love of art; utterly callous yet he loves his family. His 'missions' (or 'actions' as they are called) fall apart in an absurdist way mildly reminiscent of Gogol but as a character, Bruno reminded me of the accused in a murder trial for which I was a juror. Stupid, evil, banal, wholly lacking in the sort of humanity that I take for granted in the people that I meet.
I think that my reaction means that I didn't quite get the joke the way that I was meant to.
The plot is clever, and the ending is startling if you haven't read any prior blurb.
But ultimately, not my kind of reading fare.

[Angela Meyer]

*I know AS Patric as a colleague and personally, so I won't formally review Bruno Kramzer, I'll just share a quick response: I inhaled this book, and it's still sitting in my chest. It's a peek into the life of one of the men sent to arrest Josef K, Bruno Kramzer. He's a professional rogue, and his life is sad, with brief moments of light (often destroyed). It's about cruelty, and confusion related to cruelty (others' and our own). The book possesses that Kafkan sense of creeping, flickering doom beneath an almost banal surface. It's wonderful. And if you love Kafka, you'll light up (as I did) at the references Patric works in.

[Bram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patric follows up last year's stellar collection Las Vegas For Vegans with this deliciously nasty yet warm hearted tale of a professional rogue in crisis. Poor Bruno Kramzer's missions aren't quite going to plan, he's got family problems and his old friends are falling on hard times. As he sets off on one hilarious caper after another, Patric drops ever more unsubtle hints that it is all leading somewhere intriguingly familiar. You'll smile when the realisation hits; turns out Patric is to Kafka what Stoppard was to Shakespeare.

Check out musings, rants, reviews and more at http://baitforbookworms.blogspot.com

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tiny perfection: the kind of book that deserves to be read and discussed 100 years from now. A lot more people should know about AS Patric.