In this crisis-ridden time, in which a virus rules the world and salvation is expected from medicine and above all from money (the wholesome “thump” from the “bazooka”), gullible people are perhaps inclined to consider the dark side of “money makes the world go around “to be overcome. The Wirecard case teaches the opposite. And, we all suspect it he’s just the tip of the iceberg. In his book “Inkassiopeia”, the author Oskar Cöster has succeeded in depicting the excesses of our economic life in all its complexity – and with a lot of humor, sarcastic irony and great spectacle.
The “big debt collection” in the cathedral of finance capital
As shown impressively on the cover picture – a painting by the artist Marion Drechsler – the scene of the event is a cathedral of finance capital. And with the four figures who steal away in secret, the four main actors are indicated who, as a fraudulent banker quartet, pull off a daring coup, the “big debt collection”, in their own bank. It is the vice-director (literally the “belly” of the project with the corresponding boss-style), the agile internal auditor, the ready-to-serve, somewhat helpless-looking cashier and the vice-director’s lover, a luxury creature par excellence! Everyone has succumbed to the seductive power of money and is united in their dark criminal intent – just as it may have been with those responsible at Wirecard.
The author has a knack for portraying the individual life stories of his protagonists with psychological refinement in order to simultaneously – and this is what is special about this book – make the exemplary visible. With a smile, the attentive reader recognizes well-known typical behaviors from his own living environment behind the often humorously exaggerated characters. Dodo, for example, assistant and lover of the vice, a figment of the luxury woman, is thoroughly calculating and superficial at the same time. And who doesn’t know the busybody – embodied in the vice – with a dazzling facade, always ready to take advantage of all the advantages of his social position in a cheeky and demanding manner?
Deep drilling into the essence of capitalism
Oskar Cöster is more than a writer – he is also a philosopher. The 44th chapter is an extremely instructive, sparkling philosophical treatise in dialogue form about the “dear money”, the “counter god” of our time. Special concentration of the reader is required here – but the effort is worth it, because this chapter, a piece of articulation as it were, is skillfully and wittily embedded in the overall context of the plot. For the attentive reader, even without previous philosophical knowledge, an asset! Because it is a kind of deep drilling into the essence of a capitalist economy in which money “holds the world together at its core”.
In the end, all characters fail after some bizarre adventures and twists and turns that are as surprising as they are exciting; they fail grandiose because of themselves and their excessive greed for money – which is ultimately fueled by their unfulfilled longing for love, the actual motive of their action. However, under depraved conditions this can only have an effect in a perverted way: by first turning money into a means of fulfillment and then an end in itself.
A brilliant swan song for an outmoded time
After the experience with Corona, this novel, as indicated at the beginning, has a meaning that goes beyond the immediate plot: that of a wake-up call. It seems like a brilliant swan song for an outmoded time, the turbo-capitalism, which likes to take over the people with skin and hair, seduces them to just function and to run restlessly after money.
Perhaps the economic crises worldwide and the diverse personal experiences that Corona has brought us are an opportunity for us to find our balance again, a balance that allows us to focus more on values such as family, friends, the environment and ours Lay survival on this planet.
Whatever the case: this novel is demanding and unexpectedly topical, a first-class reading experience.
Oskar Cöster: Debt collection. The Mammon of Sankt Nimmerlein, ISBN 978-3-9802597-3-6, 24.50 euros
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