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Friedrich Christian Delius. Die Flatterzunge. Reinbek, Germany. Rowohlt. 1999- 44 pages. DM 29.80. ISBN 3-498-01320-6.
The term Flatterzunge refers first to the protagonist's trombone playing in an opera orchestra. It also suggests that he is in something of a "flap" and somewhat "aflutter" at having to face a rather different audience, in a different medium. For he is about to confront a judge as "the Berlin devil, the Tel Aviv dog," your typical "perp personality." What this "Hannes" has done to deserve these opprobrious epithets Friedrich Christian Delius withholds until the end.
We get the story because, in preparation for that trial, his lawyer had asked Hannes to write down everything that might help in his defense. In the resulting notes he casts himself as a man who "has done everything wrong." To begin with, he wound up playing the trombone by default: that's what the music teacher had available and told him to play (and he...