A parable which in few words takes us into the the world of man who is trapped by circumstance and becomes aware that social appearances are not the same as reality. The central character Andreas Plum finds that a series of contingent events reduces him to a vitim of class oppression, snobbery and state organs. As he falls down the social ladder so he loses his illusions, his belief in the German state and eventually in God. The writing is powerful, sharp, like finding images fom Otto Dix and George Grosz translated to verbal narrative. Quite simply brilliant.