Kaminski is a bit a recluse and frail. His career as a painter didn't really take off until he started to go blind. Or did he? There are a few eerie moments throughout when Zöllner gets the feeling that Kaminski can, indeed, see. Anyway, the biography is the plan. For the book to become a success, however, Kaminski would have to die first. Of course, Zöllner doesn't mentioned that to the old man.
The painter is more a means to an end than an actual subject of interest to Zöllner, who is more concerned with how he looks and is conceived in any situation. He bursts into Kaminski's house a day early, inviting himself to an ongoing gathering. Shortly after, he pays the housekeeper to visit her sister, so that he can be alone with the painter on his terms rather than the painter's caretaker, his daughter.
The title of the book, putting the narrator first and the artist second was not chosen so by accident. Zöllner is arrogant and has no scruples to go through the painter's personal documents and simply take him on a roadtrip to see Kaminski's former lover, who the old men thought had died a long time ago.
Also, he is concerned about his hairline. In the beginning of the story, a conductur Zöllner had been rather rude to told him he's going bold and even though Zöllner is convinced that he is not and the conducter was just being rude in return, he checks for signs of boldness every time he looks into the mirror, only to immediately dismiss the notion.
Very short, but very good read. My favorite Kehlmann (my third) so far.
7/10
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