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tomleetang's review against another edition
3.0
"These two dangers - the danger of merely telling what happened and the danger of a human individual becoming painlessly submerged in poetic sentences - have slowed down my writing, because every sentence I am afraid of losing my balance."
How do the individual and the general meet? How does one tell a specific story but also make it relevant for others?
This precise prose elegy is not just for the author's mother, but for a whole generation of women who found themselves defined by their environment, with very little chance of defining themselves.
How do the individual and the general meet? How does one tell a specific story but also make it relevant for others?
This precise prose elegy is not just for the author's mother, but for a whole generation of women who found themselves defined by their environment, with very little chance of defining themselves.
dukegregory's review against another edition
5.0
Handke's novella-length memoir/biography reads like Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" if "One Art" were about grief and didn't just display the breakdown of form but also the fundamental breakdown of language itself. Handke attempts to write about his mother's death with a brutal sense of distance, and yet, of course, that venture is bound to fail. But what comes of such a goal, alongside Handke's lack of achievement of said goal, is a book about the oppression of women, the inability to form identity without a stronger language on which to fall back, and the fragility of writing as a means of recuperation and memory. It's super metatextual and postmodern, but not in the explosive nature of American writers, like Pynchon or Delillo, but in a rather implosive way that feels distinctly Austrian (or rather anywhere in which German is spoken). It feels as if Handke is pleading with himself to find meaning and truth in his mother's suicide, and what he finds is bleak. His attempt to find truth through narrative is undone at every turn, and yet he fights for it within the text itself. It's apathetic yet deeply emotional, as if you're staring into a constantly reopening wound that will never entirely heal.
itsgs's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide and Death of parent
3point14159's review against another edition
5.0
A writer's account of his mother's suicide -- very depressing, very moving
fth0tfitzgerald's review against another edition
God, men nok ikke en forfatter jeg kommer til at læse igen.
Sleve bogens prosa er skrevet i en stil, der til tider klæder, og viser bogens indhold fantastisk frem, men resten af tiden mest af alt forvirrede mig. Om det er mig eller bogen den er galt med, skal jeg ikke kunne sige.
Historien om hans mor er dybt tragisk, men, og måske fordi, at den er så tidstypisk kan det, på trods af sympatien med hende, være svært at oprigtigt lægge mærke til hende som individ. Hun drukner i fortællinger af de mange.
Faktisk er det svært for mig at huske om hendes navn nogensinde bliver givet til læseren.
Sleve bogens prosa er skrevet i en stil, der til tider klæder, og viser bogens indhold fantastisk frem, men resten af tiden mest af alt forvirrede mig. Om det er mig eller bogen den er galt med, skal jeg ikke kunne sige.
Historien om hans mor er dybt tragisk, men, og måske fordi, at den er så tidstypisk kan det, på trods af sympatien med hende, være svært at oprigtigt lægge mærke til hende som individ. Hun drukner i fortællinger af de mange.
Faktisk er det svært for mig at huske om hendes navn nogensinde bliver givet til læseren.