Peter Handke (* 6. Dezember 1942 in Griffen, K盲rnten) ist ein 枚sterreichischer Schriftsteller und 脺bersetzer.
Peter Handke is an Avant-garde Austrian novelist and playwright. His body of work has been awarded numerous literary prizes, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2019. He has also collaborated with German director Wim Wenders, writing the script for The Wrong Move and co-writing the screenplay for Wings of Desire.
I was born in the winter/spring when the author wrote this book. But not in Paris, where he wrote it.
Do I need more connection to it? Does Handke need any connection to his story, or his characters? Isn't everything meaningless, lonely, randomly thrown together, or held together by unimportant circumstances?
Are we happy alone or in company? Are we happy? Why would we want to leave each other? Or stay together?
A woman (left-handed, presumably, although she uses a typewriter that makes her feel pain in her wrist joints) spontaneously leaves her husband and tries to live life on her own, drifting from one day to the next, feeling good sometimes, and horrifyingly lonely at other times. My latent thought is: exactly as she would if she stayed in her relationship.
Boredom, pain, aggression, occasional happiness and freedom. Time passes. Slowly.
What would change the situation?
"If he loved me when I am not dependent on him anymore."
I wonder if that is true. Women's eternal dilemma.
I am a left-handed woman typing on a computer. My left-handedness doesn't show that often anymore. Handke captures a question in the air, and he leaves it there - blowing bubbles of words to give it temporary company.
Plop! Another one burst. The question lingers...
PS: A Nobel Prize wasted! The world is full of writers that are AT LEAST as talented as the out-of-date Mr Handke, and they don't fit the disappointingly boring framework of being a white male European with a tendency to choose their politics to fit their inflated ego!
Kod Handkea je svaka re膷enica doga膽aj. Projuriti kroz njegov tekst je kao voziti se avionom, umesto do odredi拧ta 拧etati i svakim korakom pulsirati sa neposrednim okru啪enjem. Zahtev sporosti je, dakle, neophodan za sa啪ivljavanje sa tekstom, boravak u svakoj re膷enici. Suprotno mi拧ljenju mnogih, ne smatram da Handkeovo delo odlikuje bezdoga膽ajnost, ve膰, zapravo, pregr拧t de拧avanja, koji, u silini preciznosti opisa, postaju vrlo gusti, bliski lirici.
Ovo je knjiga o zidu. Usamljenosti, bezizlazu koji se krije iza naizgled pristojno spakovanog 啪ivota. O 啪ivotu na koji je legla prostirka kona膷nosti. I o lomovima, neslobodi i tihim sre膰ama.
Zaista neplanirano, kako je i najbolje, krenuo sam da 膷itam Geteovo 'Srodstvo po izboru'. I ne samo 拧to se knjiga zavr拧ava citatom iz ovog romana, nego su mi mogu膰e paralele vrlo podsticajne. A i da neko nema nikakvu svest o njima, mo啪e iznutra do膰i do knjige. Samo spremno: sporo i oprezno, uz doziranje ritma.
marianne鈥檌n kocas谋ndan ayr谋l谋艧谋yla ba艧l谋yor her 艧ey. ne b眉y眉k bir kavga var ne de uzun uzun hesapla艧malar. yaln谋zca bir g眉n bitiyor i艧te, hepsi bu. ancak as谋l hik芒ye, o noktadan sonra ba艧l谋yor. marianne, 莽ocu臒uyla birlikte hayat谋na devam etmeye 莽al谋艧谋rken kendisiyle de yaln谋z kalmay谋 枚臒reniyor. bunun bir 枚zg眉rl眉k m眉, yoksa i莽ini dolduramad谋臒谋 bir bo艧luk mu oldu臒unu tam anlam谋yla kestiremiyoruz. her 艧ey belirsizlik i莽inde ilerliyor, t谋pk谋 hayat gibi..
ve belki de bu y眉zden marianne'in hik芒yesi bize bu kadar tan谋d谋k geliyor: bazen hi莽bir 艧ey yapmadan sadece var olmak, en sessiz ancak en ger莽ek se莽im oluyor.
(the film, at least some, is up on Youtube; to be honest, I think reading this is enough)
One evening, Marianne, a housewife living in a West Germany suburb, realises her husband, Bruno, will leave her at some point - so she asks him to leave, which means she will have to pick up the career she previously had (translating French works into German) to earn money to support herself and her son Stefan. At first it feels scary and disorienting, but gradually the feeling changes to feel like freedom.
The book is very short (I read it in two days but could've easily read it in one day), and quite filmlike, so I feel the author was already thinking about making it into a movie. Often the names for the people go unused, so we get: the woman, the child, the publisher, the father/grandfather, the actor, the salesgirl etc. The time seems to be from January to February (Christmas trees being getting rid of).
It's interesting to see Bruno the husband's reaction to Marianne's declaration - at first .
I think of the scenes in the book: the hotel evening where she tells Bruno to leave,
Standing at the hall mirror, she brushed her hair. She looked into her eyes and said, 'You haven't given yourself away. And no one will ever humiliate you again.'
Of course, the book is in the end about how Marianne will rearrange her life, how she will mentally accept her decision. And how the people around her react to her decision to detach from her husband - not a particularly oppressive wave of reaction, thankfully. I think having a son, and doing things with him helps, and having good skills to pick up work again is good. I do admit that the cover art for my book, a still from the film, attracted me to the book in the first place, but although the book was a bit odd, it was still entertaning, enjoyable. And something a bit different to read at this point of the year and its challege-theme.
Ho voluto provare il Nobel che ha vinto quest'anno, per ora solo la quota azzurra del premio Peter Handke, per poi magari passare alla quota rosa. Ho cominciato La donna mancina a scatola chiusa, come un salto nel buio perch茅 Handke 猫 un nome poco rimbalzato nelle mia entourage di echi letterari, tam tam da contatti, vicini, input mediatici, molto rari gli ammiccamenti sugli scaffali di librerie, quelle vere e fisiche. Quindi prima di leggerlo non mi informo molto, so solo che un mese fa aveva vinto il Nobel. Il libro 猫 molto breve 65 pagine, il titolo 猫 strano La donna mancina, mancina nel significato antico latino di mancante, qualcosa di fuori posto come sbagliato. 脠 una storia esilissima, un po鈥� improbabile, con un taglio cinematografico apprezzabile (infatti in seguito scoprir貌 che Handke 猫 stato oltre che drammaturgo, saggista, poeta, scrittore in prosa anche regista - da questo film hanno tratto un film).
Due parole sulla trama, pressoch茅 inesistente: una donna chiede improvvisamente al marito di lasciarla, da un giorno all'altro senza un motivo, almeno senza un motivo comprensibile al lettore che non conosce, n茅 mai conoscer脿 gli antefatti. Lui acconsente non senza stupore ma senza ribellarsi, come succede solo nei libro o nei film鈥� E da l矛 un tuffo della donna mancina dentro la solitudine,
Sono cos矛 solo che la sera prima di dormire spesso non ho nessuno su cui potrei riflettere, semplicemente perch茅 durante la giornata non sono stato con nessuno.
Handke 猫 molto abile a rendere questo stato esistenziale non come una privazione ma quasi come una ricchezza, Marianne (猫 il nome della donna) da sola comincia a vedere le cose, i paesaggi, la sua casa, suo figlio con una chiarezza e consapevolezza che prima non riconosceva, la sua solitudine diventa una conquista interiore, mai una condanna. Il libro comunque 猫 abbastanza noioso, scritto con cura pulito, ma non mi ha lasciato granch猫 .
Nota a margine il Nobel a Handke ha scatenato un putiferio di polemiche, Handke 猫 austriaco ma sloveno per parte materna ed 猫 sempre stato emotivamente coinvolto nelle questioni balcaniche; in passato ha negato e poi ritrattato la strage d Sebrenica con posizioni abbastanza vicine al negazionismo, ha parteggiato senza ombra di fraintendimenti alla causa serba inneggiando alla figura di Milosevic. Tutto ci貌 ha riproposto l鈥檃nnoso problema morale se tenere separato o no l鈥檃utore dalla sua opera. Peter Handke 猫 andato a rimpolpare la schiera degli artisti maledetti Celine, Heidegger, Ezra Pound, Mishima, D鈥檃nnunzio che oggi non potrebbero varcare la soglia del Salone del Libro di Torino. Tutto ok ma la scelta di Stoccolma non poteva essere meglio ponderata? Volevano scatenare la polemica per dare nuovo vigore e visibilit脿 al premio, non immaginavano le conseguenze? Non credo mancassero autori da impalmare, soffiare sul fuoco inutilmente, dare il fianco alla polemica mi sembra oltremodo rischioso oltrech猫 a volte stupido. In ogni caso non mi sono ancora fatta un鈥檌dea chiara di questo autore, un unico libro oltretutto di 63 pagine non 猫 sufficiente per dare un giudizio su un autore dalla produzione cos矛 ricca, di lui prover貌 a leggere altro.
It seemed kind of unfinished. Liberation of women makes them look for their own self-development but it comes at the price of loneliness to both men and women (or rather, more correctly, the intimacy of old fashioned families came at price of self-fulfillment of housewives). Could be a good theme but this book really a half-finished thing.
"鈥淟oneliness is a source of loathsome ice-cold suffering, the suffering of unreality. At such times we need people to teach us that we're not really so far gone.鈥�
Lo stesso giorno in cui Bruno, di ritorno da un lungo viaggio di lavoro all'estero, le rinnova la promessa del suo amore infinito, Marianne, gli chiede improvvisamente di andarsene, per restare sola, nel loro bungalow ("la loro unit脿 d'abitazione", come la chiama Bruno), con Il loro bambino. 芦Per sempre?禄 - chiede Bruno. E Marianne risponde 芦Non lo so. Ma per andare andrai e mi lascerai sola.禄 Essenziale, affilato, algido solo per chi estraneo alla donna mancina. Alienante, eppure vibrante e reale, una storia che lavora, in meno di cento pagine, per sottrazione, con la finalit脿 di riuscire a mostrare il lato sinistro del cuore, quello dove abitano la ricerca di s茅 e il desiderio di trovare se stessi. Cinematografico, nei tagli e nell'essenzialit脿 delle sequenze, ricco di spunti e argomenti. Curiosa, infatti, di vedere il film girato dallo stesso Handke, mi dedico a quella che si preannuncia essere una difficile ricerca.
I was afraid that this book badly aged. The history is very marked by the period 70th. The hour was with the women's liberation. The woman got clear a patriarchal structure for recover freedom. It's a Young german couple who live in France. No problem of money or sex. She translates book in german. He travels a lot for his work. She puts her fur coat to go to seek him at the airport. They return home. She announces to him that he must go away. She does not leave him for someone, solely to discovered herself, and not to be with the image of that people wanted to see her. It is an initiatory account of the difficult training to freedom. She will translate Flaubert as she wanted it.
Why this book takes a particular resonance now. The women'slib was an obviousness at this time. But I note certain facts: refusal of painless childbirth, rigorous clothes to prevent remark鈥�
Handke kakvog volim... i Handke kakvog zasigurno voli Jelinek... umi拧ljam da je Elfride Peter, ba拧 bi ovakav roman o 啪eni i za 啪enu, jo拧 i "levoruku", neafilijativnu, bezmalo stostruko izglobljenu, napisala... A Handke k么 Handke: minimafili膷an, sterilan i uzdr啪an, gotovo bezli膷an kroz promatranje i pripovedanje, propusan za motivacijske zjapove i komunikacijske trombove, frigidan u usputnom humoru... dok... dok narativ ne prsne u burleksno-apsurdnoj, agregiranoj zavr拧nici dostojnoj Joneska - jer, "沤ena" se o膷ituje i kao dramska mimikrija - da bi se, ironijski, ponovno smirio u dezinfikovanoj deskripciji. Uz "Golmana" i "U啪as praznine" savr拧eno "triangulira", i拧膷ekuju膰i kvadratiranje.
This is the second book in a row I鈥檝e read from a controversial Nobel prize winner (The previous one being by ). But this was purely coincidental. The author, , also adopted it into a screenplay, which he directed into a film with an eponymous title, in 1977. The book is essentially about Marianne (a.k.a the woman), a thirty year old housewife, resolved on finding a new meaning to her life other than the one her husband and her marriage has provided for her. Living in an unnamed big industrial city in West Germany, she parts ways with her husband, Bruno, and starts a new life with a promise of independence. What follows is her journey through raising their only child while going back to her old job as a translator. The French book she is translating gives us little glimpses into what she鈥檚 going through. The constant noises that surround her are always cautioning her of the perils of loneliness (yes, I am looking at you Franziska). She deals with her new life gracefully despite not being confident of the whole 鈥樷€檖roject鈥欌€�. It is a testament to Peter Handke鈥檚 talent as a writer that he accomplishes so much with just few words. He鈥檚 a supreme minimalist, if you will. A wonderful little book.
First time I've read Handke since he became a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. I'd put this short novel, which is somewhat reminiscent of a screenplay, somewhere in the middle of what I've read by him so far. The detached prose made it difficult to feel a deep emotion for the wife & mother who wants to leave her husband, and while I get the core focus is that of loneliness, I really didn't know what to make of Marianne (who is often just referred to as 'the woman'), other than her clear subservience. Nothing major really happens, but then again that's what I did like about the narrative over all. I warmed to Marianne having new relationships later on post break-up, because they were on her own terms: unlike with the husband, but again the distant feel keeps the reader from being truly sucked into her world. I've yet to find a Handke novel that I've loved, but I can see in his work why the Nobel committee took notice.