Documentation Swiss literatures

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[ book tip by Literatur Schweiz ] To really appreciate Ruth Schweikert's novel, it needs to be read from beginning to end  - and that is no exaggeration. The first sentences unleash a stylistic furioso.  Under the heading «Vorausgesetzt» (Given that..) a woman's life is set down on one and a half pages in a few striking lines as the despairing search for «verboten viel Glück» (a forbidden amount of happiness) is inevitably swallowed up by the cursed machinery of everyday life.


«Augen zu» is a mature, powerfully written novel. Woven into a complex narrative structure are the stories of single mothers, fatherless children and relationships that break down under the weight of expectations and lost illusions. Two unsettled souls cross paths. Journalist Raoul with his Jewish roots and Aleks from a suffocatingly normal background from which he has been trying to free himself his whole life, «ohne irgendwo eine Spur zu hinterlassen» (without leaving any trace).

 At first glance, there is no logic to Schweikert's novel. People and events seem to pop up at random. In spite of this fragility, the novel has a coherence that comes from a finely balanced inner logic. Turning thirty, Alex mulls over the blows love has dealt him with a bitter irony. In this novel full of bitter and sometimes ironic undertones, Schweikert defiantly allows herself a positive note of confidence only at the end, hinting that love is not only about disappointment and bad blood.

(Beat Mazenauer, trans. by Andreas Mason)

[ Favourite quote ] «Als Kind wünschte ich mir an manchen Tagen schon frühmorgens dringend irgend etwas, das nicht Milch hieße und Butter und das täglich Brot gib uns heute. Und es reichte auch nirgends hin, noch fünf Minuten länger im Bett zu bleiben und mir meine Haare gelockt vorzustellen.»

[ book info ] Schweikert, Ruth: Augen zu. . (original language: Deutsch) Eyes Closed. Ammann Verlag, Zürich, 1998 . ISBN: 3-250-60024-5.