Documentation Swiss literatures

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[ book tip by Literatur Schweiz ] Pascal Kramer's (*1961) second novel opens onto a brutal scene. Two children die during a silly and reckless game under the horrified gaze of their young uncle. Instead of reacting, the family seals itself up in a deathly silence. In their sun- and wind-beaten house reminiscent of an Edward Hopper painting, mourning parents Vincent and Louise sink into muteness. The Geneva author's novels, from «Manu» (1995) to the recent «Gloria» (2013), excel in portraying troubled states of mind and periods in which time comes to a standstill. Children often act as a trigger in Kramer’s texts. Deprived of their innocence, they send the adults into a spiral of despair and inaction, which not even rage is powerful enough to break through. Kramer’s pared-down writing, with few dialogues but an almost manic attentiveness to actions and their psychological motives, takes its readers for a ride on an existential wave of nausea that is powerfully contemporary.

(Pierre Lepori, transl. by Andrea Mason Willfratt)

[ Favourite quote ] « Elle n'avait pas de mots pour consoler une peine pareille, sans doute n'avait-elle même aucune idée d'un tel degré de souffrance. »

[ book info ] Kramer, Pascale: The Living. . (original language: English) Les Vivants. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 2008 (2001). ISBN: 978-0-8032-7823-3.
Translated from French by Tamsin Black