[ book tip by Incentives ] It’s difficult to categorize Eva Menasse’s novel Quasikristalle (Quasi-crystals). At first, the reader might think she is reading a novel for young adults. The plot revolves around the adventures of a trio of teenagers: Judith, Xane and Claudia. This initial chapter ends tragically – with the death of one of the girls.
The reader has no idea that a caesura is about to follow. That the next page is not only the beginning of a new chapter, but of a whole new story. With a common denominator – the figure of Xane (now a young woman) also appears in this story. And not only there, but also in the story after that, and the one after that, and the one after that. Xane Molin appears as a character in all of them. She is rarely at the center of the story; she is more like the golden thread woven into the text.

There are thirteen stories, each told from a different perspective, each shedding light on a different period of Xane’s life. There’s the landlord who watches Xane on her balcony. There’s Judith’s sister (Judith from the first story), whom Xane meets years later in Berlin at an art scene party. There’s the fertility specialist who helps Xane, in her mid-30s, to become pregnant at last. The other characters, all from their own standpoints, describe the main protagonist, Xane. A heroine who continually reinvents herself. This book is a coming-of-age novel, but it is constructed quite differently from many conventional examples of the genre. Each story in the book could stand alone. That would work. But it is worth getting to know the figure of Xane as a whole – from her youth until she is a grandmother. In this way, Eva Menasse tells the story of a life. But she also tells stories about life. And once the reader is willing to embrace the many different locations and perspectives, the book exerts a magnetic pull. It is a novel (or is it a series of short stories after all?) that you want to continue reading while walking, sitting or travelling, a book that fills its 420 pages extraordinarily well.

Abridged from the review by Emily Walton, June 2013. English translation by Laura Radosh
Full German text: http://www.literaturhaus.at/index.php?id=9895

[ book info ] Menasse, Eva: Quasikristalle. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln, 2013 . ISBN: 978-3462045130.