[ Knižní tip Incentives ] When Rowohlt publishers, formerly devoted and steadfast, took leave of supposedly difficult, unmerchantable literature at the end of the 1990s, it resulted in the unbearable situation of Elfriede Czurda’s most important prose works being available only in used book stores. We therefore heartily applaud the fact that Edition Korrespondenzen has come to the rescue and made possible a reunion or first meeting with Czurda’s “adventure novel,” Kerner.

Kerner, first published in 1987, marks the entrance of Czurda’s writing into a political phase in which the reigning language is revealed as an expression of male dominance. Ideological critique here finds the form of language as great art, what is more – it is exactly this precise and ruthless penetration of language which in the end makes an advance into the realm of criticism possible. Elfriede Czurda exposes the roots of power relations fossilized in (daily) language. In a staccato of language that pulls you in – the author speaks of a "soldierly marching rhythm" – the delusional world of the masseur Kerner unfolds. Kerner has made his own daughter pregnant and has taken refuge in alpine high-performance sports to boost his ego. “The mystery of man, which Mr. Kerner is, and the mystery of the mountain, they are the dominant fossils through which eternal evolution reaches into today.” The way Kerner and his friends think are disfigured into recognition by this exaggerated manner of speaking. Czurda draws out of language that which is usually covered up by idioms.” The mountain doesn’t lure with false promises. The mountain is a real man. And so is Kerner. You have to leave the valley behind you, daily life, routine.”

The new edition of Kerner is not just a reissue. A Political Affair has been added. These 20 pages can be read as a follow-up that looks at the masseur Kerner’s victims – the two women, mother and daughter, in whose relationship the violence continues. “But no, you had to come and pummel and kick inside of me so that I would have to pummel myself through the rest of my life.” The calamity is carried forward in the mother's reproach of her daughter. This disaster could only be averted, as Czurda once said in an interview, by turning language upside down. The “political affair” ends hopelessly: “But I will punish you as long as I live you are within reach and you will not have it better than I did.”

Review by Florian Neuner.
English translation by Laura Radosh.
Complete version: http://www.literaturhaus.at/index.php?id=7265

[ Informace ] Czurda, Elfriede: Kerner. Ein Abenteuerroman. Eine politische Affäre. (original language: Deutsch) Edition Korrespondenzen, Wien, 2009 . ISBN: 978-3-902113-65-8.