Incentives - Neue Literatur aus Österreich

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[ Buchtipp von Incentives ] For the first time, Deuticke has brought together a selection of Michael Köhlmeier’s best short stories in one volume. „Bevor Max kam“ („Before Max Came“), „Der traurige Blick in die Weite“ („The Sad View of the Vast Expanse“), „Roman von Montag bis Freitag“ („Novel from Monday to Friday“), „Nachts um eins am Telefon“ („One a.m. on the Telephone“) and „Vom Mann, der Heimweh hatte“ („About the Man Who Was Homesick“) are in the compilation as well as „Mitten auf der Straße“ („In the Middle of the Street“) and many previously unpublished stories.
Köhlmeier’s narrators are writers, pickpockets and loveable liars, quirky loners and gregarious folks, the nostalgically inclined  and survival artists. As different as they are, they do have one thing in common: they all tell their stories like one of those strangers  who crosses our path at a treasured moment – maybe “in the middle of the street” – to share their story with someone. Köhlmeier’s characters are storytellers who we can listen to for nights on end and forget about the time. Over and over again.
The previously unpublished stories in „Mitten auf der Straße“ once again exhibit Köhlmeier’s characteristic narrative style, which distinguishes him from other contemporary authors. While present-day Austrian literature has a tendency to openly or at least subtly, at any rate in a manner difficult to overlook, take a political or critical stance and small scenes are symbolic of larger societal developments, Köhlmeier’s stories are reminiscent of Cezanne’s paintings, of whom Rilke once wrote in a letter that he paints without choosy fastidiousness, with a “limitless objectivity, refusing any kind of meddling in an alien unity“.
Köhlmeier’s stories are subjective observations of minute details and odd memories, neither judged nor commented on by the author. They do not lead readers through a situation by the hand, but leave them alone in it and thus amaze and surprise even more, are all the more spellbinding.
In this way „Silberlöffel“ („Silver Spoon“) as well as the political anecdote „Von einem bemerkenswerten Gespräch zwischen Henry A. Kissinger und Tschou En-lai“ („On a Noteworthy Conversation between Henry A. Kissinger and Zhou Enlai“) and the myth of the scorpion invite the reader to see the world from an unaccustomed perspective – but what the spoon, Kissinger and the scorpion are all about, readers will have to find out for themselves – to whom all old and new Michael Köhlmeier stories are most certainly and heartily recommended.

Review by Christine Schranz, October 2009. English translation by Laura Radosh.
Complete version: http://www.literaturhaus.at/index.php?id=7392

[ Info ] Köhlmeier, Michael: Mitten auf der Straße. (original language: Deutsch) Deuticke im Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Wien, 2009 . ISBN: 978-3-552-06113-2.