Incentives - Neue Literatur aus Österreich

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[ Buchtipp von Walter Grond ]  “An American-style cellar bar” is the novel’s opening line – a cellar bar in downtown Manchester. Carmel McKisko is not kept especially busy at her bar job. Instead, she reads Thomas Mann’s “Death in Venice” while at work. When she is not working or reading, the twenty-year old just hangs out – sometimes here with her friends, sometimes in other bars or by the river. She has no ambitions beyond her everyday world – or at least she never mentions them. Now and then, she reveals her dreams from one whisky cola to the next vodka and orange. In her debut novel “Cool water”, Gwendoline Riley, who lives in Manchester, creates an urban ambiance between dependency and rebellion. Manchester is also the city of Oasis, the Stone Roses and, above all, The Smiths. There are faint overtones of Morrissey’s melancholy voice in this prose. Riley narrates stories from a milieu long since deserted by hope and where it will never rekindle. “Through a crack of light, I wasn't able to find my way”, Carmel quotes a song she likes. She comes alive at night and loves the “witching hour”. As sad and broken as many of this book’s episodes sound along with the rainy weather, Carmel and her friends in the bar appear in pleasant, never claustrophobic friendships. Carmel’s retort to Shelley’s question about whether she is afraid of becoming a fifty-year old alcoholic dropout is, “No, no, no! I’m just living my years of anarchy now”. Later on, there will be a time for hope to resurge again – with a little luck. Gwen Riley treats her characters affectionately which compensates for the drastic harshness and tristesse of her prose.

[ Info ] Riley, Gwendoline: Cold Water. (original language: Deutsch) Goldmann TB, München, 2010 .