Incentives - New Literature from Austria

readme.cc provides multilingual access to the latest Austrian literature. In collaboration with the Literaturhaus in Vienna the reading forum offers the latest insights about literature published in Austria.

Literary journalists and researchers introduce current new publications; reading samples allow for a closer look at the texts; short portraits of the authors complement the picture.

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The Project "Incentives" targets at the internationalization of Austrian literature, respectively the translation of current texts.

Project realization: the Office of Documentation of Contemporary Austrian Literature (reviews, author’s portraits) – The Association of Translators (translations) – readme.cc (infrastructure).

http://www.literaturhaus.at

[ המלצה מאת Incentives ] Following his debut novel Jetzt die Sirenen (Now the Sirens), the young Viennese author Lukas Meschik has again proven his talent with his impressive and confident use of language in Anleitung zum Fest. But Rimbaud also was very young when he produced exceptional work (and decided not to write any more at age 21). Therefore, not another word about Meschik’s age of just 22 years.

Lukas Meschik’s collection of short stories Anleitung zum Fest centers on one main protagonist: the city. The stories “Ein ortloser Ort” (A Placeless Place) and “Was uns an Amputation denken lässt” (What Makes Us Think about Amputation) are fine-tuned descriptions of a city, Vienna in this case, reminiscent of texts by Wolfgang Hermann. They are thoughts that allow you to see the city through the eyes of the narrator, which is an impressive feat. In the main they are nocturnal images, descriptions by a lonely spectator who relates his visions during his treks or pines for the pictures of his imagination. These are not minute descriptions, such as we find in Wolfgang Hermann, but rather poetic images of the city that stay close to their respective heroes and to the respective stories that loom behind the protagonists. It’s very believable, very plausible.

This directness, this narration without inhibitions, is also what takes hold of the reader. Lukas Meschik attempted to create authentic narration, and he managed it with bravura. It is the moods you fall into while reading, beginning with the stories’ titles – “Tage der Trägheit” (Days of Inertia), “Die Kunst des Halbierens” (The Art of Bisection); they are talking titles that make the reader curious and slightly irritated. One wonders: Can it be met, this expectation awoken by the titles’ slightly affected address? There are sentences such as, “In her you can observe the progression of an autotraumatization,” and “We want to reel her senseless.” That’s beautiful. But Lukas Meschik can write not only beautifully but also faintly pornographically, albeit for socio-critical reasons. For example, in the literary sketch “Die Rückkehr der geschändeten Frauen” (The Return of the Violated Women), some passages read like literary discourse, very postmodern, very detached, very existentialist.

The long short story “Die Kunst des Halbierens” is impressive in its attempt to take stock of “man and woman” in a way that is refreshingly unique. Lukas Meschik has written a book committed equally to language and to content that is at the same time challenging and enjoyable.


Abbreviated review by Bernd Schuchter. English translation by Laura Radosh.
Complete version in German: http://www.literaturhaus.at/index.php?id=7416

[ מידע על ספרים ] Meschik, Lukas: Anleitung zum Fest. Ein Nachdenken über gelungene Buchtitel. (original language: Deutsch) Luftschacht Verlag, Wien, 2010 . ISBN: 978-3-902373-53-3.