My second Handke after Goalie and it did and didn't prepare me for this one. There's a similar existential feel and plotlessness but this is more lyrical in descriptions and the hero (an actor) plays out a search for meaning amid all the absurd occurrences he encounters unlike the other work which seemed to emphasize 'thrownness' and contingency. Nevertheless it comes with a fair bit of misanthropy in common with other existential lit. with the hero repelled by the ugliness of people. I found the encounters very entertaing in a blackly comic way as he made his peripatetic journey across what I think was Paris. The final twenty or so pages weren't so engaging but my puzzlement ultimately led to me questioning the work as a whole which is probably what Handke wants in his enigmatic works. ( )

I have not been so deeply impacted by a novel in a very long time. I recall reading "La Nausée" by Jean Paul Sartre and feeling similarly. Somehow, in this existential masterpiece (and in translation no less) Handke manages to reach into the core of existence and pull out meaning. During the course of one day, the protagonist walks from the outer edge of a city to its core. He is an actor slated to be presented with a prominent award that evening. Simple premise. During the course of this day, one encounters alienation, duplicity, fear, desire, revulsion and more. Where was I, the reader, left at the end of the day? Why, still human, of course! Lost, seeking, connected and alienated, frightened and joyful and all of the contradictions which accompany being human on this mortal coil! ( )

Il miglior libro di Handke, senza dubbio (per me): stupendo nella sua integrità, nelle sue descrizioni, nel suo stile. ( )

Ein Tag im Leben eines müßiggängerischen Schauspielers, vom Morgen bis tief in die Nacht. Sprachgewaltige Beobachtungen, Begegnungen mit Läufern, Obdachlosen, Paaren, Priestern, Polizisten. Ein Schlendern durch die Stadt als Spaziergang durch die Welt. Literatur und Leben. Ein Mann und eine Frau. Große Kunst aus Österreich.
Zu finden im Erdgeschoss: DR, HAND

mj (28.6.11) ( )