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HPROB Volume 1, Issue 3 Little by little, I learned something about her Reviewed by Josh Lacey
A Sorrow Beyond Dreams
By Peter Handke
New York Review of Books 2002
76 pages
P eter Handke is a terrifying writer, because he is so honest. Many writers claim to be honest, and their claims are blatant fictions. They lie about their motives, their incomes, their politics, their sexuality, their sex lives, and all the other things that human beings like or need to lie about. Peter Handke probably lies about these things too, but, in his writing, he is frighteningly honest. We are used to people lying about deaththey lie about the love that they felt for those who died, and the rich, fulfilled lives of their dear departed, and the monuments that the dead have left in the memories of the living. Handke doesn't bother with any of that. He describes his mother's grim, difficult, unpleasant life; he follows her final footsteps that led to her lonely suicide; he unpicks his own feelings, and confesses that they are mostly numb, dull and indescribable. "The worst thing right now would be sympathy, expressed in a word or even a glance. I would turn away or cut the sympathizer short, because I need the feeling that what I am going through is incomprehensible and incommunicable; only then does the horror seem meaningful and real. If anyone talks to me about it, the boredom comes back, and everything is unreal again. Nevertheless, for no reason at all, I sometimes tell people about my mother's suicide, but if they dare to mention it I am furious. What I really want them to do is change the subject and tease me about something." | |
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