The sweet indifference of the world by Peter Stamm

The sweet Indiffernece of the world by Peter Stamm

Swiss fiction

Original title – Die sanfte Gleichgültigkeit der Welt,

Translator – Michael Hofmann

Source – Library book

I put this down as a library book, but I think I might have been sent it a couple of years ago by the US publisher. I had read it then but hadn’t reviewed it, and as I read it the other day, it came to mind, I’m sure this book reminds me of something. I went to log it on my reading apps and saw I had read it two years ago. I am a massive fan of Stamm’s work his book always seem to be ones you remember after you have read them the ideas in the linger like this had, He has won most of the major prizes in the German speaking world and maybe shoiuld be a little better known to English readers for me he is in those list of writers that is in line for a Nobel or on the list of writers that could for me anyway..

She visits me often, usually at night. She stands by my bed, looking down at me, and says, You’ve aged. She doesn’t say it in a nasty way, though, her voice sounds affectionate, almost merry. She sits down on the side of the bed. But then your hair, she says, tousling it with her hand, it’s as thick as it ever was. Only it’s gone white.

You’re not getting any older though, I say to her. I’m not sure if that’s a happy thought for me or not. We never talk much, after all, what is there to say. The time goes by. We look at each other and smile.

The opening lines of the book

This book has a twist, but we are never fully told if it is the twist we think it is, just a hint, if that makes sense. Christopher, a writer in later middle age, recalls a story to a young actress named Lena. The story is remembered as the woman he is telling about has the same name as her, except he calls the woman in his story Magdalena, the full version of her name, as the relationship from his post, which was also an actress. To make it even odder, Lena is in a relationship with a writer called Chris. As the story unfolds from Christopher, the lines between his past and her present blur, and what is happening is never quite told, but hinted at. Is this what is happening, or is it just a weird connection between them all having the same jobs and names? Never quite told why this has happened, but it is just one of those stories that seem to twist and turn in on themselves as you read along.

My novel, though, was a hit with booksellers and readers; even the reviewers seemed to sit up. This debut promised all sorts of things for the future, wrote one woman. And in fact I did believe in some sort of future, for the first time in a while. After living from hand to mouth for several years, the success of my book secured not a lavish but a respectable income; but above all I had something to show for myself that justified all my en-deavors. The years of failed writing already felt like a long-distant time, in which I was caught up in labyrinthine plots, and driven by exaggerated ambitions.

I never admitted how much my story was about me.

When I was asked about that after readings, I dismissed the idea, and insisted on the separation between author and narrator.

Christopher is a succesful writer in his time !

I wish I had reviewed this a couple of years ago. Still, strangely, in the two years since I read it, I have thought of it a few times every time I heard the name Magdalena, I had come back to this book and the strange tale of a man from the future telling his fiance a story in the past or is it just a weird sort of Mobius loop of Two couples with the same names and jobs meeting at a point in one relation ship has started and the other has ended and is so distant it is a memory being told in the present/ I loved this it is a tale that has again left me thinking about it all and how in life there are just moments that seem as thou they have been planned or relived or even just beyond what is typically we all have those small deja vu memories. Even people we assume that we know but don’t, dopplegangers, etc. Very Stamm book, he does so well on the psychological level as a writer! He keeps you, as the reader thinking of his stories long after you have read them. Have you read any of his book ?