This is the second installment of “Gut gegen Nordwind”, in my opinion objectionably translated "Love Virtually” in English. It’s a real pity because I believe a great deal of the book’s personality is transmitted in the title, which is beautiful in its original language.
I read both novels several years ago almost in one sitting and forgot about them till this summer, when I stumbled upon them by chance. One book can’t be read without the other, and they need to be read in order.
As I started to browse the pages and read a sentence here and there, I realized I kept on reading till the end of each page, and onto the next, and the next, and a whole chapter was finished, and I didn’t want to stop.
So considered forewarned. These are extremely addictive novels, and once you start, you might have the urge to finish both books at once, eager to lose a few hours of sleep to see how it all ends.
Emmi and Leo are two middle-aged strangers who meet accidentally online and fall in love in spite of their personal circumstances. One is happily married with children, the other is getting over a recent break-up. Protected by the anonymity of the screen, humorous flirtation gradually gives way to plain honesty and as the pace of the emails becomes more and more frenetic, the “real” lives of Emmi and Leo have to confront the implications of their virtual correspondence.
I know. The plot sounds as clichéd as it might get, used to death, possibly superficial and with small potential for good storytelling. Well, it isn’t.
Glattauer takes great pain to create a modern epistolary novel that vibrates with the fast, intelligent and tasteful dialogue between two people who have no idea where they are getting into. The exchanges are as sparkling as profound, and the written letters end up becoming voices that faithfully reveal the temperament of each character.
Email correspondence might seem a bit outdated today when we have access to internet from our smartphones at all hours, but the characters’ effervescent personalities, their elegant humor, the situation they find themselves in and their reactions to the evolving events are so well portrayed, so carefully developed that it’s easy to think of Emmi and Leo as real people. The reader can't help caring for them, wanting them to take the leap, to trust their instincts and forget about what they believe is morally right.
Glattauer has a refined sense of what it is to fall in love. The doubts, the fear, the anxiety that comes with it. It’s like a sickness, a feverish state that clouds vision and often leads to foolish decisions. The success of these novels lays in the way Emmi and Leo live through this “affliction”; their circumstances and expectations are vastly dissimilar and so they need to be brave enough to admit their involvement with each other without compromising their realities. Or they need to be prepared to toss their realities to create a new one together. Easy said, not so easy done, right?
The outcome of the affair couldn’t be more realistic. Heart-warming and unpredictable too, like the seventh wave. There is this saying that the balanced sway of the first six waves lapping gently on the shore is sometimes broken by the unexpected force of the seventh. Its rebellious nature sweeps you away, leaving only the feeling of being dragged by it, hurt and a bit bruised maybe, but also energized to stand the monotony of the following six waves until the seventh comes back again... to change everything, maybe for good.