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Le Refuge des cimes
Francis von Ruthern, fils aîné d'un junker prussien, rentre en Europe après avoir passé huit ans en Amérique du Sud, mais il ne parvient pas à reprendre pied dans la vie normale. Il trouve alors refuge dans une station de ski au-dessus d'Innsbruck. Là, son destin croise celui d'hommes et de femmes tout aussi frappés que lui par un sentiment d'étrangeté face à eux-mêmes. Dans la montagne, les jours s'écoulent entre l'immensité vide des champs de neige, les courses de ski et le quotidien tissé d'ennui d'un hôtel de luxe. Chacun est dans l'attente d'un événement qui pourrait lui permettre de donner une orientation à sa vie. C'est finalement à Francis que sera dévolue cette chance.
« Ange dévasté » selon Thomas Mann, la Suissesse Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942) fut tout à la fois écrivain, journaliste, photographe et archéologue. Sa vie fut marquée par une errance intérieure qu'elle projeta dans les voyages et la morphine, mais aussi par son amitié avec Klaus et Erika Mann, auprès de qui elle s'engagea dans la lutte contre le nazisme.
« Ange dévasté » selon Thomas Mann, la Suissesse Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942) fut tout à la fois écrivain, journaliste, photographe et archéologue. Sa vie fut marquée par une errance intérieure qu'elle projeta dans les voyages et la morphine, mais aussi par son amitié avec Klaus et Erika Mann, auprès de qui elle s'engagea dans la lutte contre le nazisme.
- GenresFictionGerman Literature
228 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2004
2 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Annemarie Schwarzenbach
49 books143 followersAnnemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942) was a Swiss writer, journalist, photographer and traveler.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 1, 2015
"Die Nacht war lang. Das Zimmer ein Schiff, verloren im Weltall."
[Tr.: "The night was long. The room was a ship, lost in outer space."]
Yes, this quote absolutely bowled me over. I loved the imagery in this book - even when she described the characters' most desperate moments, AS managed to draw me right in. And as for the image of a ship lost in outer space....well, how often do you come across similar ideas in a novel written in 1932/3?
Flucht nach Oben [Tr. Escape to Higher Ground] is a story set in an Alpine ski resort where the well to-do mingle with the locals who are trying to make a living. The story follows a group of characters: are a three ski instructors, each with a different outlook on life; Esther, who married for money but is bored and lonely; Adrienne, who force herself to recover from an unspecified illness (most likely tuberculosis) by training for a skiing competition; Adrienne's son Klaus, who finds it hard to see his mother suffer and struggles to make friends; Carl Eduard, father of Klaus and brother to one of the ski instructors, who despairs over life; and Matthisch a young boy who succumbs to deception.
This is a novel with depth. I could not possibly do the story justice if I tried to describe all of the aspects that I found fascinating in this story, but there are three that stood out for me:
First, as some you know, I am not a fan of Thomas Mann. However, I am glad I have read The Magic Mountain if only to enjoy the comparison of AS novel with Mann's story - which also features illness and the differentiation between life atop a mountain and life in the valley. It is a similar theme in Flucht nach Oben but it lacks Mann's pompousness - which to be fair was grinding on me through every single page of his very, very long novel. Because AS' writing style is more natural, the relationships between the characters are more realistic, and when she describes details of intimacy the scenes become quite intense.
Second, I loved AS' perceptiveness. She describes the zeitgeist of the story to the point where I could picture it perfectly. Not just the dialogues, but the surroundings, the dialects, the sounds even. At one point one of the characters travels to Berlin. AS made the trip quite frequently herself, often visiting Klaus or Erika Mann. The details are meticulous. The chapter begins with a consideration of the route - the towns he, the character, passes on the train - and ends with a description of the hustle and bustle of the city and the general feeling of anxiety and alienation towards a society that is so remote from the mountain setting.
Third, I loved that AS took the notion of a coming of age story but turned it on its head and has every single one of the characters embark on a journey of self-discovery and growth. In essence, AS rejects the notion that a coming of age story is limited to characters of a young age. The result is that the story has many protagonists - all quite well developed - and their interaction with each other provides the different pieces to the puzzle that is their individual fates.
Oh, and the story has some cliff hangers throughout which are so well placed that I could not put it down once I picked it up on a flight this evening.
[Tr.: "The night was long. The room was a ship, lost in outer space."]
Yes, this quote absolutely bowled me over. I loved the imagery in this book - even when she described the characters' most desperate moments, AS managed to draw me right in. And as for the image of a ship lost in outer space....well, how often do you come across similar ideas in a novel written in 1932/3?
Flucht nach Oben [Tr. Escape to Higher Ground] is a story set in an Alpine ski resort where the well to-do mingle with the locals who are trying to make a living. The story follows a group of characters: are a three ski instructors, each with a different outlook on life; Esther, who married for money but is bored and lonely; Adrienne, who force herself to recover from an unspecified illness (most likely tuberculosis) by training for a skiing competition; Adrienne's son Klaus, who finds it hard to see his mother suffer and struggles to make friends; Carl Eduard, father of Klaus and brother to one of the ski instructors, who despairs over life; and Matthisch a young boy who succumbs to deception.
This is a novel with depth. I could not possibly do the story justice if I tried to describe all of the aspects that I found fascinating in this story, but there are three that stood out for me:
First, as some you know, I am not a fan of Thomas Mann. However, I am glad I have read The Magic Mountain if only to enjoy the comparison of AS novel with Mann's story - which also features illness and the differentiation between life atop a mountain and life in the valley. It is a similar theme in Flucht nach Oben but it lacks Mann's pompousness - which to be fair was grinding on me through every single page of his very, very long novel. Because AS' writing style is more natural, the relationships between the characters are more realistic, and when she describes details of intimacy the scenes become quite intense.
Second, I loved AS' perceptiveness. She describes the zeitgeist of the story to the point where I could picture it perfectly. Not just the dialogues, but the surroundings, the dialects, the sounds even. At one point one of the characters travels to Berlin. AS made the trip quite frequently herself, often visiting Klaus or Erika Mann. The details are meticulous. The chapter begins with a consideration of the route - the towns he, the character, passes on the train - and ends with a description of the hustle and bustle of the city and the general feeling of anxiety and alienation towards a society that is so remote from the mountain setting.
Third, I loved that AS took the notion of a coming of age story but turned it on its head and has every single one of the characters embark on a journey of self-discovery and growth. In essence, AS rejects the notion that a coming of age story is limited to characters of a young age. The result is that the story has many protagonists - all quite well developed - and their interaction with each other provides the different pieces to the puzzle that is their individual fates.
Oh, and the story has some cliff hangers throughout which are so well placed that I could not put it down once I picked it up on a flight this evening.
abbandonato
August 4, 2017di lei mi era piaciuto molto "la via per Kabul", diario romanzato di viaggio di due intrepide amiche in paesi non proprio rassicuranti. Questo invece mi irrita molto, i personaggi mi stanno tutti sulle balle, lo stile stesso mi ricorda le unghie su una lavagna. Forse riproverò. Forse.
May 31, 2017
[#52 Swiss] I really liked this book who follows a group of people looking for themselves in an Alpine ski resort. Each one of them has their own voice and I found them all endearing (except for Wirz, erk). The Alpine atmosphere is well rendered by an author who certainly spent a lot of time there. The book deals with dark topics in a modest and delicate way.
If there's one thing that bothered me, it was the impromptu shifting of points of views and narrators, which requests a little focus from the reader's part.
If there's one thing that bothered me, it was the impromptu shifting of points of views and narrators, which requests a little focus from the reader's part.
September 8, 2018
#suisse
December 20, 2019
intimidatingly good descriptions of people's escapist psychology in parts of the german(speaking) society before the nazis' rise to power.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews