Agnes

by Peter Stamm

Es ist ein schmales Bändchen, mit dem der Schweizer Autor Peter Stamm sein Debüt als Schriftsteller gibt. Vordergründig erzählt er eine wunderbare Liebesgeschichte zwischen einer amerikanischen Physikstudentin und einem jungen Journalisten, der Nachforschungen zu seinem Buch über Eisenbahnen betreibt.

Doch glückliche Liebesgeschichten sind nicht interessant, "denn Glück macht keine guten Geschichten" meint Agnes, und so ermuntert sie ihren Freund, eine Erzählung über sie und ihre Liebe zu erfinden. Es geht nicht gut aus, denn immer mehr greift die erfundene Handlung in ihre Realität ein und bald verschwimmt für die beiden die Grenze zwischen Fiktion und Wirklichkeit.

Peter Stamm hat in seinem ersten Roman Agnes das gar nicht so leichte Kunststück fertiggebracht, einen gehaltvollen Inhalt durchsichtig schillernd und schwebend leicht wie eine Seifenblase zu verpacken -- sehr zur Freude seiner Leser. --Manuela Haselberger

Genres: Fiction, German Literature, School, Contemporary, Classics, Novels, Literary Fiction

150 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

Peter Stamm grew up in Weinfelden in the canton of Thurgau the son of an accountant. After completing primary and secondary school he spent three years as an apprentice accountant and then 5 as an accountant. He then chose to go back to school at the University of Zurich taking courses in a variety of fields including English studies, Business informatics, Psychology, and Psychopathology. During this time he also worked as an intern at a psychiatric clinic. After living for a time in New York, Paris, and Scandinavia he settled down in 1990 as a writer and freelance journalist in Zurich. He wrote articles for, among others, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Tages-Anzeiger, Die Weltwoche, and the satirical newspaper Nebelspalter. Since 1997 he has belonged to the editorial staff of the quarterly literary magazine "Entwürfe für Literatur." He lives in Winterthur.

Reviews

[Hanneke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not many earth-shattering events happen in this novel in the way of serious drama but, nevertheless, the story and atmosphere truly get to you and is really recognizable on a level that you are hesitant to acknowledge. Agnes is a sort of woman who is familiar and, yet, you basically want to avoid a woman like her as she is a person for whom suffering seems to be a second nature and she cannot help herself in that way. The first line of the novel says that Agnes is dead. However, it is not clear in the end whether that is actually the case and that is intriguing.

I read the novel in German and it was a joy to read the simple, yet very poetic language in which Peter Stamm writes. I am so glad my German GR friend Peter recommended this touching novel to me. Thanks to Peter I made up my mind to try read German novels more often. So thank you very much for your recommendation, Peter!

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very special book for me. I read it the first time 6 years ago during a turnpoint of my life. At that time it helped me to focus more on my feelings. Having reread it now, it had the same effect, though my life has become more stable. It is simple a wonderful short novel of love and departure.

[Baahaarmast · Rating 4 out of 5]

اين كتاب را مي‌شناختم. خيلي خوب. خيلي خوب مي‌شناختمش.
درگيري با مردهايي كه حرف نمي‌زنند. از اتفاقاتي كه مي‌افتد، ار سقوطي كه پيش مي‌آيد، از سراشيبي‌هاي تند كه به پاياني مي‌انجامد كه دير يا زود خواهد رسيد. قبل از اينكه ببينيمش، احساسش مي‌كنيم.
لوئيز جايي از كتاب مي‌گويد: "شما مردها ابلهيد. عاشق ِ زني مي‌شويد كه پس‌تان مي‌زند." و اين واقعيت است. حتي خود لوئيز هم از همين جمله استفاده مي‌كند. اولين بار به مرد مي‌گويد كه دوستش ندارد، اما بعدن همان را(به شيوه‌ي خودش) نقض مي‌كند. آميزه‌اي از زنانگي، ترديد و ابهام. من بين ِ دو زن ِ كتاب گير كرده بودم. بين ديوانگي در اگنس و زنانگي در لوئيز. آلفرد هيچكاك راست مي‌گويد، زنان تا قبل از عاشق شدن همان زني هستند كه بايد، اما بعد از عاشق شدن، تبديل مي‌شوند به يك ديوانه. عاصي.
بين ِ ريت 3 يا 4 دودل بودم، حساب كنيد چيزي بين ِ اين دو را.

[Zahra · Rating 1 out of 5]

بد نبود، ولی من همش حس میکردم نویسنده از سر اجبار کتابو نوشته فقط میخواد تمومش کنه!

[Berengaria · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

short review for busy readers: dreadfully boring for most of the book, but with a perspective twist ending. One of those that will only make sense once you finish it. Short chapters. Decently written. Must like relationship stories.

in detail:
I was bored for most of this novel.

I'm not a fan of romance/relationship stories in the first place, so the non-stop relationship gaga held no interest for me. Neither did any of the characters.

Agnes is a socially awkward snore with zero appeal, and yet 2 men are in love with her?? If you say so. And our narrator (whose name I've forgotten) is the exact character Americans think of when they say "closed, arrogant European."

These two don't fit together at all and both are vaguely unlikeable in their own way.

The side characters aren't much better. Pastiche stereotypes, like the luring video rental guy and Louise, the French-American woman who hates the US and everything American, despite having been living in Chicago for over 20 years with no plans to leave. When asked why she doesn't move to France, she just shrugs and says "I've got a good job."

It's only at the end when Stamm offers us a perspective switch that the story actually becomes interesting and that is when he heavily hints that Agnes isn't real. She was a story that the narrator invented for himself to overcome loneliness and past difficulties, esp about not being a father. This perhaps explains the negative stereotypical characters. They're story props, not meant to be real.

This was my first Peter Stamm (and his first novel) but it will be my last. The writing is fine, the concept is fine, but everything else...no, thanks. An average 2.5 stars.

[Katriina ❆ · Rating 1 out of 5]

How do you write a review of a book you spent less than two hours with? Well, I don't know.
The idea sounded wonderful: A nameless writer and a student called Agnes, fall in love and one day, Agnes asks her lover to write a portrait about her, which soon turns into a story about their relationship. Eventually, however, the story takes over and both the nameless writer and Agnes act accordingly to the story, until story and reality blur.

That was whas my German prof promised me, and I was excited! I could hardly wait to start reading this book and today, my copy finally arrived. I started reading right away and was delighted to see that the first sentence read "Agnes is dead.". Great, I thought, a story about a writer, a piece of fiction about fiction becoming one with reality, and an unreliable narrator. God knows I love unreliable narrators! Gustav Aschenbach of Thomas Manns amazing Death in Venice probably being my favourite one.

The blurb inside of the book says "Not one word too much or too little. Peter Stamms prose is perfect" I call bullshit on that. Peter Stamm has no clue about what prose actually is. His 'prose' is boring, lifeless, without any kind of colour. The sentences are flat and they all sound the same, and instead of having created a moving tale of love, fiction and reality, Stamm has created a 150-page novel that felt like a 1500-page novel, that's how boring the book is.
And so are the characters. There are three interacting characters in this book - the nameless narrator, Agnes and Louise. And if the nameless narrator wasn't a male, they wouldn't be distinguishable at all. They're flat, they speak the same, they behave the same. That was probably because the writer is unable to write distinguishable characters, and probably because the book only had 150 pages. Whatever, I don't care.

I just don't see why teachers would make their student read books like this. For my German class, I had to read Homo Faber, Nathan the wise, and now this, Agnes. All three are awful books with awful writing, little to no story and all three of these books are terribly boring. Bleh. I'm glad this is the last one I had to read.

[Vladys Kovsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would you like to write the script of your life? I do not mean the description of what actually happens to you but rather the design - when you, the author, are in total command of comings and goings of your own fate. What would it be like to read such a book? What would it be like to live such a life?

I am not describing here precisely what is happening in Peter Stamm's Agnes. This novel is more nuanced than that. But these are some of the questions that would pop into the reader's mind. In a world dominated by a desire of control these questions do not seem superfluous. If we are endowed with total control, what a misery such life will be for ourselves and those around us!

In this debut novel Peter Stamm does not take cautious exploratory steps, he establishes his style right away and dives in, unconstrained, unfazed by potential traps awaiting any beginner. The language is spare, unadorned and would remain so throughout the writer's career, would become his signature. A cinematographic effect of writing is an intention perfectly illustrated in the last chapter, where the protagonist, the writer, the omnipotent god is observed through a camera lens as if through the eyes of the other - Agnes, the reader.

There is a film based on the book, which I have no intention of watching - the movie of the book rolled in my mind as I was reading. I think any scene completions from visual perspective will add little, will only detract from this fleeting effect of being able to crossover from the everyday to another, more meaningful plane of existence. This is where Peter Stamm intends to take the reader. As usual, such an endeavor is risky, some will not proceed beyond the superficial - a simple story of a relationship developing, then faltering

In closing I would like to mention a wonderful parallel between a pointillistic painting by Seurat, a reproduction of which graces the cover of at least one edition, and a matter of depicting happiness discussed briefly in the book. One can only succeed in describing happiness point by point, one transitory moment of bliss separated from another by time and space and tone. Only when one takes a step back the whole picture emerges, akin to how "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" appears from a disorderly mess of paint dots as you slowly walk away from the canvas. "Le bonheur se peint avec des points, le malheur avec le traits" Indeed, pain lasts, suffering is characterized by duration, it is persistent. Life tends to paint in a broad brushstroke, smearing over little bright dots until they are no longer seen...

Are you sure you want to hold the brush?

[Mohadese · Rating 4 out of 5]

گفت:"خوشبختی را نقطه نقطه نقاشی می‌کنن و بدبختی را خط خط.وقتی تو می‌خواهی خوشبختی ما رو توصیف کنی، باید یک عالم نقطه‌های کوچک درست کنی، مثل سورا، آن‌وقت مردم از فاصله‌ای میتونن ببینن که ما خوشبخت بودیم."
اولین کتاب نمایشگاه ۹۷ ! ترجمه کتاب خوب بود، یه کار خوبی ک مترجم کرده، اینکه یه سری اصطلاحات و اشعار رو با زبان اصلی آورده و به نظر من این خیلی خوب بود.
اما خود داستان می‌تونست کمی حجیم تر اما جذاب تر باشه، خیلی جاها داستان می‌تونست اوج بگیره اما مثل یک جاده صاف ادامه پیدا میکرد...

[Gelareh Askari · Rating 2 out of 5]

اتلاف وقت (:

[Wulf Krueger · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Agnes” von Peter Stamm war eine eher ungewöhnliche Lektüre, obschon der Inhalt wenig überrascht: Der namenlose Ich-Erzähler, ein Schriftsteller, trifft bei Recherchen zu einem Buch auf Agnes, eine Physikerin.
Nach einer kurzen Zeit der Annäherung finden beide zusammen. Fasziniert vom Geschichtenerzählen bittet Agnes ihren Partner um eine Erzählung, die sich fortan als roter Faden durch das gesamte Buch zieht. Dabei kommt es immer wieder zwischen wechselseitigen Beeinflussungen der semi-fiktionalen Geschichte und den im Buch behandelten Erlebnissen.

Genau diese Verflechtungen bilden einen Teil des Reizes dieser kurzen, lakonisch-distanziert erzählten Novelle. Es ist keine wirklich außergewöhnliche Geschichte, die hier erzählt wird und ihr Ende wird bereits mit dem ersten Satz des Buches vorweggenommen. Dennoch gelang es Stamm, mein Interesse dauerhaft aufrecht zu erhalten.

Zweifellos hilfreich dabei waren die kurzen, prägnanten Kapitel, die sich meist in zwei bis drei Minuten “weglesen” ließen. Obwohl “Agnes” kein "pageturner" im klassischen Sinn ist, war es auf seine ureigene Weise fesselnd und interessant.

Weithin offen ist es zweifellos in seinen Interpretationsmöglichkeiten und so bin ich nicht überrascht, daß es in einigen deutschen Bundesländern als Pflichtlektüre für das Abitur eingestuft ist. Für einen Deutsch-Lehrer zweifellos eine “Goldgrube”!

Vier von fünf Sternen.


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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

چندروز پیش در یک گروه کتابخوانی نظرسنجی انتخاب کتاب بود و با وجودی که عموما پیشنهادها از داستانهای پرفروش بی مایه پیشتر نمی‌رفتند یکی از کاربرها با اشتیاقی عجیب حرف از اگنس زد که من نه اسم داستان را شنیده بودم و نه نویسنده.
امروزبدون برنامه ای از قبل در پی وسوسه ی راه رفتن راهی کتابخانه شدم. و باز بی اینکه قصد امانت گرفتن داشته باشم چرخی بین قفسه ها زدم که چشمم به اگنس خورد. طرح جلد در جا دلم را برد.گفتم یک صفحه اش را می‌خوانم و اگر خوب بود می‌گیرمش.خواندم و فوق العاده بود.یکی از بهترین آغازهایی که در کل زندگی ام خوانده ام‌.
اینقدر اوایل داستان خوب بود و دست روی چیزهایی، هم جزئیات و هم کلیات، گذاشته بود که من دیوانه‌ی خواندنشان در داستانها هستم که فکر کردم این کتاب اختصاصی برای من نوشته شده.
اما این تمام ماجرا نبود.
عجیبترین بخش تشابه عین به عین طرح اصلی داستان و حتی ریزه کاری های شخصیتها با داستانی بود که در حال نوشتنش هستم.بعد از سالها دوباره چندروزی است که می‌نویسم، برای فرار از خودم.و برای اینکه چراغی را در ذهن و دلم روشن نگه دارم و به ورطه ی تاریکی مطلق نیفتم.
من هم با پایان داستان مشکل داشتم(دارم) که هرچه می‌کنم خوش نمی‌شود که نمی‌شود.
تشابه این دو به طرح کلی خلاصه نمی‌شود و جزئیات مشابه هم دارند. مثل موتیف قطار، بیماری و خانه ها که حسی جادویی به داستان پاشیده‌اند.دیگر اینکه شخصیت اصلی اگنس مهاجر است و شخصیت من هم.
القصه؛ انگار داستان خودم را-البته با پرداخت قوی تر و حرفه ای-خوانده ام.خوشبختانه" اگنس" قدرتی را که در آغاز داستان دارد در میانه و انتها هم حفظ می‌کند.
پ.ن:هیچ چیز از داستان را لو نداده‌ام.
Dead with the first dead lies London's daughter,
Robed in the long friends,
The grains beyond age, the dark veins of her mother,
Secret by the unmourning water
Of the riding Thames.
"After the first death, there is no other."
شعری از دیلن تامس که در کتاب آمده.

[Reihane · Rating 1 out of 5]

مودپ پور طور و چرت:/ از فرط بی کتابی خوندم

[Bita · Rating 4 out of 5]

"اگنس" نوشته‌ى پيتر‌اشتام با ترجمه‌ى محمودحسينى‌زاد، از بهترين مترجم‌هاى ادبيات آلمانى.
قسمت جالب كارهاى آقاى حسينى‌زاد اينه كه علامت كپى رايت رو پشت جلد كارهاش خيلى وقتا مى‌بينى.
اگنس يه داستان عاشقانه‌ست از رابطه‌ى يك نويسنده و يك دختر جوان. كتاب در نشون دادن حساسيت‌هاى رابطه خيلى خوب عمل می‌کنه، ولى باوجود روايت عالى كتاب، انگار يه حجمى از لابه‌لاى داستان حذف شده (اون چيزى كه به قول معروف در فضاى سفيد بين خطوط در جريانه) موقع خوندن يه حسى بهت ميگه يه چيزايى نه از متن، كه از حس داستان كم شده، كه شايد به‌خاطر ترجمه باشه، پيشنهاد می‌كنم بريد سراغش و خيلى خوشحال می‌شم كه نظرتون رو در مورد اين چيزى كه گفتم بشنوم. بریده‌ای از كتاب رو پایین می‌نویسم.
.
.
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متن را سرسرى و سريع خوانده‌بودم. حوصله نداشتم. اگنس انگار كه خجالت بكشد لبخند مى‌زد و از آشپزخانه آمد. با هم نشستيم كنار ميز غذاخورى. شمع‌ها تقريبن به آخر رسيده‌بودند. اگنس گفت: "خوب؟" پرسيدم: "قهوه؟". خوش نداشتم در مورد نوشته‌اش اظهارنظر كنم. از دستش دلخور بودم كه وادارم كرد‌بود آن را بخوانم. وقتى عذر خواست و برايم قهوه ريخت خجالت كشيدم. شروع كردم: "ببين." تحمل نگاه پرانتظارش را نداشتم. قهوه‌ام را برداشتم و رفتم كنار پنجره.
- ببين، آدم همين‌طور نمى‌آد بشينه و در عرض يه هفته رمان بنويسه. من هم برنامه‌هاى كامپيوترى نمى‌نويسم.
اگنس از خودش دفاع كرد: "اين فقط يه داستان كوتاهه."
گفتم: "نمی‌تونم در موردش اظهارنظر كنم، نمى‌خوام.".
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مدتى از اين چيزها گفتم. و انگار چيزهايى را كه مى‌گفتم باورم شده بود. ديگر موضوع آن داستان نبود. شايد هم واقعن خوب نبود، اما قطعن بهتر از تمام چيزهايى بود كه من طى ده سال اخير نوشته‌بودم.
بلاخره گفتم: "تو حتى مطالعه هم نمى‌كنى، اصلا كتاب ندارى. وقتى كتاب نمى‌خونى چه‌طور مى‌خواى كتاب بنويسى." اگنس بدون اين كه چيزى بگويد داشت كيك سيبى را كه برايم درست كرده‌بود مى‌بريد.
پرسيد: "بستنى هم مى‌خواى؟" و اصلن بِه من نگاه نكرد. خورديم و گفتم: "كيكش خوب شده."اگنس بلند شد و رفت به طرف كامپيوتر. روى مونيتور ستاره‌هايى روشن ديده مى‌شدند كه از مركز به اطراف سير مى‌كردند. وقتى اگنس دستش را روى ماوس گذاشت، دوباره داستانش روى مونيتور ظاهر شد. اگنس دو سه دگمه را فشار داد و نوشته رفت.
پرسيدم: "چى كار می‌كنى؟" گفت: " پاكش كردم. تموم. بريم قدم بزنيم."

[Tahmineh Baradaran · Rating 3 out of 5]

آشنایی ورابطه دونفر که به موازات واقعیت وکتابی که مرد به خواست زن مینوسد ، ادامه می یابد . دوشخصیت فرعی هم درارتباط بااین دونفرهستند. نوعی ازتنهایی و سرما برآدمها وروابطشان جاری است. کتاب متفاوتی بود . کوتاه و بدون اضافات . باتوجّه به پیچیده نبودن متن ، ترجمه می توانست روان ترباشد.

[sAmAnE · Rating 4 out of 5]

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هر کدام ما به نوعی پس از مرگمون به زندگی ادامه می دیم . در یاد سایر آدم ها ، در یاد بچه های مان و در چیزی که خلق کردیم.
#اگنس
#پتر_اشتام
#ترجمه#محمود_حسینی_زاد 📝تا حالا شده با تصویرسازی ذهنتون،رابطه‌ها را مطابق میل خودتون پیش ببرید یا طوری اون‌ها رو پیش ببرید که قرار نبوده اتفاق بیوفته.اگر ما قدرت این‌کار رو داشتیم شاید زندگی‌مون خیلی بهتر می‌شد یا خیلی بدتر☺️خلاصه زندگی جوری پیش می‌ره که آدما خودشون میخوان یا میمونن یا میرن و کلا هر کسی تحت تاثیر شخصی دیگه قرار نمیگیره،البته بازم قطعیت نداره، تو این داستان،یه داستانِ دیگه همه چی رو عوض می‌کنه و مسئولش کسی نیست جز خودِ نویسنده. منم مثلِ بقیه‌ی دوستام این کتاب رو خیلی دوست داشتم،ترجمه روون و عالی بود به طوریکه چند ساعته می‌شد خوند و همینطور دلتنگی آخر داستان خیلی دلچسب

[Pedro · Rating 4 out of 5]

El narrador conoce a Agnes en una biblioteca de EEUU, y la relación crece hacia una relación de pareja. Una historia serena, que parece tener un trasfondo perturbador.
Muy buena.

[Mariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

'But happiness doesn't make for interesting stories. Someone once said that happiness writes white. It's fleeting and transparent, like smoke or fog. Do you know any painter who could paint smoke?

They go to the Art Institute of Chicago for this smoke and mirrors of happy people. Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte comes close. People on a riverbank. It's relaxing, it's shady, it's a Sunday afternoon. Standing face to face its made up of tiny dots, a flowing of colors. He points to a girl sitting in the grass, her head bent over the flowers in her hands. She doesn't need the parasol next to her on account of the shade (but her friend is holding up hers). Agnes says she's the girl in the white dress. They can't agree who he is either. I looked up the painting on my phone. The only girl in a white dress is a small child with her mother. I can't tell what they feel about one another today or any day. The mother is holding the parasol over her own head, in the shade, while her daughter walks in the sun.The little girl does have a hat on so maybe she's not Sting in that song by The Police. The shady painting makes me want to walk in the sun, though. Throw off the hat and.... something. I have no idea why Agnes identified herself as the child and I don't think her boyfriend, the writer of the Agnes novel within a novel, did either. I don't think he wondered about it at all (like maybe she had daddy issues and it wasn't that he was a sexy stud she picked him). He says that only in distance does the painting have any definition. She says that you have to write happiness like Seurat, happiness in dots and and unhappiness in stripes, and it is only happiness to you when you step back. I don't feel that way about them at all. 'Agnes' is talking and talking and talking and so much that the meaning is strangled out of it.

"Agnes is dead. Killed by a story. All that's left of her now is this story." is his opening line.
They meet in the public library in Chicago. He's there to write a book about luxury trains and then it is back to Switzerland. Agnes is a young student. Afraid of everything, he doesn't know why. Agnes clings to him, he doesn't know why. They meet cute. I didn't think it was cute. There would be voice overs or musical cues if it were a movie. I guess the first person style and "I already know what happens and this is how it happened" is too much like bad voice over anyway. We were happy, we made love, I loved her. I read the first eighty something pages of this last summer. It irritated me when he has to make love to her for something (to him) babyish and cutesy and I had to stop reading it. Out of the blues Agnes decides that he must, must, must write a story about her. At least this wasn't all about him getting back into the creative writing he had long ago forgotten how to do (one collection of short stories. His cozy train book job and other such commissioned work sounded cushy as hell to me). I would have had to throw the book at something, or something, if it had been about him being a writer. This is more like two people who have a relationship of talking about a relationship. Last year my sister told me that I was like Ronald Weasley from the Harry Potter series. No way! Where did she even get this shit? Not that it matters (she's so wrong but it doesn't matter). Agnes and her middle aged (or more) boyfriend do nothing but this. He writes some of the story (that becomes a novel because they can't shut up about themselves) and she looks at it to go "How can you see me this way?!", or as fodder for sexy times. It was gross when he writes that she wears a short navy dress he likes her in and of course she has to be moved around in what turns him on. It's not even a thread so much as a it would have been more interesting if this HAD been the story that Agnes wanted his story to be a safe mental image in her head to retreat to. Something besides "I don't know what I want you to say but it should magically please me anyway" impossible human understanding/piss off ego stroking. It couldn't have killed her that he writes of her alone in a forest without leaves or a way out, warmed by too cold. It's a hunger past hungry, a tired past tired. There's a part of Stamm's Unformed Landscape that echoes this (Agnes was first. I'm thankful I didn't read 'Agnes' first or I probably wouldn't have read and liked so much his other books) and I had loved it. A drowning and a giving up that turns into life just like awake after too tired. I wanted to know a Agnes outside of his story. He leaves her when she tells him she's pregnant. She leaves him, says he left her. Do you know people who go on and on about their will they break up with me or will I break up with them? But they don't break up, at least not yet, or for good. There's a wall behind their speech. The part I hate the most is that I know they told fifteen other people already and will tell a lot more besides, in search of the warm walls of what they want to hear. I don't exist, I'm a lamp post, I'm a blurred picture out of the windows. It's not good enough to have an idea of what about this man and this woman who have a relationship with each other away from each other? In all of the words said too late, never out loud. In what ifs and happy endings and beginnings that taste better coated nostalgia anyway. Relationships in barriers doesn't interest me if that is all it is. 'Agnes' is nothing but this. Not when Agnes miscarries and she's crying over a Dylan Thomas poem about no more life without death. I don't want her to read Herman Hesse to impress him if I don't feel what she felt reading him. Fuck her boyfriend being impressed. "You're still upset about that?" asks the cold lover who never wanted a baby anyway. Because he once had a girlfriend he pondered he mighta impregnated when his condom broke. He lives a baby and a life before he finds out she's not pregnant. He never wants a baby again. He didn't even need to be a whiney douche about not writing stories anymore because he found a way to make everything in life not live up to his out of the black and white dreams. He writes stories with Agnes about what their baby would have been like if it had lived (he guesses a girl but he never asked Agnes if it was true). Their baby is a nothing to do with a real baby dream. I don't get this. What, the baby won't grow up to be their own person with ideas of their own? If you want a baby for any other reason than finding out what kind of person they'll be, risking something.... What is a relationship in a story? What is the point of spending time of your life you'll never get back with someone else for any reason than risking more than an idea? What is the point of a story that's just a gimmick? Okay, it didn't help that I absolutely couldn't stand these people. It depresses me so much that people really would go around like this. That Agnes keeps that other guy on the string because it's security that he loves her. If I never read another story about people who think that they have ended their life and all possibilities because of a romantic relationship it will be too soon. I guess that was this dude's problem because he likes so much to keep Agnes on the possibility shelf. You'll still die, you'll still have to look at yourself in the mirror. Find reasons to get out of bed in the morning. It isn't up to who you have sex with to provide all of that for you. So so so so sick of this. You didn't kill her with a story. Your stories weren't the end all and be all of everything. They could have been a shade, a gloom, a stealing of breath if there had been something that existed without ever talking about it.

If I go and see Agnes now, I thought, that'll be it for ever. It's hard to explain, although I loved her and had been happy with her, it was only when she wasn't there that I felt I was free. And my freedom had always mattered more to me than my happiness. Maybe that was what my girlfriends meant when they talked about my egoism.

[Mouzhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

لطفا با دید یه کتاب ادبی فاخر سمتش نرید!به دید تجربه ی روابط امروزی اگه سراغش برید با خیال پردازی هاش قلبتون رو لمس میکنه🫂🫂
یه دختر فیزیک دان با یه نویسنده ی سوییسی توی کتاب خونه اشنا میشن و وارد رابطه میشن ودختر وسایلشو جمع میکنه ومیاد خونه ی پسر میمونه وازش میخواد داستان زندگیشو بنویسه وازش یه پرتره ی اختصاصی در قالب داستان بسازه!

اونجایی که اگنس راجع ستاره ها به پسر توضیح میداد وپسر گفت نمیدونستم نجوم هم بلدی؟!
اگنس گفت تو چی از من میدونی؟

اون قسمتی که اگنس سقط جنین انجام داد وحالتش منو یاد اپیزود پس از سقط از پادکست رادیو مرز مینداخت...

اونجایی که پسر به اگنس نگاه میکرد ومیگفت من کنارش خوشحال وخوشبختم ولی ازادیمو ترجیح میدم...

این قسمت ها برای من خیلی عزیز بودن....

[Yasmin M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

May 5th, 2016, Peter Stamm wrote in my copy of Agnes "No man can print a smile". It was at a book signing in Tehran, and the weather was still cold enough to wear a jacket.
I had read some of his stories and to be honest, I was only going to the book signing to meet and ask him why on earth he thinks his last story was worth being written. I found his language cold and so German, so...blue. But not sky blue, some sort of a deserted foggy forest blue.
When I met him and heard his voice, the theme in my mind changed all of a sudden, it was like one of those times when you have to know more than the written words of a person to understand his story.
I had forgotten to bring my copy of Agnes to the signing, so I bought another one right there and told him "I'm a physics student like Agnes. And I play the violin." He said "do you want me to write something special for you? Ok here goes:" and he did. Despite all this, I never really understood Agnes up until now.
We get so lost in our own stories, we forget to live in the real world. As simple and cliche as that might sound, we need to deal with it day by day. I see it all the time in my daily affairs. Why didn't that guy smile at me when I thanked him for passing the salt at the restaurant? Why doesn't my husband know what to say, sing, play or get me as a gift right now, while I have dreamed that he would?
Maybe the solution though, shouldn't be that we stop with our stories. That hardly seems doable, humans are addicted to stories. We live for it, we breathe for it. The real problem is dealing with people who have different stories than us.
Some girls dream of a fairy tale story. They focus on gowns, palaces, maidens and of course, their prince. Some girls however, dream of being free, learning how to ride a horse and be tough. That goes for guys too, or any person with a human mind. So when stories don't match, you need to find a way to get going. Maybe you can find another ending for them. Maybe it's too difficult to join them together, and that you'll have to abandon the idea of your two stories blend in.
Agnes is dead. A story killed her.
But it could have been different. If she, would have refused to be written and had just "written".

[Maryam Hosseini · Rating 4 out of 5]

این کتاب اون چیزی رو داشت که من بعد مدتها رمان نخوندن یا نصفه‌نیمه رهاکردن بهش نیاز داشتم
.بسیار خوشخوان بود

[SARAH · Rating 3 out of 5]

"اگنس مرده است. داستانی او را کشت.از اگنس جز این داستان چیزی برایم نمانده است."داستان با این خطوط ترغیب کننده اغاز میشه....زنی نزد نویسنده ای میرود و از او می خواهد که داستانش را بنویسد... زن درست مثل یک پرتره روبروی نویسنده می نشیند ومی خواهد نویسنده او را خلق کند به تحریر بکشد شاید..... هر چه داستان جلو تر میرود بیشتر مطمئن میشوم مرد شیفته ان اگنسی است که خلق کرده و از اگنس واقعی چیز زیادی نمی داند. حتی در اواخر داستان جاییکه توانمندی اگنس در ستاره شناسی موجب شگفتی مرد میشود و میگوید نمی دانستم به ستاره ها علاقه داری؛ اگنس پاسخ میدهد، تو اصلا از من چی می دانی....انگار اگنس واقعی سایه کمرنگی بود که در اگنس داستان مرد حل شد .....نمی توانم توانمندی بی بدیل نویسنده را در خلق داستان منکر شوم...نویسنده اگر با این قدرت شخصیت ها را خلق نمیکرد حتما داستان کشش خود را از دست می داد.....

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ich habe bereits etwas von Peter Stamm gelesen und wusste nicht so recht, was ich von davon halten sollte. Bei „Agnes“ geht es mir wieder ähnlich.
Die Geschichte dreht sich um einen männlichen Protagonisten und Agnes, die sich in einer Bibliothek begegnen. Es werden Alltagssituatioenn sehr detailliert beschrieben, die für die Handlung meist nichtssagend sind.
Beide Figuren sind mir unsympathisch, nicht greifbar und mir ist immer noch nicht klar, was Peter Stamm damit bezwecken wollte.
Den Schreibstil von Peter Stamm empfand ich als angenehm, die Geschichte fand ich sehr träge und langweilig.
Ich werde erst einmal ein wenig Abstand von Peter Stamms Werken nehmen und es eventuell in ein paar Jahren noch einmal versuchen.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ich habe im Deutschunterricht schon wirklich tolle Bücher gelesen. Aus dieser Abilektüre habe ich aber leider nichts gelernt, außer dass es eine schlechte Idee ist, einen langweiligen Typen zu daten, der außerdem egoistisch und beziehungsunfähig ist - wer hätte das gedacht?

Ich hab wirklich die Nase voll von diesen "postmodernen" Büchern, die angeblich die Einsamkeit in Großstädten oder was auch immer illustrieren sollen, obwohl das eigentliche Problem meist ist, dass die Protagonisten schlichtweg so dumm und selbstverliebt sind, dass sie nicht auf die Idee kommen, sich wie erwachsene Menschen zu unterhalten.

[Hodove · Rating 3 out of 5]

داستان به طور کلی یه مرد نویسنده که عاشق یه دختر جوون تر از خودش میشه.
برام شبیه وداع با اسلحه مدرن بود البته فهم این شباهت نبوغ خاصی هم نمیخواد چون نویسنده یه جا به همینگوی و وداع با اسلحه اشاره “مستقیم” میکنه.
مردها شبیه اکثرمردهای داستانهای همینگوی و حتی اگنس هم شبیه زنهای داستانهای همینگوی بود.
اولای رابطه پرشور و هیجان و بعد عشق دچار زوال میشه و دست پاگیر هم میشن،قسمت دریاچه دقیقا یاد دریاچه تو سوییس انداخت وقتی فردریک و کاترین فرار میکردند.سقط شدن بچه و نهایت مردن شخصیت زن که خب تو این داستانم همینجور بود.
داستان شسته و رفته بود و راحت میشد خوندش.

[Tandis Toofanian · Rating 4 out of 5]

من هم گاهى دعا ميكردم، اما هميشه هر وقت شروع ميكردم، ميگفتم: اى خداى مهربان، البته اگر وجود دارى.
گاهى هم براى خودم شرطى تعيين ميكردم.
مثلن اگه بتونم يك ربع روى يه پا بايستم، يا چشم بسته صد قدم برم، اون وقت چيزى كه ميخوام اتفاق مى افته.

[Sali-steady-read · Rating 3 out of 5]

والا نمیدونم چی بگم! خاص بود! اما سکوت اختیار میکنم!

[Setayesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
(لعنت بر کنکور که وقت واسه کتاب خوندن برات نمی‌ذاره)

[Fatemeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب خیلی روان و‌ نرمی بود اما در کل خیلی کتاب دوست داشتنی برام نبود
طراحی جلد خیلی زیبا بود و وقتی داشتند در مورد این نقاشی صحبت می‌کردند برام جا��ب و بانمک بود .
ترسیم حال و هوای نیویورک هم برام حس سریال های درام آمریکایی رو داشت.اینکه چطور همه چی دور و بر این زوج‌، شلوغ و پر از هرج و مرجه اما انگار وقتی دوربین رو این دو نفر فوکوس میکنه همه سر و صدا ها آروم میشن و زندگی حالت اسلوموشن به خودش میگیره
دیگه اینجا داستان این شهر بزرگ مطرح نیست بلکه کل دنیا زوم میشن رو این دو نفر تا داستان زندگیشون رو بدونن .هرچقدرم این داستان دم دستی و تکراری باشه ،اما مطمئنا یه تیکه منحصر به فرد برای خودش داره


+همیشه فکر میکردم که آدم زمانی خسته گوشه ای می‌افته و در مرگ آرامش رو پیدا می‌کنه
_اگر آدم قبلش بمیره چی؟قبل از اون که خسته بشه؟اگه به آرامش نرسه چی؟

[Friederike Knabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

"But it's just a story ...You wanted me to write it that way." I said, "we wrote it together."

Yes, Agnes had wanted her lover to write her life story, but, until now she had not warned him how stories can influence her thinking and behaviour. The novel's opening sentences suggest that much in very short blunt sentences: "Agnes is dead. Killed by a story. All that's left of her now is this story." He, the nameless narrator, a Swiss author staying in Chicago for research for a glossy book on luxury trains, agrees to retell the story of their relationship. It lasted nine months. His previous success as a fiction writer had been modest, and his only effort at a novel abandoned, until Agnes rekindles his interest. AGNES is Swiss author, Peter Stamm's first novel (1998) and for those familiar with his most recent novel, Seven Years, his style and, in particular, the depiction of human relationships and personality traits in the narrator/central character will be recognizable. This novel being much shorter, more a novella, he touches on themes effectively without developing them, however, in comparable depth to later novels.

Agnes is something of a loner and not particularly attractive: a physics student, writing a doctoral thesis on the symmetry in crystals, she prefers touching objects to being touched, even accidentally, by people. Nonetheless, she attaches herself quickly to the narrator, in an all-or-nothing kind of way. Initially, the narrator, considerably older than Agnes, appears only intrigued, his flirtations with her casual. "My freedom had always mattered more to me than my happiness." Stamm's matter-of-fact language and detached style underline the impression of the protagonist's reluctance or even inability for involvement with his surroundings.

Throughout the novel, Stamm uses his descriptions of the city- and, especially, the landscape around Chicago, to evoke the changing moods of his characters. Their walks along the Lake and into to National Park brings the couple most intimately together. Their lives are "too happy" to make a good story, the narrator keep telling Agnes as she, gradually becomes more of a fixture in his space and life. It is only when she is not there, do his feelings for her coming to the fore.

Eventually, his writing of their story catches up with the present: can he imagine their future and will it be happy? All of a sudden, his narrative intentions no longer matter, the story takes over and dictates what to write... Stamm brings out the writer's inner conflict: his sense of freedom to imagine a different future is intense. The temptation to create a different Agnes, whose life he can control totally, is powerful. Agnes, on the other hand, while regularly reading what he writes, is starting to act out the story's character and demands that he play along. Fact and fiction are in serious danger of coming into conflict with each other. "'I don't read much anymore,' said Agnes. 'Because I didn't want books to have me in their power. It's like poison.' [...] 'I'm always sad when I finish a book, ... It feels to me that I'd become the character in it, and the character's life ends when the book does.'" The danger signs are obvious to the reader, but the author continues to make light of them: "it's just a story." similarly to his later novel, Stamm introduces the 'other woman' into the story: she is attractive, independent and casual in her dealings with men, the opposite of Agnes. Again, his central male character does not fully realize the consequences of his actions.

To have the beginning of a novel pre-empt the ending can enhance or reduce the reading pleasure. In this case, for me at least, it did both - increase and diminish the creative tension that Stamm builds very well throughout the narrative. I didn't spend as much thought on some of the finer intriguing touches of the novel and rather felt myself focusing on wondering what could trigger Agnes' end and how, anyway, could a story kill... As can be anticipated, the end of the book cycles back to the beginning, or, maybe, not quite as straightforwardly. The reader will have to decide how to interpret it. Michael Hofmann has presented an exquisite and finely-tuned translation; he has since translated all books published by Peter Stamm.

[Mary 🍀 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Instagram.com/marco_ketab
#ادبیات_سوئیس 🇨🇭‌
اگنس‌
نویسنده: پتر اشتام‌
مترجم: محمود حسینی زاد‌
نشر: افق‌
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برشی از کتاب‌
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هر وقت یک کتاب رو تا آخر میخونم غمگین میشم.‌
داستان که تموم شه زندگی آدم هم به آخر میرسه ولی گاهی هم خوشحال میشم وقتی پایان داستان مثل رها شدن از یک خواب ناراحت کننده ست احساس سبکباری و آزادی یکنم انگار تازه به دنیا اومده باشم.‌
گاهی از خودم میپرسم یعنی نویسنده ها میدونن چی کار میکنن با ما چی کار میکنن؟‌
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و اما قصه از چه قراره‌
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یادتونه چند روز پیش این کتاب رو دلی خریدم؟ بخاطر چندتا چیز که مشترک که توو زندگی منم بود و در ادامه میگم. اول بگم از نظر خودم نمیتونم اسم این پست رو معرفی کتاب بزارم چون بیشتر حرفام دلیه.‌
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خوب از اینجا شروع شد که اول بخاطر تشابه اسم دومم با اسم کتاب کشید شدم سمت قفسه و از بین کتابا برش داشتم، وقتی نگاهی به پشت جلد کردم فهمیدم قصه از شهری رقم میخوره که شاید یه روزی خونه ام باشه. تازه مرد قصه نویسنده اس! درست مثل موری!! دیگه خیلی خاص تر شد تا اینکه با یکم ورق زدن دلم خواست بخرمش.‌
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‌اگنس قصه مون دوست داره مرد نویسنده ی که به تازگی باهاش آشنا شده، یه داستان در موردش بنویسه. خوب کل کتاب هم حول همین اتفاق و چالش های این ارتباط میگذره. که بازم یه نقطه های مشترکی بین من و موری و داستان میدیدم. چیز زیادتری نمیتونم از داستان بهتون بگم چون واقعن هرچی بگم داستان لو رفته. جذابیت نهایی کتاب برام این بود که نتونستم بزارم توی چمدون پیش بقیه کتابا که میخوام ببرم بمونه، پس همین جا شروعش کردم و با وویس برای موری هم میخوندمش.‌
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خلاصه در نهایت جواب سوالاتون رو بگم که کتاب خیلی چیز خاصی نداره که بخوام به دیگری حتمن پیشنهادش بدم یا هدیه بدم با اینکه برای خودم خاص بود. یه داستان روون و ساده که نباید منتظر اتفاق تازه و خاص توش باشید.‌
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