The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

A Whole Life
by Robert Seethaler
translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
Austria


Available in the U.K. from Picador


Available in the U.S. from Farrar, Straus and Giroux on September 13

Andreas lives his whole life in the Austrian Alps, where he arrives as a young boy taken in by a farming family. He is a man of very few words and so, when he falls in love with Marie, he doesn’t ask for her hand in marriage but instead has some of his friends light her name at dusk across the mountain. When Marie dies in an avalanche, pregnant with their first child, Andreas’s heart is broken. He leaves his valley just once more, to fight in WWII — where he is taken prisoner in the Caucasus — and returns to find that modernity has reached his remote haven. Like John Williams’ Stoner or Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams, A Whole Life is a tender book about finding dignity and beauty in solitude. It looks at the moments, big and small, that make us what we are.

Yet again its power rests in its candid simplicity. A Whole Life has the mood of an Alistair MacLeod story and will resonate with Irish readers for its physical evocation of the remote mountain village as well as for its understated melancholy, which is reminiscent of Sam Hanna Bell’s classic December Bride (1951).
~Eileen Battersby in The Irish Times

Against the backdrop of a literary world that often seems crowded with novels yelling “Look at me!”, it’s refreshing to read a story marked by quiet, concentrated attention. Robert Seethaler’s novella about a man living his life in a single mountain valley is a bestseller in Germany, and its success may in part be a reaction to all around us that is prolix, narcissistic and mindlessly technology-worshipping. The world of Andreas Egger, by contrast, is slow, taciturn and definitely “unplugged”.
~Adam Lively in The Sunday Times

Hmmm. I started this one today and I'm not enjoying it. The story is fine, and the concept one I'd normally be attracted to, but the writing itself is simple in the bad way, not the good way. I find little to engage with so far. The language just doesn't do much to make me feel and leaves little for me to contemplate. I saw it compared to Stoner in more than one place, but that book's first paragraph offered so much.

As for the comparison above to Alistair MacLeod, I'm not feeling it. Other than in the general setting -- cold, etc. -- Seethaler is not approaching MacLeod's gorgeous work.

I'm hoping I'm missing something, as I'd just as soon like this book than not, but I'm getting less and less hopeful. I'll be back soon. It's not long. And if I can, I will eat my words.

I can understand that. I was always aware of liking this book despite some shortcomings in the writing. Another reviewer, who had posted about the book a few days before I read it, astutely pointed out that the book lacks irony.

I had missed that you enjoyed it, Anto. I'll keep that in mind as I don't want to suddenly be overly dismissive and curt with the book when I've got quite a bit left to read.

My lowest regard for it was during the childhood scenes, due to their similarity to other stories; in turn that made clunks in the writing more obvious. I found it most effective when read in longer chunks, my interest in the setting made a difference to the way I felt about the book, and looking back later at highlighted quotes, they seemed unremarkable out of context. "Guilty pleasure" isn't quite the right term, as it's not exactly a trashy blockbuster, but as I said in my review, I wouldn't recommend it to many people I know on Goodreads, and was always aware of that whilst reading.

I finished this afternoon and opted for two stars. Probably would be three normally, but reading in conjunction with the Man Booker International makes me more harsh I think. I read and compare to other books, which isn't fair. But beyond the MBI, I also kept thinking of Stoner, since I've seen others reference it, and to me it falls very short of that one. I also thought often of Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, which does some very similar things only much better. I just kept feeling like Seethaler was simply telling me what was happening and how to feel, remarking on the complex vicissitudes of life without making me reflect on them myself. Rather than open up that space for me, A Whole Life is content to outline the space. I need to put together a better response for a review, so this is quite the quick take.

reading in conjunction with the Man Booker International makes me more harsh I think
Conversely, it made me more generous. I expected to be slightly bored. I wasn't. And in a few days had doubled the number of 5 star ratings I'd given so far this year.

Denis Johnson's Train Dreams
An article mentioned this in connection with the book too. I don't read a lot of American fiction, but this one looks interesting.

I was never bored either. Read the book in two or three sittings, one of those quite long. And it was pleasurable in many ways. Going through these lives like that often is for me; I think that generation that lived through the wars, the automobile, the television, etc., is a fascinating one to consider.

I'd definitely recommend Train Dreams for a very similar story, only this one set in Idaho/Washington (my old stomping ground, so I'm slightly biased). About a man who grew up a laborer in the pine trees, with the devastation that often visited that generation, and many of the changes he had to live through. Also, one I hadn't thought about but that is excellent on this topic, though with a very different approach, is Ronald Blythe's Akenfield.

I was never bored either. Read the book in two or three sittings, one of those quite long. And it was pleasurable in many ways. Going through these lives like that often is for me; I think that generation that lived through the wars, the automobile, the television, etc., is a fascinating one to consider.

I'd definitely recommend Train Dreams for a very similar story, only this one set in Idaho/Washington (my old stomping ground, so I'm slightly biased). About a man who grew up a laborer in the pine trees, with the devastation that often visited that generation, and many of the changes he had to live through. Also, one I hadn't thought about but that is excellent on this topic, though with a very different approach, is Ronald Blythe's Akenfield.

Think I am with Trevor on this one - one of those books where the temptation is to say that beneath the apparently simple surface there is much subtlety, but actually I ended up feeling it was what it seemed, a rather simple story, well told, but with no real substance.

It's a different type of book from [most of] the other titles, and if it weren't for the MBI, not one it would have ever occurred to me to compare with them.

Oof, my least favorite (of the few I read) has made the shortlist!

Trevor wrote: "Oof, my least favorite (of the few I read) has made the shortlist!"

Yes, nothing wrong with it and Antonomisia's 5 star review certainly made me see it differently.

But to drop Ladivine and Mend the Living and include this....Boyd Tomkin strikes again,,,,,,

I had associated Tonkin & the IFFP with novels about political regimes (The Four Books might be an example), the Second World War, and brittle, dull novellas or short story collections. Although here and I think on one of the couple of blogs I looked at yesterday he's sounding simply like a somewhat conservative / non-experimental influence.
This shortlist isn't as exciting as it could be but there are several books on here that were, IMO, more enjoyable and less obviously 'worthy' than I would have expected from an IFFP.