Peter Handke

"An odyssey through the mind and memory of a washed-up writer from one of Europe's most provocative novelists"--

A Story

The Moravian Night

Donald

Handke is mistreated by his American reviewers. Adam Kirsch's review in the NYRB is basically libelous and gives no evidence that Kirsch read the book. Joshua Cohen's in the NYTBR is better - Cohen is the last honest book reviewer around these days, so he actually read the thing (and probably in German) - but misunderstands Handke's Serbian project. Still, Cohen begrudgingly admits that he likes the book.

I need to read it again, but I think The Moravian Night might be the best novel of our young century (along with 2666), or at least the best European novel. Handke does something that only he can do and that no one else is even imitating. I'm not sure how to describe that something other than to use Handke's own description: “a slow, inquiring narration; every paragraph dealing with and narrating a problem, of representation, of form, of grammar—of aesthetic veracity.” That pretty much covers it, but I'd add that The Moravian Night can also be very funny.

Please read this, so I have someone to talk to about it. At the moment nobody I know has read or even heard of Handke.

The Moravian Night A Story

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