The Swiss writer Peter Stamm’s fiction is often enigmatic – unreliable narrators, contradictory behaviour and characters who can’t admit to their emotions. In his latest novel, fortysomething Andrea is in Paris with her cameraman boyfriend Tom, attempting to make a documentary about a celebrated author 20 years older than herself. The subject, Richard Wechsler, appears to like Andrea, but isn’t enthusiastic about the film.
His novels generally feature a muse to whom the male character frequently returns, and Andrea becomes obsessed with discovering if this relates to Wechsler’s life. At the same time, she is annoyed if Tom asks Wechsler similar personal questions. (Andrea is easily irritated, ending several relationships when none of them lives up to her exacting standards. She sounds like a narcissist with little empathy.) Wechsler is evasive about his private life – but after speaking to a childhood friend of his, Andrea works out who the inspiration for the muse is. She seeks out the woman, Judith, to question her.
Wechsler’s behaviour in love exemplifies a longing for freedom from ties combined with a paradoxical – and selfish – urge to sleep repeatedly with the woman he loves. Andrea, who is herself needlessly cruel to a string of lovers, is fascinated by his refusal to compromise. She fantasises about having sex with him. We aren’t in fact told that these intimate scenes between them are all in her mind, but there are clues – for example in the way Wechsler talks about subjects Andrea hasn’t shared with him, such as an esoteric film about people’s behaviour on the highest diving board at a swimming pool. Halfway through the book a major event befalls Wechsler, and the focus then shifts to the burgeoning friendship between Andrea and Judith.
This is a strange novel. There isn’t much of a plot, but it’s intriguing enough to keep you reading, partly to work out whether Andrea develops any real relationship with Wechsler or whether it’s all imaginary. I did, however, feel uneasy that her closeness to Judith was just parasitical feasting – embracing her because she wanted to be her.
The translation by Michael Hofmann is sublime and doesn’t miss a beat.
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