Maybe This Time by Alois Hotschnig
3 October, 2011
Peirene Press burst onto the literary scene last year with the publication of Veronique Olmi’s Beside the Sea followed by Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal and Portrait of a Mother as a Young Woman by Friedrich Christian Delius. Billed as modern European literature which you can read in a two hour sitting, these books pack a punch more powerful than their slight appearance may give. The first three books made up their year of the woman. 2011 is their year of the man. I still have their 4th and 5th publications, Next World Novella by Matthias Politycki and Tomorrow Pamplona by Jan van Mersbergen, to read but I’m looking foward to them knowing that there will be an ambitious treat in store. But what I became really excited about was their 6th title, Maybe This Time by Alois Hotschnig, only because it is a book of SHORT STORIES. As some of you may know, I ADORE short stories. There’s something about their discreteness and brevity that adds an extra oomph to the reading experience. You can’t quite settle into the story comfortably because it could end at any time. I like that unsettling feeling which leaves me all jumpy and gives me palpitations.
Of the nine stories, the one that had the most impact was the first one which sets the tone for the rest of the collection. In The Same Silence, The Same Noise, the narrator (somehow I think of of him as a man) watches his neighbours, a couple who spend their days sunbathing on their deck, and becomes progressively more paranoid as his obsession intensifies while they coolly ignore him. It’s a masterful piece about a mundane pastime that shows how easily one can get sucked into something vicarious even if nothing is actually happening. There is something lush and vibrant about Hotschnig’s descriptions and I could almost feel the lazy sunshine caressing the skin and the dripping water as the narrator jumps into the lake. The slow build up of paranoia and tension is superb.
The second tale, Two Ways of Leaving, is completely different and left me quite confused and puzzled in a pleasant way. I think it’s about a stalker but I’m not sure. Maybe it’s about closure. You’ll have to read it yourself and make up your own mind.
Then A Door Opens and Swings Shut is probably the creepiest of the stories and is reminscent of Roald Dahl’s more macabre tales. There are dolls and a strange old woman and the licking of faces. Creepy, right?
Maybe This Time, Maybe Now is bathed in pathos, the contrast between the noisy family gatherings and the perpetual longing and waiting for a guest who never appears providing a stark reminder of possible loss and denial. In some ways this story seemed the most quotidien, and maybe because of this, is a bit of a slow-burner and remained with me the longest.
And the final story, You Don’t Know Them, They’re Strangers, reminded me of the film Dark City where every night the people in charge came to re-arrange the sleeping citizen’s lives, but not quite.
There’s something starkly beautiful about Hotschnig’s tales and Tess Lewis’ translation is seamless. There is a clean and clear sense of alienation which imbues the lives of the characters who find themselves in slightly opaque situations. Meike Ziervogel of Peirene Press describes these stories as oblique and Kafkaesque and I completely agree with her. It’s lovely and ever so slightly creepy. As with all short story collections, there will be a couple of stories that may not make the favourite mark, but Maybe This Time is a pretty strong collection.
Thank you to Peirene Press for kindly sending me a copy of Maybe This Time to review. And I hope there will be more short story collections in future!
chasing bawa 
3 October, 2011 at 11:37 am
I am going to read this in German for the German literature month and am really looking forward to it. I have read very different reviews already and am so curious now.
4 October, 2011 at 10:07 am
Enjoy. I don’t read German, so I wonder how it will be in the original language (I always wonder that about translations). Looking forward to seeing what you think!
3 October, 2011 at 5:56 pm
I enjoyed it very different to anything I d read in a while I m saving it for german lit month ,all the best stu
4 October, 2011 at 10:08 am
It is rather different from other short story collections I’ve read recently too. Enjoy German Lit Month!
3 October, 2011 at 6:52 pm
It’s interesting to note that while reading a story, your mind would conjure up a movie. From your descriptions, all the stories you describe here are so dramatic they must read like a movie. I’ve been dwelling on short stories lately too and yes, there are ready cinematic moments.
4 October, 2011 at 10:10 am
I think Hotschnig’s strength lies in his very visual prose, which is one the things that struck me from the first story. I don’t normally compare books to movies I’ve seen but it happens sometimes;)
4 October, 2011 at 5:38 am
I haven’t read any German-language short stories before, so I’ll be interested to try this one (my copy should be passing through the BD’s hands as we speak!). Although you make Hotschnig sound rather creepy…
4 October, 2011 at 10:10 am
But they are creepy and it’s one of the reasons why I like the stories so much:) Looking forward to seeing your thoughts on them Tony.
6 October, 2011 at 9:39 pm
I liked the creepiness too! And the doll story was definitely the creepiest of all. The way she was waiting for him, and he had his own doll, and kept going back there trying to find himself in the doll. I loved the weirdness, and I think the first story will stay with me the longest as well. In all the stories I felt the search for identity – in the first one, for example, even though he was looking at the neighbours, it really seemed as if he wasn’t interested in them so much as himself. Anyway thanks for the review – there’s a lot to talk about in this book, isn’t there?
7 October, 2011 at 10:53 am
Absolutely. It seems like they were all stuck within their own paranoid world in each story. I think it’s one of those collections that you would want to go back and re-read just because Hotschnig doesn’t give you the full picture.
13 October, 2011 at 5:07 pm
I admit I was surprised that Peirene Press took a detour from their novellas and published a short story collection. I’ve long been a fan of the form, and I am really hoping that Peirene’s decision could dissuade people from thinking that “they’re just not enough” (the common misgiving I’ve heard).
I picked this up about a week ago, but I realized too soon that I wasn’t ready for its quietness, its disquiet. I read “Two Ways of Leaving” first, mostly due to the title, and I loved it. I was baffled, yes, but it was so creeeeepy, haha. But! I just knew I wouldn’t be receptive at the time. Reading your review has reminded me to fish this out of the book dump that are my shelves, so thank you! Will also, like many others up there, try to talk about this during the German Literature Month. 🙂
18 October, 2011 at 3:18 pm
Looking forward to seeing what you make of the other stories, Sasha. It’s certainly a disquieting book and that’s one of the reasons why I liked it so much. Probably because I wasn’t expecting it! I certainly hope Peirene will bring out more short story collections!
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