Günter Kunert is known as someone who has always viewed the ways of the world with skepticism, or at least with a wait-and-see attitude. Concerning the future, he has certainly always been more of a cautionary than an apologist. Now he has written a book of miniatures, complemented by 13 of his own drawings, beginning with the three words »the old man«, in which he looks over the shoulder at himself, often with a delighted, lightly self-ironic tone.
The »old man« is taking stock of his life. Naturally he looks more often back than forward - sometimes with a certain sadness, because the powers he needs to master everyday life are starting to fade. There are things he might soon have to forego. Climbing stairs is increasingly a challenge. The escalator in the department store is becoming malevolent. Small coins no longer allow themselves to be easily extricated from the wallet at the cashier. That certain perceptions are becoming dim is distressing - or not, as the case may be, considering the unpleasant impertinences of the times. Not a few of these problems will just have to be solved by others.
The adventures are all in the head. Increasingly more space is taken up by memories that are brought into a floating state with longings and dreams - a state in which protest and agreement exist in balance with the inevitable, creating the tension within which these »conversations »exist.
Rights sold
Ireland (North and South) and Great Britain: Coiscéim
Italy: Edizioni Kolibris
Published by Wallstein
Nachrichten aus Ambivalencia (News from Ambivalencia).
Günter Kunert
was born in 1929 in Berlin. In 1979 he left East Germany to settle in the West, and presently lives in Itzehoe. For his extraordinarily multifaceted and comprehensive works - poetry, essays, travel books, a novel, stories, children`s books, plays, and screen plays - he has received many honors and prizes.
