The sky over Merano

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The sky over Meran is a volume of six stories by Joseph Zoderer and was published in 2005. The stories are about walking, often also about walking. The short but intense stories grab the reader from a distant perspective.

content

We went

There the author describes how his family experienced the option period , his move to Innsbruck and on to Graz, and the various impressions of the author. He describes how he experienced the difficult times as a 4-year-old and incorporates his findings as an adult, as well as the impressions of his brother, who was a little older at the time. The topic of option time, which he also found in other books such as B. Happiness in hand washing mentioned shows the personal importance and implications for the author. He describes the emigration and its corrosive effect on the South Tyroleans quite accurately by his reference in the book that the motto of the option was “stay German or become Italian”.

When father died

In this chapter, Joseph Zoderer poignantly describes how the first-person narrator experiences the last days of his dying father in the hospital. During the stay, he falls in love with the nurse, but his father's death separates them.

The mother's house

When visiting his mother, the author witnesses her mental and physical decline, which later ends in death. It is vividly described how the mother sometimes examines the daughter's sleep in the cone of a flashlight. But she for her part locked her room and turned it into a hiding place in a childlike, needy way. The slight mental absence also proves her hearing impairment, which turns the conversation while walking with her into a parallel conversation. It ends with the death of the mother, a telegram from the sister who informs her brother of what has now arrived and his remark that he is now coming.

Monika

Here, too, the author describes a person's decline in a slightly apathetic way. Monika has been addicted to drugs since she was a teenager, but also to "injections". This is first noticed after following a German vacationer, probably because he gives her access to her drugs. During her crises, she sometimes comes to the narrator for some wine. Sometimes with the threat of suicide after she swallowed several pills again. After being admitted several times, one day she tries with a knife, but is reassured by the narrator. The latter is completely immoral and apathetic towards her, although he also slightly regrets the fate in her. In another attempt, she finally succeeds in suicide and the narrator realizes with a complete surprise that the village community is quietly mourning the deceased. Until then, it seemed as if their fate in the village was a matter of indifference.

The proximity of their feet

A man meets his lover again after a year and a half, but they soon realize that they have changed. While still at the airport, they begin to break up the unfamiliar distance between them with a little alcohol in order to get closer. His lover, who stayed in town, has meanwhile created a nightlife environment that seems completely unknown and foreign to him. In this "there-is-nothing-to-say" mood, he experiences her going into a lesbian bar where they seem to know everyone. The next day they go to the beach, where they rummage through old memories, but both of them lose their mood and feelings. Before their final breakup, the two of them make love one last time, they get into a taxi and on the drive to their work the same mood arises in him as before the long separation. He starts the journey home relaxed.

The sky over Merano

Josef Zoderer describes the beginning of his life through the sky in Merano, which he no longer remembers, and ends with the description of the sky above his home village Terenten. From moving out of Meran, similar to the first story "We went", to describing the development of his home village, tourism and some problems in South Tyrolean society, by describing a typical walk in the area around his home village. He wanders off again and again and alludes to several grievances in the world, sometimes metaphorically, sometimes depressingly clear and distinct, when they appear too obvious.

Subjects and writing style

Zoderer's style is written through a clear and simple sentence structure and direct access to the reader. It conveys its content in simple and intuitive words. In several of the stories he is able to evoke a deep sense of "it is so" in the reader. Rather, satisfaction is achieved through awareness of the tension and differences. The narrative is also indicated by the will of an intellectual to immorally encounter the superficial appearances of life and people, to appreciate them and to contemplate them. He only takes a clear position on clear topics.

Web links