The short letter as a long farewell

The short letter on the long farewell is a story by Peter Handke . It was published in 1972. The story is divided into two parts “1. The short letter "and" 2. The long farewell ”. Both parts are preceded by short quotations from Karl Philipp Moritz ' Anton Reiser . In addition, the story contains several mentions of various literary works by other authors, which act as travel books for the protagonist. Including a detailed summary of F. Scott Fitzgerald's “ The Great Gatsby ”, which addresses the possibility of self-design and the American dream, the self-made man.

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A young man from Austria is in Providence , Rhode Island and receives a letter from Judith, his wife: “I am in New York. Please don't look for me, it wouldn't be nice to find me. ”The subsequent trip through the USA is both a search for Judith and an escape from her threats. Getting to know a way of life that is alien to him gives him the opportunity to look at himself anew, to rethink his childhood and his relationship with Judith. Their meeting at the end enables both of them to say goodbye for good.

Reviews

"Handke, the form-smasher, the pioneer with a successor, wrote a great love story based on great models." Der Bund , Bern.

expenditure

Peter Handke: The short letter as a long farewell. Suhrkamp Paperback No. 3286. Frankfurt: 2001. ISBN 3-518-39786-9

Web links

The short letter to the long farewell on the Handke online platform

Individual evidence

↑ Christoph Parry: The short letter to the long farewell. In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Kindlers Literatur Lexikon . 3rd, completely revised edition. 18 vols. Metzler, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , vol. 7, p. 55.

[1] Christoph Parry: The short letter to the long farewell. In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Kindlers Literatur Lexikon . 3rd, completely revised edition. 18 vols. Metzler, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , vol. 7, p. 55.