Absence [Hardcover]

Peter Handke (Author), Ralph Manheim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1990

The time is an unspecified modernity, the place possibly Europe. Absence follows four nameless people -- the old man, the woman, the soldier, and the gambler -- as they journey to a desolate wasteland beyond the limits of an unnamed city.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

German author Handke ( Afternoon of a Writer ) enlarges the recurrent metaphysical preoccupations of his prolific output in this latest challenging and rewarding novel. The story's four nameless protagonists meander through a surreally disconnected and flattened landscape. An old artist, a gambler ignorant of himself, a callow soldier whose self-effacing "absence" is a defense against the world, and a vain woman whose frantic mirror-staring fails to make her present to herself, "roam"--as the novel's epigraph from Chuang Tzusp ok puts it--"in the palace of Nowhere, where all things are one." As they wander across an almost featureless northern plain, the past, present and future become one and the characters' insubstantial identities collapse into one another. But when they detect legible symbols in the surrounding blankness and read them with conviction, the landscape springs into recognizable life and the characters discover their strength. In this smoothly written fable, Handke forcefully summons readers to the recognition that the essence of human life lies in the striving for self-expression even though its perfect realization must always remain elusive.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Four characters, identified only as the Old Man, the Woman, the Soldier, and the Gambler, travel to a remote wasteland bordering on an unnamed city. Seasons change overnight, the old man disappears, and the notebook he carries appears to the soldier in a dream, but despite evocative prose there's little direction here, only curious moments and a vague unease. Handke expects his readers to swallow each descriptive detail in this interminable journey, whether it deserves curiosity--or has any significance--or not. In his last novella (at just over 100 pages we should not overrate these slim volumes), the protagonist's experiences shed some light on the book's title ( Afternoon of A Writer, LJ 9/1/89). Absence , alas, is completely true to its title.
- Peter Bricklebank, City Coll., CUNY
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 118 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (May 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374100225
• ISBN-13: 978-0374100223
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,936,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars I can't believe this book is absent of reviews., December 23, 2010

By 

RBJ (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Absence (Paperback)

This is an important book. It is challenging in the way that all good literature is challenging and that is by virtue of being something other than passive entertainment. Something you put down but it lingers even after you turn your head away.

This is the book that introduced me to Peter Handke.

Every few years I find myself pulling this book down from the shelf and glancing through its pages. Although the book itself is weathered from my personal use I still find its complexities, its viscous language, so completely unfamiliar. Like a good friend with secrets is this book to me.