Malina: A Novel (Portico Paperbacks) [Paperback]

Ingeborg Bachmann (Author), Mark Anderson (Author), Philip Boehm (Author, Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0841911894 | ISBN-13: 978-0841911895 | Publication Date: June 1999 | Edition: 1st Pbk. Ed

This is a work of sharp, unforgettable images and an irresistible narrative. Here is the story of lives painfully intertwined: the unnamed narrator, haunted by nightmarish memories of her father, lives with the androgynous Malina, an initially remote and dispassionate man who ultimately becomes an iminous influence. Plunging toward its riveting finale, "Malina" brutally lays bare the struggle for love and the limits of discourese between women and men.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This demanding work contains flashes of great beauty and insight but is ultimately marred by Bachmann's cryptic, fragmented prose and internalized story line that is based entirely on the narrator's emotional responses to events conveyed only obliquely to the reader. Part of the problem derives from the veiled yet critical references to Austrian history, which are satisfactorily explained only in the excellent afterword. Also difficult is the subject matter itself: the inability of language to express our deepest emotions and Bachmann's own frustrating struggle to create a new, all-encompassing prose. Like the author, who was ambivalent about her success as one of Austria's most influential postwar writers, the narrator is in a personal and professional crisis as she begins a new book. The novel loosely chronicles her love affairs with two men, the life-affirming Ivan, a Hungarian who begs the author to write about joy rather than express her own dark vision of humanity, and Malina, the introverted man she lives with. The narrator's playful attempt to act as a companion and " wife" to Ivan ends disastrously, with her own personality disintegrating. She becomes dependent on Malina who, as her alter ego, first leads her through a terrifying fantasy sequence about her father, and then, quite literally absorbs her into his own personality. First published in 1971, Bachmann's only novel is being reissued posthumously as part of the Modern German Voices series.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

First published in Austria in 1971, this work gained quick acceptance into the canon of modern Austrian and women's literature. It concerns a triangle consisting of the narrator (an unnamed woman writer in Vienna), her lover (Ivan), and her alter-ego and male roommate (Malina) and culminates in her murder. Experimental in form and lyrical in style, this sometimes difficult novel explores the limits of language and the enigma of time--major themes in Austrian literature at least since the turn of the century. The role of gender in identity and personality is also considered. Malina was originally conceived as the "overture" to a trilogy entitled Ways of Dying , which remained incomplete at the time of the author's death in 1973. Recommended for collections with holdings in modern European or women's literature.
- Michael T. O'Pecko, Towson State Univ., Md.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Holmes & Meier Pub; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0841911894
• ISBN-13: 978-0841911895
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #856,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant novel on a desperate subject, January 21, 2001

By 

Sarah Porter (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Malina: A Novel (Portico Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Ingeborg Bachmann is a truly great and underappreciated writer, and this is her masterpiece. It is also the earliest novel I'm aware of on the subject of the lasting impact of child abuse in adult life, written at a time when the possibility of such an experience was almost unspeakable. Her approach is never polemical, but dreamy and suggestive, and the ending is one of the most devastating in literature. Check out her poetry, too.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very well done translation, May 25, 2008

By 

Tookyoo-ni ikimasu. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Malina: A Novel (Portico Paperbacks) (Paperback)

As an Austrian I literally grew up with Ingeborg Bachmann. No matter if you read her short stories, poetry, or novel, every single line is deeply compelling and challenging. I have read "Malina" so many times, and this translation truly came up to my expectations as far as quality.

~Pat Paul Jammernegg, author of Prototype

7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A cocktail of thoughts, March 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Malina: A Novel (Portico Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Malina is a strange book that provoked my interest in what it means to love and live -- is the love-obsession justifiable? When there is noone else but a single person in your life, because you are just this way, does it mean that there are many people like this one but you have not found them yet. Because Bachmann's stream-of-consciousness style, the book is really difficult to follow, especially the part 'The third man' but once you have the patience to read and think continuously, to be shocked and still know who you are -- it gives an enormous pleasure to know a little more of the world that is inside!