Stephanie Jane reviewed Long Blue Monday by Erhard von Büren
A slog!
2 stars
Despite clocking in at less than 300 pages, A Long Blue Monday was, for me, a very long read. It's my third von Buren novel so I was prepared for his writing style and slow pacing, but I couldn't get into this story. Told in the first person by a man now in his sixties, most of the novel is his reminiscences of his self-obsessed teenager years and his first love. The unfortunate recipient of his attentions, Claudia, is kept at a distance from von Buren's readers so we never get a real sense of their relationship. In fact most of the 'female creatures' in this book are essentially interchangeable names, seemingly only differentiated by their hair colour, and this casual chauvinism was really winding me up by the end of the book!
Other than frequent name-dropping of then-current American actors, films and plays - Tennessee Williams, Marlon Brando, etc …
Despite clocking in at less than 300 pages, A Long Blue Monday was, for me, a very long read. It's my third von Buren novel so I was prepared for his writing style and slow pacing, but I couldn't get into this story. Told in the first person by a man now in his sixties, most of the novel is his reminiscences of his self-obsessed teenager years and his first love. The unfortunate recipient of his attentions, Claudia, is kept at a distance from von Buren's readers so we never get a real sense of their relationship. In fact most of the 'female creatures' in this book are essentially interchangeable names, seemingly only differentiated by their hair colour, and this casual chauvinism was really winding me up by the end of the book!
Other than frequent name-dropping of then-current American actors, films and plays - Tennessee Williams, Marlon Brando, etc - I didn't get much of sense of the early 1960s era although the rural Swiss locale is nicely portrayed. The majority of the book is our 'hero' rambling on about how good he is at school, how much he loves Claudia, and how difficult he is finding it to write a trilogy(!) of plays which he plans to inflict upon poor Claudia. I think the biggest problem I have with A Long Blue Monday isn't that our narrator is an unlikeable person - I don't necessarily have to like a character to be interested in their story - but that he is such a dull whiner! I sadly didn't care enough him to really become invested in his tale.
Perhaps other readers will have a better experience with A Long Blue Monday? I noticed the Award of Canton Solothurn Prize for Literature were complimentary about it, but personally I would suggest, if you're going to read Erhard von Buren, pick up Epitaph For A Working Man or Wasp Days instead