The Weight of the World

by Peter Handke

Book Overview

A combination of professional notebook and personal diary, The Weight of the World records, over a period of two years, the details of Peter Handke's daily life in Paris. Along with references to mentors such as Goethe, Truffaut, and Robert DeNiro, the journal recounts his delicate relationship with his daughter and a brief hospital stay. The result is a rare portrait of a world-renowned artist at work.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0020514905
• ISBN13: 9780020514909
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Collier Books
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Optimal Handke

Ostensibly a year's worth of notes from the writer's journal, consisting of personal reflections and diurnal observations of the author's life and environment, this book can also be construed as a novel in the form of a journal, and as such, a work of genuine innovation. Handke's miniaturist style lends itself perfectly to these discrete entries, each a completed essay or prose poem; the book is a perfect match of temperament and form, and arguably Handke's finest work to date. Some entries speak to the power of language--even in translation--to evince startlingly fresh images of time-worn subjects, e.g., trees in wind; others transform the banalities of contemporary experience, e.g., the sound of the television from a neighboring house, suburban detritus, etc., into indelible literary images. These are not rough notes but polished paragraphs in Handke's finest style. Though this book is a gift to readers with small amounts of free time or short attention spans, it has a de facto dramatic structure, central to which is the author's confinement in a hospital and relationship as a single father to his son. The work is, finally, moving as well as eloquent.This book made Harold Bloom's Western Canon as one of the achievements of the century; it's one of the few I have read twice. Except for his controversial politics, Handke has tended to be overlooked in this country, but he deserves the attention of everyone who considers him/herself a serious reader. I consider Weight of the World optimal Handke.