The Jukebox and Other Essays on Storytelling

by Peter Handke

Overview

Nobel Prize winner Peter Handke offers three intimate, eloquent meditations that map a self-reflexive journey from Alaska to the Austria of his childhood, while illuminating the act of writing itself.

In his "Essay on Tiredness," Handke transforms an everyday experience—often precipitated by boredom—into a fascinating exploration of the world of slow motion, differentiating degrees of fatigue, the types of weariness, its rejuvenating effects, as well as its erotic, cultural, and political implications.

The title essay is Handke's attempt to understand the significance of the jukebox, a quest which leads him, while on a trip in Spain, into the literature of the jukebox, the history of the music box, and memories of the Beatles' music, in turn elucidating various stages of his own life.

And in his "Essay on the Successful Day," for which there is no prescription, Handke invents a picture of tranquility, using a self-portrait by Hogarth as his point of departure to describe a state of being at peace.

Playful, reflective, insightful, and entertaining, The Jukebox and Other Essays on Storytelling constitutes a literary triptych that redefines the art of the essay and challenges the form of the short story, confirming Peter Handke's stature as "one of the most original and provocative of contemporary writers" (Lawrence Graver, The New York Times Book Review).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250767257
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	02/25/2020
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.41(d)

About the Author

Peter Handke was born in Griffen, Austria, in 1942. His many novels include The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, My Year in the No-Man’s Bay, and Crossing the Sierra de Gredos, all published by FSG. Handke’s dramatic works include Kaspar and the screenplay for Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire. Handke is the recipient of many major literary awards, including the Georg Büchner, Franz Kafka, and Thomas Mann Prizes and the International Ibsen Award. In 2019, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience.”

Editorial Reviews

In Handke's metafictional title piece--a parable on self-evasion and writer's block--a traveler in Spain makes elaborate preparations to begin a long-planned essay about the jukebox, symbol of American pop culture. The transparent luminosity of the Austrian novelist/poet/memoirist's earlier books ( A Sorrow Beyond Dreams ) has given way, in the three essays gathered here, to a freewheeling, innovative, sometimes tedious experimentalism that pushes back the limits of narrative form. ``Essay on Tiredness,'' a question-and-answer dialgoue, relates various types of fatigue and ennui to student rebellion, lovers' disenchantment, political apathy and so forth. In the concluding piece, a self-portrait by William Hogarth leads Handke to contemplate the idea of a ``successful day,'' which springboards into a meditation on the art of living in the present moment. Handke seamlessly mingles memories, associations, precise observation, digressions and social commentary. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Once the enfant terrible of German literature, the Austrian-born Handke has now become one of its acknowledged masters, widely praised for his attempts to create serious literature (as opposed to entertainment), his ability to convey his finely nuanced perceptions, and his efforts to overcome the limitations of traditional genre by experimenting with their forms. All these qualities are evinced in the three essays gathered here ("The Jukebox," "Tiredness," and "The Successful Day"). The title essay is more accurately about the writer's creative processes as he approaches the writing of an essay on the jukebox. "Tiredness" is a dialog between the writer and an unidentified interlocutor that uses the concept of tiredness to investigate community and alienation, among other things, and "The Successful Day," similar in form to the preceding essay, seeks meaning, beauty, and grace in the individual life. A necessary addition to any collection of Handke's work.-Michael T. O'Pecko, Towson State Univ., Md.

Library Journal