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They are inconspicuous, mostly alone, they live somewhere in Switzerland – yet they live a story that needs to be told. Eastern Switzerland author Peter Stamm dedicates his new book to these characters.
An apprentice, a husband, an employee, a policewoman: the characters in Peter Stamm’s new volume “When It Gets Dark” all have one thing in common. They are not very obvious, they are interchangeable.
What they are called is as irrelevant as the places where their stories are set. This is mainly in Switzerland, but ultimately just a side note.
What matters is what you feel. The fate that befell them. Sometimes over a period of a few hours, sometimes over months. Ultimately, however, they are snapshots of ordinary people’s lives that hardly anyone else will experience. One is planning a bank robbery, the other discovers his alleged cheating wife, the next shows up completely naked at a party, the fourth is caught up in his past in an almost mystical environment.
Reduced to the essential
Each of the eleven stories in which Stamm examines the lives of his protagonists is 15 to 20 pages long. Written in a fun way, focused on the essential. The reader does not learn more than necessary about the characters involved, against the backdrop of their story, and the consequences are usually left to their imagination.
It’s a bit like rushing in for a moment, grabbing a few pieces and then having to move on. Or as if a TV series episode – partly with Cliffhanger – is over, but there is no later part. You can paint yourself as it goes.
He was more interested in people who are lonely than people who are with others, Stamm said on the Bavarian Radio podcast about selecting its protagonists. “You are more permeable, you are more open, you have a deficiency in a way.”
People are more likely to recognize each other when they reflect in others. “When I’m alone, I’m not really a person,” Stamm said. Also, there is a time of fear, irrational, guilt. It is a strange time, but also an exciting one.
Credible stories
As unusual as it is as part of the fate that his characters share sounds, Stamm portrays the stories in a believable way. There is the man whose family leaves him on a winter break and who makes a touching encounter. There is the daughter of the young apprentice who, through the appeal for the donation of blood from her boss, befriends the strangest office girl. And there is the husband who engages in the exchange of correspondence between his wife and rival.
Most of the contents are similar: certainly not everyday phenomena, but also events that are not entirely unimaginable and never seen before.
As the author changes his point of view on lyrics – sometimes a woman’s point of view, sometimes a man’s – there should be something for everyone. What is striking is the complete absence of Stamm quotes, which sometimes make it difficult to read when changing words. But if you want to observe the life of others for a few moments, here you will get your money’s worth.
Bibliography: “When it gets dark”, Peter Stamm, S. Fischer-Verlage, 192 pages, approx. CHF 29.90
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