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A review by brynhammond
Intimate Ties: Two Novellas by Robert Musil, Peter Wortsman
3.0
Hard to rate, hard to understand. My first Musil, and a self-confessed experiment that baffled people who had received other work well. From the translator's Afterword: 'What started out as an attempt to quickly whip off a text to placate an eager publisher stretched into a soul-searching experiment in the course of which, as he wrote in his journal, "I almost drove myself out of my mind".'
'Two erotic novellas': Modernist, stream-of-consciousness erotica, eventually. Intimate Distance was the translator's alternate choice for a title, and seems to me to better suit stories where women -- the POVs -- are disengaged from men, even in the first story's apparent passionate marriage. She reminisces on her loose years before marriage and drifts towards an under-motivated infidelity. Great cover. The second story has a beast obsession and a near(?) sexual encounter with a dog, so that explains that.
I can't comment on the translation -- unless/until I try the other translations available in [b:Five Women|191939|Five Women|Robert Musil|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347406508s/191939.jpg|836294]. The translator says he has to imitate Musil's dead ends, unfinished thoughts and ill successes, and he was glad when it was over.
Verdict: Interesting.
ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.
'Two erotic novellas': Modernist, stream-of-consciousness erotica, eventually. Intimate Distance was the translator's alternate choice for a title, and seems to me to better suit stories where women -- the POVs -- are disengaged from men, even in the first story's apparent passionate marriage. She reminisces on her loose years before marriage and drifts towards an under-motivated infidelity. Great cover. The second story has a beast obsession and a near(?) sexual encounter with a dog, so that explains that.
I can't comment on the translation -- unless/until I try the other translations available in [b:Five Women|191939|Five Women|Robert Musil|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347406508s/191939.jpg|836294]. The translator says he has to imitate Musil's dead ends, unfinished thoughts and ill successes, and he was glad when it was over.
Verdict: Interesting.
ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.