7.6 /10 1 Votes
Original title Die Wiederholung Language German Published in English 1988 Originally published 1986 Page count 333 Publisher Suhrkamp Verlag | 3.8/5 Goodreads Country Germany Publication date 1986 Pages 333 ISBN 3518025805 Translator Ralph Manheim | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, Short Letter - Long Far, Das Gewicht der Welt, Die Stunde Der Wahren E | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Repetition (German: Die Wiederholung) is a 1986 novel by the Austrian writer Peter Handke. It tells the story of an Austrian of mixed German and Slovenian heritage, who goes to communist Yugoslavia in a search for identity.
Reception
David Pryce-Jones of The New York Times wrote "The intention is to shatter Austrian complacency, utterly to reject the national conspiracy of silence and evasion, so that the Austrian at last can be his own man. Admirable as this would be, Mr. Handke is not the writer for it. To some extent, the alienation of this novel is attributable to the deliberate distancing of its style." Pryce-Jones continued: "More crucially, Repetition reveals one man set so implacably against his fellows that he can do nothing but pity himself and hate them. Surrender to these reactions serves to extend the Nazi legacy rather than to destroy it. New beginnings without humanity are not new beginnings at all."