Country house - never

"Nothing but Ghosts" is the second book of 33 -year -old Judit Herman. The very one that, having debuted in 1998 by the collection "Country House - Later", received a prestigious Kleist Prize for him and was called the most promising German author in criticism.

From the very first pages of the book, the author’s peculiar manner of the author takes place with reader attention: cool, detached, transparent-depth and at the same time relying on the principle of underwater currents (abundance of realities and subtlety of psychological nuances in combination with disabilities); Just these "old -fashioned" features of the style at one time and identified the prose of the writer in the huge building of modern German literature.

In general, the second book by Herman is not as effective as the first; Stories are longer, structurally more monotonous. However, some instrumental poverty, if not redeemed, is set off with a tangible search intensity (which, in fact, gives a real writer).

The book is almost demonstrative geographical scattering of the sites of action: from Italy to Iceland, from America to the Czech Republic. At the same time, if the reader perceives the “travels” of the heroes seriously and tunes to the “portrait” of other countries and peoples, he will be very disappointed.

Prague Judit Herman - the backyard of any city. Norway is an unconscious and without about the brotherly: the heroine almost does not leave a somewhat hag of the hotel. (We can say this: Norway is some kind of “Russian” - thanks to the passage of the dropped paradoxes of the type “it was cold, wild, beautiful” , as well as a paradoxical combination of lying on the bed - with a sense of the beginning of a new life, readiness for any turn of events, even chaos - unusual explosion, scandal.)

Iceland, however, is peculiar and convincing: majestic peace, unhurried rhythm of the narrative. "Healthy" - according to the mood of landscapes? - emotions without reflection and without deepening into "alien", especially if we are talking about painful passions; So an accidentally spied scene - a familiar (quiet, intelligent) beats a friend on the head with an empty vodka bottle - causes only surprise. Attempts to interpret an unthinkable scandal will not follow. It is not clear - and the point.

But America is a frank stereotype. The plot grain of the title story: A simple American guy is trying to explain to a couple, which hung on the verge of decay, indescribable impressions of the acquisition of nike children's sneakers. America represents an advertisement in the book - a special kind: sending a consumption to trivial values ​​and becoming a guiding thread of his life. Russian authors have traditionally ironic over such an advertisement and naivety of its consumer (until the moment when Pelevin was discovered - albeit not without irony - the “fateful” meaning of advertising, its ethics and mysticism). Herman, on the other hand, this is a completely serious image, pregnant with a plot (visiting America brings the birth of a child: the couple wanted to survive happy feelings when buying tiny "nake").

Venice is left without a description - the author costs the idle shots of toponyms, they flare up with fireworks and go out: Rialto, Santa Maria Della Salute, St. Mark's Cathedral ... Venice would be conditional and unconvincing if the movement was not noticed in the depths of the canvas: a couple of times a sinister figure appears. Dark, carnival, anonymous, bunning, temptatory, darkening consciousness, sick, ugly, dangerous, demonic - the image of Venice is held by the references to the masterpieces: Nicholas Rogin , Thomas Mann and Lukino Visconti ... - Mysticism of fate, beauty and temptation, Eros in his assistants at Tanatos. Herman saved on figuration to invest in the topic; The “corporate” Venetian image seems to be needed in order to reconfigure the storyteller: from finding protection in familiar parental love - to fear for parents, care and desire to protect “big children” from an invisible danger spilled in the world. If you recall the "American" story, it seems that the line is visible here: readiness for householding once laid out. "A country house is later."

It seems that the extensive geography of the collection is just a sign and stimulus of searching for new ways. It is not the image of the country, not an idea of ​​it, but its impact on the soul, the ability to extract a new experience from it, to bring a state unfamiliar before. A sort of tuning fork, setting in a particular way. So, the "Slavic" ("eastern") vector wakes up voluptuousness, exalted carnal fantasies. "Severnaya" - untied, immediately subsides passions, as if there were no ...

The book guesses the old theme of Herman: temptation, willing, willingness to step towards “relations” - and a premonition of their inevitable illusory and emptiness. Some do not quite accurately call this subject of attention of the writer with love; One could also call Eros - with a reservation, which is meeros in a generalized, perhaps the ancient sense: an inescapable memory -lame laundry of the original fullness (which Plato called androgine), insoluble longing for ancient unity, the desire and persecution of which we call that we call love. In the final of the story "Love for Ari Oscarson", when the temptation of the next "relationship" is obsolete, the freed energy is spilled into space, flickers and shimmers in the sky by the northern lights.

“We giggled.“ I love you, too, ”said Aries.“ I love you, too. ”He could not calm down, it was terribly amused, and I also cheered me incredibly, but I already felt something sad behind this fun. And before I fully realized what we laugh at, that we laughed at it, Aries threw my hands to it. I shouted to the sky, and I also raised my head and saw that it seemed to me a green cloud, it suddenly spread and trembled, and it became lighter and lighter, it was like a huge tornado, through the whole sky, glowing and very beautiful ” (a translated by A. Milstein ).

Catharsis, which cleared feelings (from irony, from self -deception and involuntary lies), replaces the location to a person - enthusiasm before the world, only in relations with him and the fullness of feelings and beauty are possible. "And are you happy now?" - asked Aries and held his breath. “Very,” I said. ”

This is "love" according to Judit Herman. It is this shift in the understanding of "love" that does not allow this prose to be psychological, love or female - in this capacity it would inevitably be perceived strangely: it is inaccessible, and the emotions are cold here. Passions arise from anything, not out of interest and attraction (as in the initial story "Ruth": they are generated by a temptatory remark that someone else's lover is suitable for the narrator, "her type" ); It is not surprising that the impulse is also “unreasonably” and disappears. And in fact: nothing but ghosts , ghostly feelings.

The name of the book is so expressive that it seems: the writer's reflection has gained its completion here. So, the word is found?

However, there is also building a house ; Does this path bring this way out of the world captured by ghosts? Perhaps it does not display. This art, in fact, is deprived of real strength: does not correlate with writing. Herman is not difficult to notice, only detachment from "life" brings, along with freedom, openness of beauty. Image, word. (In the world of ghosts, they are seduced by the image of miniature sneakers and become pregnant - from eloquent words ...) And is the stories by chance, where homebuilding declares itself as a guideline, they succeeded less? In terms of creative literary, the only acquisition in them is the topic. The author thinks about it or not, the swing of the "nest" means for this style the tension that he barely withstands. Maybe because the book denotes a reliable guess: rooting in "Life" - another phantom, the same as everything else. In the end of the last story (that is, in the final of the collection) "House" - the lot of Ari Oscarson; The storyteller gets - beauty.

In the plane of the meta -painting of the letter "nothing but ghosts" can also be understood as a synonym for a well -known slogan: "There is nothing outside the text." However, the capital metaphor includes other semantics. The answer refers to the question (is there anything but ...?), Points to the search and speaks of dissatisfaction with himself. This moment is most interesting; The main thing is that it is precisely that it is almost freezing at the “zero” mark, it does not equally make efforts in order to warm up, and the possibility of the only “destined” meeting), then “imperative” (new supports and prohibitions are approved), the text becomes ill with ruptures , is being examined. Actually, guessed through the tears and gaps in the text, this brilliant cover , a kind of dark abyss with a living chaos in the depths and tells the breath of the stories of the collection.

German criticism searches for Herman a common (Zen everyday life ";" The postmodern contents of the freezer of feelings ") - but the development of this prose itself indicates: its potential and the field of attraction - a classic letter, leading away from" Surface poetics " , a letter outside the game .