zu oft umsonst gelächelt

An old novelist is put to bed by his young admirer. The writer begins to tell his stories. Of couples and single people, of faces and gestures, of passions and disappointments. While he narrates, he follows more openly “the traces of extinct types of love”. The atmosphere between lovers can oftentimes be oppressive. In certain instances, there simmers a feeling of strangeness, that suddenly arises between lovers, and sits right next to a feeling of “overwhelming intimacy”. With a few light strokes, Botho Strauß conjures up prose that reflects the multifaceted indeterminacy of the ties between man and woman.