(and play the citizen, fine, and keep the nation going; let not thy right hand know. So I raised it lightly in German greeting, while balling my free left fist : will divide my life that way : an open half, supportive of the state. And the balled left).
***
Such an odd trio but I have to say I really enjoyed these on the whole. Scenes from the Life of a Faun was great, and of the three it gave me the most to talk about. A lot of really, really interesting stuff about life in Nazi Germany and the blame everyday people bear for allowing fascism to take hold (a recurring theme in these stories and an unsettling one for this moment, no doubt). Of the three novellas, Schmidt's stylistic...quirks...are at their most extreme in this one, but after a few pages it started to really, really work for me. Heinrich Düring reminds me of a super-cynical Leopold Bloom, and it's his narration that really carries Faun.
Brand's Heath didn't do a whole lot for me. The narrator wasn't nearly as engaging as in Faun and the story didn't do any heavy lifting either. Certainly the weakest of the three, in my opinion.
And even if Dark Mirrors didn't give me as much to talk about as Faun, I think it has to be my favorite of the three. Oddly pleasant, almost tender by Schmidt's standards, and in a post-apocalypse no less! I'm sure I'll go back and read this one plenty.
While Schmidt's style is definitely out there, even in these early books, I found it really effective — ~evocative~, even — once you find the rhythm in it. His writing is at its best when he's describing nature in all those odd, expressionistic little turns of phrase. I've never seen the moon personified in so many endless ways (it's awesome).