Adalbert Stifter: Indian Summer
 

Stifter asks us to abdicate responsibility, compassion and commitment to a structure, or possibly to God, because the structure has the last word. If everything works as it should, everything is fine. It?s this book?s mantra and it?s repeated time and again. This is annoying, and, ultimately, deeply unsettling and unpleasant. I bet, von Risach never asked the bees how they felt about the whole issue. Der Nachsommer is both a very good and a very bad book. I cannot possibly recommend it. If you are interested in modern Austrian literature at all, however, you cannot pass this book by. It?s importance and stature is enough to warrant reading it, if one has the time. It is a rich book, frequently beautiful and meditative, written by an aesthete and a master of his craft. And it?s boring, annoying and complacent. It?s your choice. Hey, I?ve read it. Would I read it again? Not sure. And Stifter?s writing is instrumental here. I have not seen Frye?s translation, I have no idea if it delivers as it should. the rest of my rambling review here Ask the Bees: Adalbert Stifter’s “Der Nachsommer” shigekuni.


and here's the very pretty cover of the translation

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