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Eisenbahnfahren.
Rare Book
- GenresFiction
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
1 person is currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Peter Bichsel
87 books55 followersPeter Bichsel was a popular Swiss writer and journalist representing modern German literature. He was a member of the Gruppe Olten.
Bichsel was born in 1935 in Lucerne, Switzerland, the son of manual labourers. Shortly after he was born, the Bichsels moved to Olten, also in Switzerland. After finishing school, he became an elementary school teacher, a job he held until 1968. From 1974 to 1981 he was the personal advisor and speech writer of Willy Ritschard, a member of the Swiss Federal Council. Between 1972 and 1989 he made his mark as a "writer in residence" and a guest lecturer at American universities. Bichsel lived on the outskirts of Solothurn for several decades.
He started publishing short lyric works in newspapers. In 1960, he got his first success in prose as a private printer. In the winter of 1963–1964, he took part in a writing course in prose taught by Walter Höllerer.
One of his first and best-known works is And Really Frau Blum Would Very Much Like to Meet the Milkman. Published only in a modest edition in 1964, the book was quickly sold out. The reason was an enthusiastic review by Marcel Reich-Ranicki. Just as successful, Children's Stories, intended for adults, is written in the form of droll tales for children. Both books were translated from German by the English poet Michael Hamburger. A theme of Bichsel's works for younger readers is the stubborn desire of children to take words literally and wreak havoc on the world of communicated ideas. In the early 1970s and 1980s, Bichsel's journalistic work pushed his literary work mainly into the background. Only Der Busant (1985) and Warten in Baden-Baden appeared again with the Bichsel style that was so familiar to German readers. Peter Bichsel gave up being a professional teacher early in his lifetime, later he continued to teach his readers that the drudgery and banality of life are of our own making. He used often a simple sentence structure 'subject-predicate-object' and was a passionate observer of Switzerland.
In 1981, he was a member of the jury at the 31st Berlin International Film Festival.
Peter Bichsel's estate is archived in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern.
Bichsel was born in 1935 in Lucerne, Switzerland, the son of manual labourers. Shortly after he was born, the Bichsels moved to Olten, also in Switzerland. After finishing school, he became an elementary school teacher, a job he held until 1968. From 1974 to 1981 he was the personal advisor and speech writer of Willy Ritschard, a member of the Swiss Federal Council. Between 1972 and 1989 he made his mark as a "writer in residence" and a guest lecturer at American universities. Bichsel lived on the outskirts of Solothurn for several decades.
He started publishing short lyric works in newspapers. In 1960, he got his first success in prose as a private printer. In the winter of 1963–1964, he took part in a writing course in prose taught by Walter Höllerer.
One of his first and best-known works is And Really Frau Blum Would Very Much Like to Meet the Milkman. Published only in a modest edition in 1964, the book was quickly sold out. The reason was an enthusiastic review by Marcel Reich-Ranicki. Just as successful, Children's Stories, intended for adults, is written in the form of droll tales for children. Both books were translated from German by the English poet Michael Hamburger. A theme of Bichsel's works for younger readers is the stubborn desire of children to take words literally and wreak havoc on the world of communicated ideas. In the early 1970s and 1980s, Bichsel's journalistic work pushed his literary work mainly into the background. Only Der Busant (1985) and Warten in Baden-Baden appeared again with the Bichsel style that was so familiar to German readers. Peter Bichsel gave up being a professional teacher early in his lifetime, later he continued to teach his readers that the drudgery and banality of life are of our own making. He used often a simple sentence structure 'subject-predicate-object' and was a passionate observer of Switzerland.
In 1981, he was a member of the jury at the 31st Berlin International Film Festival.
Peter Bichsel's estate is archived in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 2, 2019
‘The art of rail travel is the art of waiting,’ says Peter Bichsel – and apparently this is an art he has perfected, since the ever-beautiful Insel-Bücherei were able to put together this little collection of stories he has written all about the subject. Being in transit, crossing borders, moving between peoples and languages – these are always fertile grounds for writers, and they play particularly well into Bichsel's interest in the strange differences between thoughts and words and how each affects the other. It was nice, crawling through this in German, to read passages like the following:
This sense that the unknown, with languages, can be worth preserving is something he puts across well. He writes about how his enthusiasm for America gradually declined as his English improved: ‘America became reality and no longer existed just in my head’, and this is something I've experienced plenty in my life too. French used to be the language of art and romance, until I moved to Paris, when it became the language of buying bin-bags and doing my tax return. Before I started learning German, a word like der Anschluss signalled a dramatic moment of world history. Now it's just something to plug the toaster into.
Ein Freund ist nicht einer, der mich versteht, sondern einer, der das Nichtverstehen akzeptiert, Bichsel concludes. On that basis, I'm happy to say we're friends.
Ich mag Fremdsprachen, ich höre gern Fremdsprachen, ich stelle mir vor, wovon gesprochen wird, und mache mir die »entsprechenden« deutschen Dialog im Kopf. Vielleicht kann ich deshalb fast keine Fremdsprachen. Es kann auch etwas verlorengehen, wenn man versteht, es kann eine Welt im Kopf verlorengehen.
I like foreign languages, I love listening to foreign languages; I imagine what they're saying, and do the ‘corresponding’ German dialogue in my head. Maybe that's why I can't really speak any foreign languages. But something is also lost when you understand them – a whole world inside your head can be lost.
This sense that the unknown, with languages, can be worth preserving is something he puts across well. He writes about how his enthusiasm for America gradually declined as his English improved: ‘America became reality and no longer existed just in my head’, and this is something I've experienced plenty in my life too. French used to be the language of art and romance, until I moved to Paris, when it became the language of buying bin-bags and doing my tax return. Before I started learning German, a word like der Anschluss signalled a dramatic moment of world history. Now it's just something to plug the toaster into.
Ein Freund ist nicht einer, der mich versteht, sondern einer, der das Nichtverstehen akzeptiert, Bichsel concludes. On that basis, I'm happy to say we're friends.
March 9, 2019
Herrlich. Typische Bichsel-Erzählungen. Von Zügen und dem Warten, dem Erfahren und dem Erleben der Zeit, einzig und alleine in der Langeweile.
June 8, 2023
Kann man mögen, aber eben auch nicht. Hätte mir mehr erwartet. Kannte bisher Bichsel als Autor auch nicht.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews