Circe's Mountain - Marie Luise Kaschnitz

[Luke]

Circe's Mountain, Marie Luise Kaschnitz, translated from German by Lisel Museller, 1952-1966, Germany/Italy (Germany), SHORT STORIES

"...The stories of Circe's Mountain display a wide range of styles, subjects, and locations, from "Long Distance," which evolves completely through one-sided conversations on the phone, to the highly descriptive evocations of mood and place that appear in other stories...One is a beautiful autobiographical exploration of a widow's grief and return from devastation after the death of her beloved husband: "Even after the most excruciating experience we obey the laws of gravity; our legs go down and our heads up; we wake up, put on our clothes and go out, remaining in the skin we wanted to jump out of, at least in spirit. We have become sadder and possibly less curious but not new, and the pool of words to express the incredible is no greater than it was."..."

(E.B., p. 95)