There's been a strange surge of Jaeggy in my life lately, so her nomination here matches that trend. Not that I'm complaining: she's long been a dark horse Nobel candidate for me, so I'm happy to see her getting attention.
Earlier in the year, I was working through Sweet Days of Discipline to try and recapture some of my rapidly disappearing college Italian and I was really struck by how powerful her prose is in its starkness. The English translation – which I read years and years ago – does a good job of capturing this, but it is even more evident in the original. It's the work of hers that has stuck with me the most.
I also just recently got the new translation of The Water Statues as part of a bundle from New Directions. I picked that up as my reading for her the other day (since I've read multiple books by all of this year's nominees, I'm trying to read at least one new-to-me book by each in the upcoming weeks). It is an odd and somewhat ... wispy work. Despite its shortness, I think it could definitely use a reread. It struck me as resolutely ungraspable, especially with only one read-through. I would be curious if anyone else here has read that work yet and what their impressions were.
Also, something that really stood out to me this time around is her relationship to the Austrian literary tradition. The Water Statues is dedicated to Ingeborg Bachmann (whom she knew) and her influence on it is pretty noticeable. Likewise, Sweet Days of Discipline has some clear connections to Musil's Törless, in my opinion.
All in all, glad to see her as one of the three nominees. I'm looking forward to getting to These Possible Lives in the near future as well.
www.newyorker.com
