A Moment of True Feeling

A Moment of True Feeling (German: Die Stunde der wahren Empfindung) is a 1975 novel by the Austrian writer Peter Handke.

A Moment of True Feeling
AuthorPeter Handke
Original titleDie Stunde der wahren Empfindung
TranslatorRalph Manheim
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman
PublisherSuhrkamp Verlag
Publication date
17 March 1975
Published in English
1977
Pages167
ISBN978-3-518-03029-5

Plot

Gregor Keuschnig works for the Embassy of Austria in Paris. One day he wakes up from a dream where he murdered a woman. From this moment his life seems pointless and the world around him distant. He goes through his daily routine and interacts with his colleagues, his mistress and his family, but feels lost and out of balance. He observes everything around him in search for a sensation that feels genuine.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews wrote: "There are indeed moments of true feeling and moments of fine, precise, ironic writing here, but this ultimately seems a slim exercise, with personal commitment (a quality so evident in Handke's memoir, A Sorrow Beyond Dreams) painstakingly filtered through a familiar experimental literary convention."[1] Stanley Kauffmann wrote in the Saturday Review: "What Handke is moving toward, I think, moving toward stunningly and courageously, is the novel as poem." Kauffmann distinguished this from "a poetic novel", which he described Handke's The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick as, and argued that A Moment of True Feeling is closer to being a long prose poem.[2]

gollark: It sounds kind of <#645777807275851776>-y.
gollark: How are you meant to *heal* things using a laser, exactly?
gollark: I mean, there are many applications, but... "healing"?
gollark: Wait, that's its *official name*?
gollark: Also neutral, giannis clone of some sort.

References
  1. "A Moment of True Feeling". Kirkus Reviews. 1977. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  2. Kauffmann, Stanley (1977-06-25). "The Novel as Poem". Saturday Review. p. 23. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
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