Landesbühne

Now this is just... neat. This is the sort of short novel I really needed to reset my brain after a couple of tumultuous reads; short and to the point, simple without being facile, funny without being a joke, humane without being preachy; just a tall drink of kaltes klares Wasser.

Simple story, really: Two men befriend each other in a minimum security prison somewhere in northern Germany. When a travelling theatre troupe are hired to perform a play at the prison, for the betterment and rehabilitation of the embezzlers, fraudsters and polygamists... who promptly steal the company's bus and take off for freedom. Which turns out to be just a short jog to a nearby town, where thanks to the banner on their bus promising to bring culture, they settle down and become local celebrities.

As Swedes of a certain age and/or literary taste... or maybe that's just me... are wont, my immediate reaction is to compare it to Tage Danielsson's brilliant The Story Of The Bus Driver Who Thought To Hell With This, but this is the sort of novel that, even though not a whole lot actually happens in it, keeps evolving - just when you think you've got it nailed down as a humourous romp, it throws in a very serious undertone, without derailing itself into darkness (despite Waiting For Godot, which I really need to read/watch one of these days, turning up towards the end). Lenz' prose remains as precise and clear whatever happens, making those endless secondary clauses dance, but very politely. If I only manage to read one novel in German this year, I'm glad it was this one.

Aaaaaah.