80
PARTISAN REVIEW
stayed in this hotel several years ago. I remember feeling pleased when I
discovered that Musil had stayed here briefl y upon his arrival in 1940.
What is the title of your forthcoming book.
The English Lesson.
It's not a German lesson, I see.
No. We've had enough German lessons
to
last us for several
generations.
A number of critics have referred to the element of ambiguity that
permeates much of your work. One reads your books, always feeling as
if some vital piece of information is being withheld.
I'm not sure how I can respond
to
that.
If
someone withholds
information, surely it is not merely for the sake of withholding
information. All the same, characters, like people, frequently misread
each others' intentions.
In
The English Lesson
a man follows a woman
who left him to Geneva.
So Geneva does playa part in your novel.
Only a minor one. Almost a negligible one.
Does he locate her?
Who?
The character in your novel.
That remains to be seen.
Why Geneva?
I picked Geneva because of the image Switzerland evokes in
people. A kind of controlled neutrality, a somewhat antiseptic tran–
quility that I find soothing. I may also have been inn uenced by the
films of Tanner.
But Tanner is fundamentally a politically oriented filmmaker. His
films are never devoid of a political content . . .
Well, yes.
In
The English Lesson
the unexplained departure of the
young American woman who supports herself in Germany by giving
English lessons, hence the title, from a man ten or twelve years her
senior, a man who might be labeled a political reactionary, could be
viewed in a political context.
What kind of a political statement are you making in your book?
I'm sorry, my mind was on something else. What did you say?
What kind of a political statement are you making in your book?
A novel is not a process of rebellion. Just as it validates and makes
acceptable forms of human conduct, it also validates and makes
acceptable societal institutions.
Does that trouble you?
Not at all.
When are you planning to return
to
Germany?
