He recently wanted to delete old files. At the same time, he came across old photographs of himself in a comic shirt with reflective strips and a big suit. He remembered the 2007 Brentano Prize Ceremony, Clemens Meyer, today one of the most important German writers. He remembered the art tales of the romantic and how they inspired him and the money he received at that time.
Clemens Meyer is as poetic as he is earthbound. The author of the Wend roman "As we dreamed" or the red light study "I’m Stein" was now the guest of the third Heidelberger in the DAI. He read there with a characteristic deep and melodious voice from his new book of tales titled "The Silent Truant," not a waste of any novel projects as he later emphasized, but aesthetically very well oriented to the short stories of great American narrators. Jute Wagner of the DAI had in the conversation between him and afterwards expertly elicited how much he appreciated Faulkner or the paintings of Edward Hopper.
If one succeeds in going into the East German present and finding out there again, then one can be with the silent satellites of Clemens Meyer. His figures are not, as the literary critic has so often wanted to have, any marginal existences, although he has quite a softness for unsettle "drifters", but normal people, but in special situations.
Just as in the narrative "late arrival", one of nine in the volume, each bundled to three times three. This is about a woman from the railway in orange safety vest. She had been humiliated, still has the control service in the ear and soul. It had been careless, two cherry-cores had been found under the car seat. She is wearing her fist tightly in her fist.
There she meets a dark-haired woman with an elegant but slightly worn-out coat, which later looks almost French. Later, when the two go to the hairdressing salon, where the lady is working - one, who is still well-managed, not a chaotic "Supercuts" - she also gets into trouble because she forgot to make the light. Do the listener and reader discover similarities in the lives of both women?
Just a short test of the ability, but one feels the obsessions of a Clemens Meyer: for the night, for the dream, for the atmosphere, yes for longing. Another narrative will be an imaginary meeting place at St. Moritz, a frozen lake where one will not come. Clemens Meyer is a master of strong pictures, tells about the constantly filthy carpet, the completely impractical decor of a snack bar, until a Humid from the 14th floor emerges there and only thinks: "tiles better".
Clemens Meyer filled the DAI completely, so that Gabriele of the “Heidelberg" was able to thank all those involved in the literature, the publishers, authors and employees in reflective vest, but they could not move forward - no maneuvering area. This is exactly what the other events of the third literary autumn would be like: high-class for the audience.