The Ritual Master Welcome to day 3 and to our first book review of this year’s Austrian Advent Calendar !
I started my series of discoveries in the land of Austrian literature with a light and amusing read : Wolfgang Hermann’s Herr Faustini takes a trip.
Meet Herr Faustini : a bachelor living in the small town of Hörbranz, in the heights of Lake Constance, right where Germany, Switzerland, and Austria meet. His days are made of simple things, mainly time spent in the company of his cat, in his old armchair and taking care of two potted plants.
And since no one these days had the privilege of enjoying their hours of idleness in complete peace – because whoever said free time meant hobbies, and who said hobbies meant getting on their bicycle, running headlong to the ground. fitness room, setting out to attack the mountains, frolicking in the waves until a very advanced age – someone had to take it upon themselves to defend the right to idleness – and even , to some extent, thought Mr. Faustini, the right to boredom.
― Wolfgang Hermann, Herr Faustini takes a trip
But his daily routine gets shaken when his sister invites him to Southern Switzerland in order to celebrate her birthday. The action in itself is not especially comical, so don’t expect any Mister Bean moments. But the personal view and approach on life that Herr Faustini offers is absolutely hilarious. I especially enjoyed the fact that in planning his means of transportation to his sister’s home, he asked the travel agent for the longest route, with as many interchanges and transfers as possible, with a clear preference for trains, and a slightly annoyed tolerance for buses. This small anecdote will let you know that Herr Faustini is not an Austrian version of the Swedish man called Ove. He is not grumpy in his solitude, and once he does decide to take this trip, he wants to take full advantage of the opportunity to see the country, the trains, the people in every city.
This kind of light, amusing book, is the perfect introduction into one of the hardest things to understand when getting to know a new culture : the specific sense of humour each nation has. And even if you cannot consider one writer’s humour as the rule for a whole country, it’s most definitely an introduction into what you can expect when travelling. This was the case for me while reading, laughing and observing.
There is something terribly endearing in the personality of Mister Faustini, a happy loner, a person truly present in every situation, observant of his surroundings, both in admiration and criticism. It’s no wonder the readers loved him so much, that the author transformed this into a series of Herr Faustini books. The translations are not always available, but keep an eye out, they are the perfect relaxing read. I’ll leave you with the emotion of this quote :
In the distance the lake was dotted with white sails. The breeze rising from its deep blue waters brushed his face with such force that he felt as if he were suffocating with happiness. Mr. Faustini vaguely sensed that hidden behind the word travel, however innocuous, was an endless succession of impressions capable of stirring the heart, and likely to give you strong sensations such as you had never experienced before.
― Wolfgang Hermann, Herr Faustini takes a trip
Until tomorrow, happy Advent reading !
