Novel
Beautiful Days
Schöne Tage
Franz Innerhofer · 1974
Synopsis
Holl, the natural son of a day labourer, has known the care of a childless woman, then the home of his mother and stepfather. At six, he is sent to his father, a large farmer in the mountains of Salzburg, who sees in him cheap labour. On this farm where people speak only in orders and reprimands, the child is afraid of the animals, of the people and of work too hard for him; because he wets his bed, he is mocked and punished. The narrative follows his years as a farmhand, from 1950 to 1961.
Context
The book appeared in 1974 from Residenz, in Salzburg, and opened a series of three novels continued in 1975 and 1977 with Holl's apprenticeship and then his studies. Many readers recognised themselves in it; people targeted in it said they were offended, officials of the farmers' union saw in it a defamation of the entire peasantry, and the author's own father attacked the book. It appeared in English in 1976 and in French in 1977, and Fritz Lehner made a television film from it.
Who it is for
A novel of about two hundred pages, in a sober language without pathos. The humiliations and beatings are described at close range, and some pages are hard to read.
Prizes and reception
Literary prize of the city of Bremen and Rauris prize in 1975; welcomed as a revelation, it is regarded as one of the models of the Austrian anti-rustic novel.
Sources for this page 18
The pages consulted to check this page.