{"product_id":"the-weight-of-things-isbn-9780989760775","title":"The Weight of Things","description":"\u003cb\u003e“A harrowing book about the horrors of motherhood, jealousy, and war trauma.” —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Weight of Things\u003c\/i\u003e is the first book, and the first translated book, and possibly the only translatable book by Austrian writer Marianne Fritz (1948–2007). For after winning acclaim with this novel—awarded the Robert Walser Prize in 1978—she embarked on a 10,000-page literary project called “The Fortress,” creating over her lifetime elaborate colorful diagrams and typescripts so complicated that her publisher had to print them straight from her original documents. A project as brilliant as it is ambitious and as bizarre as it is brilliant, it earned her cult status, comparisons to James Joyce no less than Henry Darger, and admirers including Elfriede Jelinek and W. G. Sebald. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Yet in this, her first novel, we discover not an eccentric fluke of literary nature but rather a brilliant and masterful satirist, philosophically minded yet raging with anger and wit, who under the guise of a domestic horror story manages to expose the hypocrisy and deep abiding cruelties running parallel, over time, through the society and the individual minds of a century.“Written in a brisk tone that disguises its destination, this slow-burning horror story steps quietly and methodically into a heart of familial darkness. . . . The war haunts this novel, adding to the weight of everyday things and everyday evils that Fritz so ingeniously dissects.” —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Fritz won the Kafka Prize in 2001 and her work, like his, is both deeply upsetting and profound. Her translator writes in his ‘Afterword’ that ‘there is a class of artists whose work is so strange and extraordinary that it eschews all gradations of the good and the mediocre: genius and madness are the only descriptors adequate to its scale,’ and he situates Fritz quite forcefully in this class. He seems to be correct.” —\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eThe Weight of Things\u003c\/i\u003e is a tightly wrought masterwork of narrative, a little gem that shows off everything that it can (and should) do, without looking as if it were particularly trying.” —\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] stylized book with numerous horrors at its core, both national and personal.” —\u003ci\u003eElectric Literature\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “If the presentation, shifting back and forth across the years and events, seems at first confusing it ultimately works very well, and what seems like a low-intensity narrative comes to pack a devastating punch.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Complete Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Fritz’s poetic auscultation of this weight, this madness, is absolutely astounding, both in its scope and its subtlety. It is difficult to summarize her methods, as they are woven so seamlessly into the narrative: its pacing, its movement through time, coalescing into a sensory experience. She describes a palpable environment of disorientation and loss, set against a tapestry of gray skies, war-ruined structures, and dark woods into which people disappear.” —\u003ci\u003eEntropy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eMarianne Fritz\u003c\/b\u003e (1948–2007) was an Austrian novelist. Her first book, \u003ci\u003eThe Weight of Things\u003c\/i\u003e, marked the beginning of an ambitious cycle of novels with the overarching title of \u003ci\u003eFestung\u003c\/i\u003e, or \"The Fortress,\" comprising \u003ci\u003eDas Kind der Gewalt und die Sterne der Romani\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDessen Sprache du nicht verstehst\u003c\/i\u003e, and the gargantuan \u003ci\u003eNaturgemäß\u003c\/i\u003e, the third volume of which she was preparing at the time of her death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAdrian Nathan West\u003c\/b\u003e is a writer and literary translator living in Spain. His criticism has appeared in the \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e, and many other publications. He has translated books from German, Catalan, and Spanish, including Jean Améry's \u003ci\u003eCharles Bovary, Country Doctor\u003c\/i\u003e, which is published by NYRB Classics, and \u003ci\u003ePere Gimferrer\u003c\/i\u003e for NYRB Poets. His debut novel, \u003ci\u003eMy Father’s Diet\u003c\/i\u003e, was published in early 2022.","brand":"Dorothy, a publishing project","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304564412645,"sku":"NP9780989760775","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780989760775.jpg?v=1767742178","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-weight-of-things-isbn-9780989760775","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}