On a Day Like This by Peter Stamm
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’m a fan of Peter Stamm’s short stories (especially the collection, We’re Flying), and thought I’d try some longer fiction. This novel reads quickly and feels almost like a long short story. Andreas, a teacher of German in a school outside Paris, is floating through his life when he’s caught unaware by a medical diagnosis. Fearful of the results, he opts to sever his connections with the school and his life, and sets himself off on a course of reckoning with a past that’s never been far from his thoughts.
The story’s clear and engaging, though it feels a little monotone. It’s hard to tell whether that’s Andreas bleeding into the narrative or just Stamm’s writing style in a longer piece. I certainly felt infuriated by Andreas at points, which I think we’re meant to do, but it’s hard to get too excited about a middle-aged man waffling over the decision to live his life or not. The cover flap describes him as an anti-hero, and therein lies the key, I suppose. I’ll have to give another Stamm novel a try next.