Thursday 17 June 2010

Siegfried Lenz Marries at 84

Is it just me, or is this the most gorgeous photo? Hey, it's not just me, the editor-in-chief of Germany's high-end glossy mag Bunte thinks so too. Siegfried Lenz, 84-year-old man of German letters, recently married his neighbour Ulla Reimer (74). According to the article, she helped him get over his wife's death and deal with the ensuing writer's block.

More, in fact: she took over from his former wife and typed up his manuscript for A Minute's Silence, which you can now read in English, translated by Anthea Bell. And funnily enough, it's a love story too.

That's not going to happen to the younger generation of writers, is it? No sympathetic looks over the typewriter, no eyelash-batting queries about the dictaphone. That whole Daddy Warbucks/Grace Farrell thing is out of the question. Maybe they'll all fall for the computer repair man or something.

1 comment:

boros1124 said...

I can honestly say that you do not like his works. Egyis friend, read a book he wrote Lens. He did not have a favorite book. I read another one from him. An anthology. Not tied down. Maybe the problem is that Russia is strongly reminiscent of the works. They feel depressed. Unfortunately, much of Europe at a time of Russian literature was very popular. And that these works are similar. http://www.konyv-konyvek.hu/book_images/52a/999641252a.jpg