Lettau, Reunhard

New York. 1965. April 1965. Pantheon Books. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Worn Dustjacket. Translated from the German by Ursule Molinaro. 183 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Gunter Grass. keywords: Literature Germany Translated. FROM THE PUBLISHER - This book of sketches introduces to American readers a young German writer whose charm and wit have recently captured the delighted attention of the European literary scene. Perhaps best described as pantomime on paper, Reinhard Lettau's work evokes, in beautifully controlled language and often on less than a page, visual pictures of people dominated by their activities and by the objects their activities create. Much as a silent film selects and exaggerates, the pieces directly expose the essential qualities of life, having caught them, so to speak, in mid-air, with all the exact harshness, humor, and naked truth of the camera's eye. Originally published in Germany as two separate volumes, the books have been brought together here under one cover, forming a prose sketchbook of human behavior, The sketches are drawn in the first half against a detailed background of familiar activities and situations; in the second they become extractions, the barest outlines, highly condensed moments of actions or encounters, They might well be scripts for a Charlie Chaplin or a Marcel Marceau. Here, then, is something genuinely different which presents an exciting new talent, With a freshness and vitality that are immediately appealing, Reinhard Lettau has given us a work of extraordinary invention and artistry. inventory #23471