My favorite bookstore, 75% Off Books, is like a Barnes and Noble closeout table done large. You never know exactly what you're going to find there, but everything is new stock and nothing is ever over $5.00. I have 'discovered' some of the most interesting things there. I have also found some books that are just dreadful. Fortunately my most recent diversion, Mrs. Sartoris by Elke Schmitter and translated from the German by Carol Brown Janeway, falls into the interesting category.

The Story
Margarethe Sartoris started out as at eighteen ready to set the world on fire. Her family didn't have much but she was young and beautiful and in love with Philip, only later learning that he was the son of one of the richest families in the region. Despite their differences, she knew this was the man she would someday marry, and she was over the moon when he gave her a ring of thin woven bands of gold.

Then came the letter from Philip, and her nervous breakdown, and the news that he was engaged to marry the daughter of another wealthy family. Margarethe thought she would never feel again, and she very nearly didn't. She married Ernst though she did not love him. He was a stable provider, he loved her dearly (though perhaps he loved her beauty more), and she enjoyed the companionship of his mother with whom he still lived. They were members of bowling clubs and social clubs, they had a beautiful daughter, Daniela, that Ernst doted over but that Margarethe never quite connected with, and they lived relatively uneventful lives for twenty years.

Enter Michael, the married but attractive head of the department of culture. In his presence, Margarethe felt real excitement for the first time since receiving Philip's letter so many years before. She plunged into a frenzied affair, fueled by a belief that she and her lover would run away together and start a new life. Unfortunately, around the same time, Daniela's always rebellious nature began to boil over adding to the sense of uncontrolled desperation in Margarethe's life.

The Style
Elke Schmitter did an excellent job with this debut novel. It is somewhat unusual in that there are no chapters, only breaks marked by a graphic indicating a change in scene or a switch in the timeline. The majority of the story is told in flashback with Margarethe narrating throughout. The only passages dealing with present events are brief glimpses at an investigation into the hit-and-run death of a prominent local man - and we are given the distinct impression that our narrator is intimately involved.

My Thoughts
I easily finished this short book in an afternoon and had little interest in anything else until I was done. Though it started a little slow and it took a while to be clear of what was happening in the present time and what was flashback, I found myself compulsively turning pages to learn all the details of Mrs. Sartoris' tragic existence. The book itself reads as if you were sitting at a corner table in a smoky café, drinking sherry with Margarethe as she tells you the sordid details of her unhappy life. I found that I pitied her more than I could relate to her plight, and was simultaneously fascinated and repelled by the progression of this life gone out of control.

I wouldn't call this book a 'must read', but for anyone with an affinity for romantic tragedy this is an interesting character study on Mrs. Sartoris.

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This my second entry into sleeper54's 'Lean-n-mean III' write-off.

My Lean-n-Mean entries:
The Cave
Mrs. Sartoris
Aliens For Breakfast
Christmas Family Gatherings
Griffin & Sabine
Sabine's Notebook
The Golden Mean


Recommended: Yes