Peter Stamm, the perfume of words without a silhouette

Year after year, Peter Stamm continues to explore the mysteries and connivances between people. With L'heure bleue, the Thurgau novelist takes us behind the scenes of a documentary about a writer.

As filming of the documentary about Swiss author Richard Wechsler stalls, young director Andrea, assisted by her boyfriend Tom, decides to leave Paris for Wechsler’s hometown. But although he was supposed to join them to finish the project, the Swiss German writer is nowhere to be found. The directing duo then sets out in search of clues and memories to understand who Richard Wechsler really was.

Starting with a plot built on next to nothing, Peter Stamm creates a world of bottomless pits and lost echoes, of endless questions and inner turmoil. The author has made the exploration of human relationships—and above all, their paradoxes—his strength; L'heure bleue is no exception to the rule and resumes the existential journey he began more than twenty years ago.

As you read Peter Stamm, you find yourself pondering; you think you understand the attraction between people, desire, the banality of love, and its fluctuations; but then the chapters unfold one after another, and you find yourself just as bewildered and lost as the characters in the story. Just like them, we are immersed in the absurdity of human relationships.

Literature Between Day and Night

Peter Stamm is the novelist of uncertainty: do we know exactly what Wechsler was thinking? Not at all. Do his books show us what kind of man he was? Not at all. Does the film project manage to capture his life? Even less so. And this uncertainty permeates everyday life, taking hold of everyone—starting with the reader. And this begins right with the title, since the “blue hour” is that moment of indecision, that in-between time!

Each of Peter Stamm’s works exudes a unique mood, an atmosphere—like morning fog over a lake, gently dissipating in the warmth of the first rays of sunlight. He is the novelist of golden mists. The Swiss Modiano.

«My work consisted mainly of lightening the load; I tried to lighten the load—sometimes of human figures, sometimes of the stars in the sky, sometimes of cities—but above all, I tried to lighten the load of the narrative’s structure and of language.»

Peter Stamm also includes in this book layered reflections on identity and our connection to the world. Starting as a portrait of a filmmaker, the novel gradually shifts toward a self-portrait: how will Andrea, using a portrait of Wechsler as a starting point, go on to create her own self-portrait? This shift—almost imperceptible when one is immersed in the heart of the story—is symptomatic of Peter Stamm’s entire approach: by highlighting certain features, the Swiss author paradoxically seeks to shed light on their hidden recesses.

L'heure bleue is the perfect illustration of Peter Stamm’s central themes, though it does not mark the culmination of his work. While it exudes a mysterious aura, the novel nevertheless lacks boldness and gives the reader the impression of looking at a watercolor wash: diluted to the extreme, the plot manages to evoke a certain atmosphere, but lacks definition. A charming new work, but not a groundbreaking one.

Write to the author: quentin.perissinotto@leregardlibre.com

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Peter Stamm
L'heure bleue
Christian Bourgois
August 2024
230 pages

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