The Latest Book by Ottessa Moshfegh: Death in Her Hands

 

In the last weeks, I am doing my best to read as much as possible good literature in German, and even tried to read books originally published in English in translation. I don´t have a clear plan, I rather prefer to be taken by the wave of the instantly available titles from my online and physical local libraries.

Unsuccessful to get an ARC of the latest Ottessa Moshfegh´s, I waited until the translation was ready. Until reading Death in Her Hands, translated into German as Der Tod in ihren Händen by Anke Caroline Burger, my enthusiasm for her books was relatively limited. As limited as in really enticed by the writing but lacking any sympathy for the characters. But my perspective was wrong, because this is not how I am expected to behave towards the literary characters. I should read about them, get to know them and feel challenged by them, shocked and compelled to run out of my comfort zone.

During a random walk in the woods, Vesta Bruhl, the 72-year old widow living in a lakeside cabin with her dog Charlie and the ashes of her late husband discovers a scrap of paper with the following lines: ´Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. Wasn´t me. Here is her dead body´. 

What would you do when reading such a note? What would I do? I would just try to figure out the geography of the place and look for the body probably. Handing the note to the police would also be part of my scenario. But me, I am a very non-literary person in my everyday life. I operate with mathematic clarity and minimal emotions, although I love to read complex stories, sometimes with strong emotional emphasis. 

Vesta though, she is creating a story for Magda, a murder-thriller story, at the limit of mental insanity, using all the available resources, from AskJeeves to a pastor´s radio show. At a certain extent, Vesta is a kafkaesque character: with a life spent in the front of a closed door, she is gathering all her strength to get herself on the other side of life with the last energy breath. 

I´ve read a couple of reviews about the book outlining the crime/whodunit layer, but I´ve read the book differently. For me, it has more to do with the power of imagination and the ways in which the unexpected affects normal, very ordinary lives. Ordinary, at least the the first sight, as in fact, each existence is different and has its own story. Also Vesta´s. Sometimes, we need to embrace the power of the unexpected, that may be harder than life and place a bet. Even in the end we may end up completely overwhelmed by the genuine power of the event - in a very phenomenological sense of the world.

Death in Her Hands stirred in my mind so many questions about life´s way of playing with us and how to react to the unexpected - which, at a certain extent, is 90% of what happens to us. It inspires also thoughts about the power of the written words and how easily we can be taken away by the waves of the imagination. But the good news is that imagination is such a rich depository and this new book by Ottessa Moshfegh explores its limits until its very end, through prose and poetry and provocative thoughts.

A special mention for the cover of my German edition which adds the final aesthetic touch to an excellent translation. One day, I hope to have enough information to write an informative piece about the elegance of German book covers.

Rating: 5 stars