Slow Homecoming (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Peter Handke
- First Published: 1985
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Philosophical realism
- Time of Work: The mid-1970’s
- Setting: The United States, France, and Germany
- Genres: Long fiction, Philosophical realism
- Subjects: 1970’s, North America or North Americans, Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Parents and children, Traveling or travelers, France or French people, Nature, Europe or Europeans, Art or artists, 1980’s, Single parents or single-parent families, Painting or painters, Germany or German people, Alaska, Arctic, Geology or geologists
- Locales: New York, NY, France, Germany, Denver, CO, Alaska, Northern California
Characters Discussed
The Long Way Around, 1979
Valentin Sorger, an Austrian geologist working in Alaska, above the Arctic Circle. He is in early middle age. His work consists of making geological sketches of the Alaskan terrain. Sorger begins to feel estranged from existence and decides to return to Austria. He flies to San Francisco and spends time with a married couple he knows. The colors and forms of nature become the object of his meditations, and he longs to find some kind of spiritual law, an experience of salvation, that will redefine his existence. He...
[The entire page is 552 words long]
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