Slow Homecoming

Slow Homecoming (German: Langsame Heimkehr) is a 1979 collection of three novellas by the Austrian writer Peter Handke.

Plot

"The Long Way Around" is about a European scientist who relocates from Alaska to California, which disrupts his sense of space.

"The Lesson of Mont Sainte-Victoire" is about a trip to Paul Cézanne's Provence in search of renewed vitality.

"Child Story" is about a father who feels isolated but loves his young daughter.

Reception

The book has been named as a turning point in Handke's writing, when he became increasingly subjective and his expression became more solemn, which led to some negative reactions when the book first was published.^[1] Cecile Cazort Zorach of Monatshefte called it a "difficult and irritating book", more complex than Handke's earlier portrayal of the United States in Short Letter, Long Farewell (1972). Cazort Zorach wrote that it has traits of Bildungsroman along with "brief excursions into surrealistic metamorphoses, grotesque humor, veiled literary allusions, ponderous (but also parodistic) Heideggerian prose, and, finally, a shift from third-person narration to an 'ich'," the latter revealing that the book is as much about its narrator as its characters.^[2] Publishers Weekly wrote that the book is powerful in its reflections but suffers from its lack of storytelling and characterisation.^[3]

References