“Orsola treats me like an adult. As an equal. Obedience doesn’t mean subordination.“
The flavor of the words and the human touch Fleur Jaeggy narrates in this book are unparalleled. They bring back memories forgotten in a short time. Empathizing with the protagonists of the story comes naturally, even though the reader is unlikely to have experienced the events recounted. The immortality of the text lies in the precise reflection of certain interpersonal dynamics, typical of all families.
The title comes from the name of the Yugoslavian ship docked in Venice, ready to set sail across the Mediterranean to Greece. A two-week cruise during which the sixteen-year-old protagonist has the opportunity to meet her father, Johannes, and try to mend a nonexistent relationship. Two relatives whom life has made strangers, yet who somehow desperately need each other. Just one caveat: the truest and most sincere feelings are those that are unspoken.
The journey offers the protagonist the opportunity to delve into the vat of childhood memories. The forced separation from her father, to spend long periods living with a grandmother (?), also a stranger, toward whom she felt fear, respect, affection, and estrangement. All this will lead her to intuit family secrets she had always ignored.
Johannes’s death, upon returning to dry land, also leaves readers orphaned, but perhaps it is the fitting conclusion to a journey that began much earlier. The sadness over his passing will then transform into acceptance and a just realization, because that was how it was meant to be.
The writing is half a step below perfection. We can’t say whether we fell in love with the story first, or with the way it’s written. The protagonist’s memories are in every single word, as if they were fished out one by one from a long-closed drawer of memory. It surprised us, because we weren’t ready to face so much beauty in just a few pages.
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Fleur Jaeggy, Proleterka, Adelphi, Milano, 2001