A Sorrow Beyond Dreams (New York Review Books Classics)
In this heartwrenching account of his mother's illness and  death, avant-garde Austrian novelist and playwright Handke (Once  Again for Thucydides; Ride Across Lake Constance and Other  Plays) details his struggle to tell the story of his mother's  life and his relationship to her without turning it into an  overwrought elegy. The result, first published in the United  States in 1974 as part of a collection (this is the first time  it has been published as a freestanding book), is indeed  considered by most critics to be one of Handke's finest literary  achievements, one that is much less abstract than much of his  other writing. Seven weeks after his mother's suicide in 1971,  Handke felt compelled to preserve his memories of her, of their  life together during the postwar misery, and to record his rage  over the problems that his mother left for him to solve after  her death. Both his anger at this legacy and his admiration for  his mother are obvious, and the essay is melancholy and lucid.  Highly recommended for large public library and academic  literary collections.Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NYCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.