On Peter Handke’s A Slow Homecoming

On Peter Handke’s A Slow Homecoming

Where do our ears end, our hearing; or does sound begin and disappear? How do I hear without a description?  What order do I inherit, transmute and then reshape the world of time, space and the odds and ends that vibrate within it? 

Handke's characters open against their best judgment.  Suddenly they find themselves hearing, seeing and tasting, losing the order of what was thought their realm.  We travel with them.  The nature of thought, emotion, relationship; the sadness and beauty of the asymptote; never completely touching our longed for, completely okay, a confidence arises as this being. Standing alone with everyone this is a home beyond home or a dream beyond dreams. 

Walk in this new and strange land always here.  The slowness of arrival unbearable; if you are in a rush to get somewhere Handke will not take you there.  If you are already and find yourself inside the glacier moving unmistakable, the blue light, the instantaneous forever then his voice is home. You never left and without a choice share this heart.

John Bailes

Friday 22 August 2008, Prospect Hill