Words Jackie LaPlante
There is a certain calm to be found in reading a book where nothing really happens. The lack of excitement in the plot allows the reader to spend more time appreciating the writer’s craft and understanding the characters. That the plot is not exciting does not mean the book is dull. On the contrary, these books spark interest in the reader by offering an authenticity in the story that appeals to the human desire for connection.
Austrian author Robert Seethaler’s engaging novel The Café With No Name is a quiet gem of a book where nothing extraordinary happens.
Robert Simon (pronounced Zeemon) suffered the privations of war but was too young to have served. In 1966 he is performing odd jobs in Vienna when he is inspired to rent a vacant café in his working-class neighbourhood. With no experience in the restaurant business or customer service, he begins simply, serving one type of sandwich and limited beverages. As the business grows, he hires an equally inexperienced but hard-working country woman. Customers come and go; snippets of wine- or coffee-fuelled conversations are documented; the clientele is described only with reference to their habits and behaviours while at the café. Yet Seethaler’s calm and insightful portrayal of daily life compels the reader.
Even the events that, in another book, might have devastating consequences, turn out much like they would in real life. A patron’s epic drunken binge leaves him with simply regret and a sore head. The collapse of a bridge (a factual event) becomes but a topic of conversation at the café, and an accident that befalls the main character which may, in a different book, have been life-changing, is absorbed and accommodated. Human emotions are not overwrought: they are real and recognizable and honestly moving.
The Vienna of the book is not sophisticated. The patrons of the café discuss everyday joys and woes. Simon’s few love interests don’t come to much, and his close relationship with his elderly landlady is sweet and everyday. Yet despite there being no extraordinary events to propel the story, Seethaler creates characters that are sympathetic. They are neither resoundingly good nor evil, but real, so the reader feels invested in them, as if they are friends and neighbours.
Quiet books can be a refreshing break from plot-driven novels. They make the reader appreciate how rich regular lives are, if we take a moment to study them.
1. A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
2. The Ferryman and His Wife by Frode Grytten
3. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
