This book club pick was a brief interlude before the titan that is Marcel Proust, and at only 149 pages, I was able to finish it in a few sittings. The sparse narrative tells the story of Andreas Egger, a taciturn man who spends most of his whole life living in an Austrian mountain valley. The book is set in the mid-twentieth century, following Egger's career, beginning as a bastard foundling, through his years of solitude, working on cable car ski lifts, as a prisoner of war, and finally as an elderly mountain tour guide. The simplicity and concision of the text works well in depicting Egger's humble, morally unblemished and almost monastic existence. Despite a brief marriage that ends in tragedy, the man's life is one of isolation, therefore I imagine that a longer book would run the risk of getting quite boring.
A Whole Life was a quick and enjoyable read, with effective use of nature writing to paint the beauty and hostility of the mountains. There are some sage messages within about the understated value of physical labour and a low key existence. Egger works tirelessly on backbreaking tasks with minimum salary, and he does so without complaint. After the death of his wife, he practices a life of celibacy, shunning human society for the most part. As the world and technology changes around him, he becomes a living relic of a bygone age, eventually devolving into a state of pure lunacy. A quiet, unobtrusive novella, I would recommend it to anyone who needs to unwind after a more gruelling or obnoxious read.
Rating 3/5
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