My Red Heaven

Olsen (Dreamlives of Debris) drafts Greta Garbo, Werner Heisenberg, and Vladimir Nabokov alongside a host of effervescent fictional characters into a terrific tale that takes place on a single day, June 10, 1927, in Berlin. The peregrinating narrative is delivered in a montage of styles: stream of consciousness, transcripts of newsreels, poems, a screenplay, photographs, and sections of partially legible, superimposed, and inverted paragraphs. Each stylistic change brings a wholly new voice, allowing the reader to perceive the same day through many minds. The characters ride airplanes, debate social progress, go for walks, reminisce, get into traffic accidents, and give birth, frequently crossing paths. Life balances in a brief respite for Berliners between the tumult of WWI and WWII and at the intersection of science, art, humanity, and politics. Inspired by German artist Otto Freundlich’s painting of the same title, this meditation on the effects of a specific moment in history and the human condition reaches past cultural barriers and time to create a narrative that pushes boundaries and reflects on what is means to dwell in the here and now. (Jan.)