The novel “The Hanging Saw” uses images to make the unspeakable tangible
Published: Tuesday, Feb 20th 2024, 10:40
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In her second novel, Lucerne-based author and filmmaker Alice Schmid tackles a difficult subject. "The Hanging Saw" approaches it with vivid language and without clichés.
It is a special tone that Alice Schmid strikes in her new novel "The Hanging Saw". Staccato-like, sometimes laconic sentences that don't seem to want to fit in with the monstrous: It's about 15-year-old Lilly, a farmer's daughter, who is sent to a children's home in Belgium as an au pair in the 1960s. Her parents no longer know what to do with her. She has stopped speaking from one day to the next.
The inexperienced girl, who grew up in a strict Catholic environment, doesn't know exactly what happened the day Lilly lost her speech. What is disturbing is that the readers begin to suspect it before she does. The young woman was raped by her gym teacher at sports camp. Far from home, Lilly finds her language again in French and begins to understand what has happened to her.
"The Hanging Saw" is surprisingly easy to read for such a heavy subject. With her cliché-free, pictorial language, Alice Schmid only hints at many things and yet points beyond what is written. This is no coincidence: Schmid is also a filmmaker. She became famous with the feature film "Die Kinder vom Napf" (2011). She was awarded the 2021 Swiss Film Prize for "Burning Memories". "The Hanging Saw" is the second novel by the author, who was born in Lucerne in 1951.
Alice Schmid now lives in Entlebuch. And it is here that her protagonist Lilly returns after her au pair year, stronger and more mature. But while much has changed for the young woman, time has stood still in her old home. Lilly is now speaking again, but many things are still unspeakable for her. And so Lilly is drawn out again and again, away from the oppressive confinement.
*This text by Maria Künzli, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
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