‘Overstaying’ by Ariane Koch     (2021) – 176 pages                               Translated from the German by Damon Searls

The plot of ‘Overstaying’ is exceedingly simple. A woman who lives near the mountains in Switzerland takes in a visitor to live in her house, and absurdist or surreal comedy ensues. I prefer to call what ensues an absurd comedy, because most of it did not make sense to me.

I had the same problems with this novella as I did with ‘Waiting for Godot’ by Samuel Beckett. I’ve read or tried to read ‘Waiting for Godot’ several times, and it has never made sense to me. However ‘Waiting for Godot’ is considered a classic in absurdist comedy.

In ‘Overstaying’, we never find out who or what the visitor is. The visitor is not necessarily human.

“The visitor walked around like a sticky strip of flypaper with insects stuck to it. He was clearly looking for a place to stay, although he seemed not to know it yet. He traipsed around outside the Roundel Bar, down the lane, up the mountain.

Anyway I felt a little uneasy.”

That first line about walking around like a sticky strip of flypaper did not make sense to me at all. At first she is wary of the visitor.

“The last thing I thought before I fell into his clutches was that I had to be careful not to fall into his clutches.”

The visitor often gets on his hostess’s nerves.

“Since my visitor’s arrival, I’ve been clenching my teeth so hard that they not only grind but threaten to crack apart – according to what a dentist told me yesterday.”

There is a lot of supposed humor involving the singing of the vacuum cleaner nozzles which are stored in the visitor’s room that I didn’t get.

“Is that the distant singing of the vacuum cleaner nozzles or is it the wind?”

The entire novella revolves around the woman’s and townspeople’s interactions with the visitor, and then the visitor leaves.

Even an absurd comedy must, at some point, make sense to the reader.

But don’t let me stop you from reading this novella. Mine is definitely the minority opinion. ‘Overstaying’ won the prestigious German Aspekte Prize for debut fiction. And the critics of this translated version of ‘Overstaying’ seem to be falling all over themselves in praise.

Grade:    C-