Book 45 - Irmgard Keun "After Midnight"

Irmgard Keun "After Midnight" (Penguin Modern Classics)





When the book was published in 1937, Irmgard Keun was living in exile in the Netherlands, her previous novels having been banned by the Nazi regime. As the editorial note at the end of the Kindle edition explains, Keun returned to Germany when the Netherlands fell to Germany in 1940. She travelled on a passport in an assumed name, after the publication of reports that she had committed suicide. She then lived with her parents in Germany for the duration of the war.

This is a short work and easy to read. However, its simplicity is deceptive and the final effect of the work is devastating. The novel is in the form of a first-person narrative and the story is slight. The narrator is Sanna, an unsophisticated and naïve 19 year old in Frankfurt, who is not interested in politics and has the same concerns as other girls of the same age. Sanna is in love with the unprepossessing Franz and she wants to have fun. Her friend Gerti is in love with a Jewish boy (or rather, with the son of a Jewish man). Her sister-in-law fancies herself to be in love with anti-Nazi writer Heini. Her brother Algin, a novelist, contemplates whether he can conform and write in a manner which will not cause him political problems.

Sanna’s observations about life for ordinary Germans under the Nazi regime are a large part of what makes this work a treasure. Her observations are ironic and often laugh-out-loud funny, all the more so because Sanna is not consciously criticizing Nazism : rather, she relates its contradictions and perversity in a matter-of-fact manner which leaves the reader in no doubt as to Keun’s views. As the novel progresses, the mood becomes darker and more desperate. Events start to spiral out of Sanna’s control and her state of mind is reflected in the narrative. Juxtaposed to Sanna’s first person narrative is her reporting of the comments of other characters, in particular those of Heini, who provides a much more direct criticism of Nazism than that of Sanna.

This novel provides an amazing insight into life in 1930s Germany and in particular into the choices which had to be made by writers. I recommend this fairly short novel.

Book 46 - Raymond Carver "Short Cuts"

Raymond Carver "Short Cuts" (Harvill Press)




This has been sitting on book shelves for a few years now. Carver might have continued to go undetected by me as, for the most part, all I've ever heard him discussed is a one sentence nod of approval in passing. Not that I could have predicted it, but I'm glad I've waited to read his work because I might not have appreciated it as much had I read it before this particular moment of my life...whatever that is.

So this is a collection of his stories (plus one poem) that Robert Altman used in his film, which added a whole other level to my reading that I enjoyed. I usually like to read the book before I see the movie, but in this case I'm glad it went the other way around. It was fascinating to find what elements Altman used and their point of departure, and really I can't say that I enjoyed one more than the other in its own right. However, Carver's style really shines through...I love the open ends he leaves in his stories. In other authors' writing, this technique often seems to me like a cop out, a lazy solution for a plot they never quite thought out, but with Carver I feel a sense of certainty planted within what might seem ambiguous.

Like this is where we close our eyes to go to sleep for the day, and even though the future likely will sling us every which way, at least we know tomorrow will come, even if maybe not for us...that much we may rely on.

I am enamored. I have been wooed. I am prepared to blissfully writhe in his stories like a pup when he finds that funky patch of grass in the park. That is how I feel.