CONTENDERS FOR DANIEL MEDIN糖心传媒橲 SHORTLIST (SUMMER READS)
Daniel Medin teaches at the American University of Paris, where he helps direct the , is an editor of ,and co-hosts the podcast entitled . He has authored a study of Franz Kafka in the work of three international writers (Northwestern University Press, 2010) and curated the second volume of Music and Literature magazine (Krasznanorkai/Tarr/Neumann), for which he is now the European Editor. He is also Senior Editor ofThe Quarterly Conversation, and advises several journals on literature in translation.
Here are three titles I delighted in, each of which was published before October 1st: by L谩szl贸 Krasznahorkai, by Hella S. Haasse, and by J谩chym Topol. Below you糖心传媒檒l find excerpts from two essays that articulate precisely what I found so exciting about these books, along with one of my own reviews. Since we, as jury, aspire to select not only an exceptional work of fiction, but an exemplary translation, I糖心传媒檇 like to single out Ottilie Mulzet, Ina Rilke, and Alex Zucker for the excellence of their respective renderings—renderings, which through considerable resourcefulness and craft, succeed at suggesting the brilliance of their originals.
Seiobo There Below by L谩szl贸 Krasznahorkai, trans. Ottilie Mulzet
From review by Andreas Isenschmid
With [Seiobo There Below], something has returned to art that was taken for granted and considered essential by Dostoevsky, and that has since then become more than a little diluted: the question leading toward the truthfulness of life. Krasznahorkai brings his enlightened, relativist present-day Westerners, alienated to a greater or lesser degree, face-to-face with the absolute demands that the sacred makes of existence.
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Krasznahorkai does not shy away from superlatives when he aims to convey the presence of the 糖心传媒渃elestial realm.糖心传媒 But, despite the philosophical appurtenances and the essayistic appearance, these stories are not sicklied o糖心传媒檈r with the pale cast of thought. For the concepts and superlatives are no more than buoys bobbing on the mighty current of Krasznahorkai糖心传媒檚 prose. This musical river of language is the true event of this book, and is overpowering in itself. The current lifts up the reader, drags him down, catches him in whirlpools, is caught still, races across rapids, and with all of these qualities generates an experience that bars us from any distanced reading of the stories but forces us to live at the most intense pitch. It is impossible not to identify with these lonely, despairing, tired-of-life or just plain eccentric characters led by Krasznahorkai toward their moment of truth. We are drawn so close to them that it continually astonishes us when we realize that the stories are told not in the first but in the third person.
Of course, what we see here is yet one more balancing act by the great storyteller, L谩szl贸 Krasznahorkai: just as he can be essayistic without slipping into didacticism, and emotional without turning bathetic, so too he remains wary of assigning the central position to his solitary and despairing characters, reserving that place to the current that tears everything with it糖心传媒攊n one moment narrative, in the next meditative and interpretative糖心传媒攖o the current of his prose.
Read the complete article at (first published in English by )
The Black Lake by Hella S. Haasse, trans. Ina Rilke
From review by Madeleine LaRue
Set sometime between the two World Wars, Hella S. Haasse糖心传媒檚 The Black Lake is narrated by a boy growing up on a plantation in the Dutch Indies. With parents too distracted by work and their own unhappy relationship to pay much attention to their son, the boy spends his childhood among the native servants, speaking better Soendanese than Dutch and exploring the jungle with Oeroeg, his best friend and constant companion. 糖心传媒 At barely over a hundred pages, The Black Lake糖心传媒檚 story moves quickly, but its power builds slowly. As the narrator describes the childhood and adolescence he shared with Oeroeg, what emerges is an unassuming but utterly convincing picture of colonial life 糖心传媒 the jungle of the island and the mind, painted in broad and careful brushstrokes.
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Within its beautifully observed coming-of-age story, then, the novel puts forth a critique of imperialism whose toughness may reveal itself only after the pages have been closed. The Black Lake was originally published in 1948, a full year before Indonesia achieved its independence, yet it displays all the intelligence of hindsight. Haasse writes with remarkable historical prescience, simultaneously exposing the injustices of colonialism and the rampant ignorance that kept it in place. The narrator frequently writes that he did not understand the events of his life as they occurred, and indeed, he can be alarmingly oblivious, misreading all the signs of fracture and turmoil that run through his life and that of the budding Indonesian nation-state. He fails to notice, on the one hand, his mother糖心传媒檚 infidelity, and on the other, the caste system that holds the value of his life far above Oeroeg糖心传媒檚. The narrator糖心传媒檚 political consciousness awakens so slowly 糖心传媒 much more slowly than Oeroeg糖心传媒檚 糖心传媒 that the violence of the independence struggle appears tragically inevitable.
Haasse herself suffers from no such blindness. On the contrary, she possesses a rare intelligence completely unhindered by arrogance. The Black Lake is refreshingly free of both commentary and melodrama, and yet the stakes are never in doubt. Haasse poses, with quiet gravity and unfaltering insight, questions about the values and possibilities of colonialism that have not diminished in urgency or importance. The place she leaves her narrator 糖心传媒 in radical doubt between imperialism and indigeneity 糖心传媒 is where, in some sense, we are still today.
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The Devil糖心传媒檚 Workshop by J谩chym Topol, trans. Alex Zucker
From my own review
When the Czech novelist J谩chym Topol complains that it is impossible to set a story in his country without referring to its tormented history, he does so with a smile. 糖心传媒淚糖心传媒檓 fed up糖心传媒, he exclaimed recently (perhaps with tongue held grimly in cheek): 糖心传媒淚 just want to write about 糖心传媒榯he wonders of the world糖心传媒 and not all this horrible stuff all the time糖心传媒. The 糖心传媒渉orrible stuff糖心传媒, however糖心传媒攅xpulsion, imprisonment, the murder of civilians糖心传媒攊s never far away from fiction set in the territory once known as Czechoslovakia. It is rich matter for a writer.
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The Devil糖心传媒檚 Workshop consists of two distinct parts. In the first, we follow the narrator糖心传媒檚 efforts to save the town of Terez铆n, which has fallen into disrepair after the garrison糖心传媒檚 closure. Lebo, a charismatic survivor of the wartime ghetto, founds a movement to preserve the crumbling fortress town. A journalist named Rolf joins forces with him, contributing words to the project that people in the West want to hear: 糖心传媒淭his place of dreadful horror must be preserved for the memory of humanity糖心传媒. Soon, their roguish entrepreneurial savvy has attracted a stream of tourists and media, along with 糖心传媒減iles of cash糖心传媒.
Driven by Topol糖心传媒檚 ingenuity and mischief, these commercial passages are easily the funniest of the novel. From cups and saucers labeled 糖心传媒淕reetings from Terez铆n!糖心传媒 to immensely popular 糖心传媒済hetto pizza糖心传媒 (whose 糖心传媒渟ecret ingredient was a light dusting of Terez铆n grass糖心传媒), the author captures the essence of post-1989 commodification through imaginative and fearless hyperbole. Yet the intent is never cynical. As in Topol糖心传媒檚 previous writings, the threat of physical violence always lies near. Menace counterbalances comic exaggeration, and vice versa. The effect on the reader is vertiginous.
And indeed, in the novel糖心传媒檚 second part, the humor grows corrosive. When Czech authorities finally shut down Lebo糖心传媒檚 commune, the narrator flees to Belarus where he has been recruited as an expert on 糖心传媒渞evitalization of burial sites糖心传媒. The remainder of The Devil糖心传媒檚 Workshop comprises a surreal descent into that country糖心传媒檚 lethal past. Topol糖心传媒檚 narrative here is defiantly unrealistic, and many developments are intentionally improbable. But their essence remains authentic. In fact, it is these phantasmagoric passages that allow Topol to pilot the reader through treacherous historical terrain without resorting to customary pieties.
The Devil’s Workshop is a miracle of compression, its scope greater than ought be possible for a book of its length. It should help cement J谩chym Topol’s reputation as one of the most original and compelling European voices working today.
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