Lion Feuchtwanger (1884–1958)

A remarkable achievement that left me wondering how Feuchtwanger can have essentially dropped out of sight of modern readers. I have several other books of his and now they need to move up the list. I cannot help but wonder how he would fare in a modern translation (mine, and I think the only one in English, is old; it was done by the indefatigable translators from the 1930s, Willa and Edwin Muir. There were some oddities but overall I thought it a very fluid job); the writing is strong and wonderfully evocative. Feuchtwanger has chosen a true story to retell and, of course, embellish. It’s one of those stories that is so unbelievable that it cannot be anything except true (and my quick researches suggest that it is largely based on history, though deviating significantly in the end. Even so, Feuchtwanger’s ending struck me as just about perfect.) It is the story of a court Jew, Joseph Süss (or Süß) Oppenheimer (1698-1738), whose extraordinary gift for finance and feel for politics leads to his position as the top financial advisor—and then, the top advisor in all ways—for the Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg. It is the story of his rise and fall and is crammed full of politics, religion, psychology, and even sex, all in a cauldron of inconceivable wealth and power. It evokes the time and the place so brilliantly you can smell the decay. Hubris? To excess. Wisdom? Remarkably enough, more than plenty. By turns hilarious and immensely sad, it is an extraordinary book.… (lisätietoja)

This is a novel written by a German man during the first 8 months of Hitler's reign as Chancellor. It was very distressing and painful to read yet was well worth it. It is the story of a family whose adult members made different choices about whether - or when - to leave Germany after Hitler took power. The writer did, infact, leave Germany before it was too late, although not all of his relatives & friends did. He later lived in the US and wrote many other books. I intend to read at least some of them.… (lisätietoja)

Im dritten Versuch endlich zu Ende gelesen... Beeindruckendes und sehr umfangreiches satirisches Sittengemälde Bayerns in den 1920er Jahren, incl. Behördenwillkür und aufsteigendem Nazionalsozialismus, der im (missglückten) Putsch "Rupert Kutzners" endet. Alle Figuren sind sehr plastisch gezeichnet; viele beruhen auf realen Vorbildern, werden aber durch den Autor von der historischen Vorlage entfremdet und zu einem Typus der Zeit. Allerdings habe ich bei mehr als 60 wichtigen Personen auf über 1.000 Seiten - von denen übrigens keine einzige als sympathische Identifikationsfigur taugt - immer wieder den Überblick verloren. Beeindruckend ist - wie auch im folgenden Roman der "Wartesaal-Trilogie" - die klare Analyse des Zeitgeschehens (hier verpackt in einen scheinbar historischen Roman) und die geradezu prophetische Weitsicht im Hinblick auf die Auswirkungen des aufsteigenden Nationalsozialismus.… (lisätietoja)