#GermanLitMonth XIII Hans Keilson
- Author: Hans Keilson
- Title: Death of the Adversary
- (232 pg) 1959
- Reading: book in Dutch
- Genre: Historical fiction
- German Literature Month XIII
- Lizzy’s Literary Life – @LizzySiddal
- #GermanLitMonth
Trivia:
In 1936 Dr. Keilson (1909-2011) emigrated to the Netherlands with his future wife, Gertrud Manz. He began a new novel but he put the manuscript of this book aside after the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940 forced him to live in hiding in Delft. Death of the Adversary was published in 1959. The novelist Francine Prose, in The New York Times Book Review, declared it a masterpiece and its author a genius.
Good news: Every reader has their reading preferences…mine is not historical fiction. I’d rather read the ‘raw’ history, but Han Keilson has changed all that. This story is about the narrator (no name) and his strong feelings of hate for his adversary B. This is not a spoiler but reading the book in the context of 1930s Germany one can only guess that B. is Hitler and his rise to power. So keep that in mind.
Good news: The strongest point is the use of the first person point of view that takes the reader inside the narrator’s mind…not unlike Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. From the first pages the book took hold of me and never let go! Although the narrator hates and fears B. he tries to put himself in the other’s shoes. The chapter when he finally sees B. in real life is full of emotions.
Personal:
Some books just leave me speechless….this is one of them. Death of the Adversary is stunning. The book was interesting on a personal level. Both Keilson and I have adopted The Netherlands as our home.
The discussions with the narrator and his father were the best part of the book. The fathers fills his backpack (“zijn wereldbol”) with essentials secretly in case he and his wife are taken by the police. He tells his son to pack a suitcase not a backpack, buy a ticket and leave. You have a goal…..a future to travel to. (pg 194) Try to find it in the library…Death of the Adversary is a lost classic of modern fiction.
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NancyElin.blog 
I love that kind of rush-to-the-end reading. Such a treat. (Although sometimes the saddest stories.)
I must confess…there was one book when I think of sad…. “James Wright: A Life in Poetry” (American poet). I did not want the book to end…did not want to read how he died. To this day…still haven’t read the last few pages. That is how good the book was.
Somebody else just posted a review of a novella by this author that sounded good, as does this book, so I definitely need to add him to my GermanLit list!
This man can write!
Oh this sounds like it got you in its grip, what a joy when a book carried you away like this appears to have done. Great and enticing review!
Thanks, Claire…I’m going to read more by Hans Keilson!