Hans Keilson

[Mirabell]

Two of Hans Keilson's novels a?have been (re)translated and the NYT posts an effusive review

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/bo..._r=1&ref=books

For busy, harried or distractible readers who have the time and energy only to skim the opening paragraph of a review, I?ll say this as quickly and clearly as possible: ?The Death of the Adversary? and ?Comedy in a Minor Key? are masterpieces, and Hans Keilson is a genius.

Although the novels are quite different, both are set in Nazi-occupied Europe and display their author?s eye for perfectly illustrative yet wholly unexpected incident and detail, as well as his talent for story*telling and his extraordinarily subtle and penetrating understanding of human nature. But perhaps the most distinctive aspect they share is the formal daring of the relationship between subject matter and tone. Rarely has a finer, more closely focused lens been used to study such a broad and brutal panorama, mimetically conveying a failure to come to grips with reality by refusing to call that reality by its proper name.

[jackdawdle]

if i had a client list as extensive as yours, i'd think i'd keel over and conk out from sheer exhaustion.

how do you do it?

[Mirabell]

and another review by Adam Kirsch Bearing Witness - by Adam Kirsch > Tablet Magazine - A New Read on Jewish Life


mmmh. That sounds all very interesting.

[peter_d]

Keilson seems to be much better known in Germany than in The Netherlands. But now that he has been discovered in the States (and some Dutch media picked up on that) this might change. To be honest I had never heard about this man before Mirabell left his post here.

[Eric]

Strange how someone like that can live to the age of 101 without the Dutch literary establishment noticing. Bussum is, however, a quiet and fairly well-off residential area, and I suppose he could have been quietly writing in German there for decades. I'd never heard of him before, either.

[Mirabell]

To be honest I had never heard about this man before Mirabell left his post here.

I haven't either, before I found the review in the NYT. But then I'm not dutch, so there.

[Liam]

I picked up his novella Comedy in a Minor Key today in a beautiful hardcover edition for a mere $1. Let's see what he's all about--

[Eric]

Here's a article about him:

http://readmystache.wordpress.com/20...son-1909-2011/

He lived within a few kilometres of me, but I had never heard the name while I was living there.

[Liam]

Hmm, what I don't find encouraging is the formal endorsement by Francine Prose describing Keilson as "one of the world's greatest writers," b/c judging from what I've read, Francine Prose is one of the world's worst writers, so I wouldn't easily "agree" with her definition of greatness, .