“Masterworks by a genius,” writes The New York Times. Two novels by the centenarian German writer Hans Keilson (1909) are suddenly being republished in German and translated into English. Mr Keilson, a Jew, fled to the Netherlands in 1936. He is pleased with the latest interest in his books. “It hasn’t been for nothing.”
On a table in his house, lie copies of his books. A couple are almost falling apart, they were published 50 or 60 years ago. To mark his hundredth birthday, two titles have been reprinted in their original German. “A lovely language, but it depends on who’s speaking it. And what is said,” thinks Mr Keilson.
Ahead of his time
Hans Keilson was 50 years old when, in 1959, Der Tod des Widersachers (The Death of an Adversary) was published in Germany. At the time, the county wasn’t ripe for Hans Keilson’s analyses. But apparently it is now.
“So eventually I came to the conclusion that I was actually ahead of my time. I saw, described and analysed a problem, while Germany wasn’t ready to discuss these things,” says Mr Keilson. In 2008, he received a prestigious literary prize from German magazine Die Welt. And that led to his renewed fame.
Genius
At the beginning of August 2010, Comedy in a Minor Key, a recent English translation, received an enthusiastic review in The New York Times. His other novel, The Death of the Adversary, was also mentioned, although the book came out back in 1962. The books were called ‘masterworks’ and the author a ‘genius’. “Everyone should add Hans Keilson to their list of best authors,” wrote the literary critic.
Hans Keilson a genius? “It doesn’t hurt, does it?” Mr Keilson reflects matter-of-factly. He doesn’t identify with the description. “No, of course not. That is just what Americans say when they value your work. I don’t really need it.”
Enemy
Hans Keilson worked as a psychoanalyst for many years in the Dutch town of Bussum, near Amsterdam. He is an authority on the traumas experienced by Jewish children who survived the Second World War. He himself fled to the Netherlands before the war. In his home country Germany, he was no longer allowed to work as a doctor because he was Jewish.
The term ‘enemy’ is central to the theme in The Death of the Adversary. The protagonist investigates the motives of a politician that wants to destroy a group of people. He becomes so obsessed by his enemy (the politician) that he becomes distanced from his friends.
The comparison with Hitler and the Jews is quickly made. “It can happen anywhere. I didn’t want to turn it into a specific Jewish problem in the book. It only became clear to me later that it was the beginning of someone’s self destruction - the depth of hate people can feel towards their enemies, towards other people, the fact that people do not want to know what lies within themselves, what kind of villain you might be,” explains Mr Keilson.
Power of expression
The centenarian is frail. His body is slow, but his mind is quick. He draws the conclusion that his ‘old’ novels are still contemporary. “I’m pleased about that. They have gained new power of expression that they never had before. In America too, with a whole different audience. I’m glad about the fact that an American author discovered my work by chance and a publisher reprinted my book. It wasn’t written in vain after all.”
After The death of an Adversary, Hans Keilson never wrote another novel.
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Publications:
Comedy in a Minor Key, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, July 2010
The death of an Adversary Farrar, Straus and Giroux, July 2010
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A great 100th birthday gift for Hans Keilson. I am glad he is seeing it with his own eyes...And basic human emotions, reactions and fears have remained the same, since the days of Adam, Eve, Cain and Able...You only need means to capture them for posterity as a lesson for the new generations. But, history repeats itself...guess humans aren't good at learning lessons!!!
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