The Pages

by Hugo Hamilton

Hardcover, 2021

Library's rating

Publication

Fourth Estate (2021), 304 pagina's

Physical description

304 p.; 8.74 inches

ISBN

0008451664 / 9780008451660

Language

Description

Fiction. Literature. Mystery. Historical Fiction. HTML:An entirely original novel in which a book�??Joseph Roth's masterpiece Rebellion�??narrates its own astonishing life story, from 1930s Germany to the present day, at the heart of a gripping mystery.   �??A powerful, powerful piece of work.�?� �??Colum McCann, best-selling author of Apeirogon One old copy of the novel Rebellion sits in Lena Knecht�??s tote bag, about to accompany her on a journey from New York to Berlin in search of a clue to the hand-drawn map on its last page. It is the brilliantly captivating voice of this novel�??a first edition nearly burned by Nazis in May 1933�??that is our narrator.   Fast-paced and tightly plotted, The Pages brings together a multitude of dazzling characters, real and invented, in a sweeping story of survival, chance, and the joys and struggles of love. At its center are Roth, an Austrian Jewish author on the run, and his wife, Friederike, who falls victim to mental illness as Europe descends into war. With vivid evocations of Germany under Nazism and today, The Pages dramatically illuminates the connections between past and present as it looks at censorship, oppression, and violence. Here is a propulsive, inspiring tale of literature over a hundred years: a novel for book lovers everywhere that will bring a fresh audience t… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member ozzer
The narrator of this book is another book—one saved from the Nazi fires. It recalls Heinrich Heine’s prescient observation: “That was only a prelude; where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people.” This first edition is Joseph Roth’s “Rebellion (1924).” That novel
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depicts a WWI amputee who, as compensation for his service, is given a medal and permission to work in the streets as an organ grinder. This leads to intense disillusionment and rebellion. Hamilton takes advantage of the timeless nature of literature to focus on nationalistic fervor then and now. “The past is no longer safe.” the book observes, “My time is coming back.” Indeed, today’s political expediencies seem to reflect what the book calls the Nazi’s “appetite for dishonesty…” blurring “the boundaries between fact and fiction.”

The plot involves an intriguing mystery surrounding the book. It originally belonged to Professor David Gluckstein who taught German literature in Berlin in 1933. He entrusted it to one of his students, Dieter Knecht, for safekeeping during the Nazi book burning frenzy. You see, Roth and Gluckstein were suspect to the book burners because both were Jews. Knecht bequeathed the book to his son, who later passed it on to his granddaughter, Lena, an artist living today in NYC. She discovers an enigmatic hand drawn map on one of the book’s end papers and takes it along with her on a business trip to Berlin with the vague aim of discovering the map’s location and thus (maybe?) revealing its meaning. Along the way, a purse snatcher steals and abandons the book in a dumpster. A Chechen refugee, named Armin Schneider, discovers it there and returns it to Lena.

Hamilton has a great story here, but he risks losing focus by including too many subplots. Clearly, this material is not extraneous because it highlights most of Hamilton’s agendas: the potential for inhumanity in state politics; the dangers of extreme nationalism; how hatreds can fester throughout history; the interconnectedness of events through time; and ideas about homeland. He follows Joseph Roth’s true-life marriage to Frieda through her mental breakdown and murder by the Nazis. He also documents Roth’s own descent into despair and early death at 44 from alcoholism. Lena has an affair with Armin, a man whose family was killed in a Chechnyan bombing which left him with shrapnel wounds and his sister, Madina, an amputee. The latter, along with her role as a musician, is a not-so subtle reminder of Roth’s protagonist in “Rebellion.” Bogdanov is a hate filled right-wing extremist who is obsessed with Madina and terrorizes her brother in retribution for her spurning him. Mike, Lena’s significant other, works as a security consultant in the U.S. and relates his mother’s land dispute to Lena from a distance. Clearly, this is meant to represent the historical European conflicts that gave rise to the wars and their aftermath.

The multiple interlocking narratives distract from Hamilton’s main story and risk confusion. Although revealing, the subplots and characters seem more allegorical than real. They render a mythic quality to the narrative. Clearly, the ending is intended to be thrilling, yet it seems hurried and contrived. Notwithstanding such shortcomings, Hamilton succeeds in presenting Berlin as a community haunted by its past but embracing multiculturalism and freedom.
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