Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck / Review

I was really impressed by the structure and larger meaning of this novel, but reading parts of it were a bit of a slog. Click ‘Show More’ for info & links.
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Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from German by Michael Hofmann
uk.bookshop.org/a/9054/978178...
Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (translated by Susan Bernofsky)
lonesomereader.com/blog/2018/...
Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux (translated by Tanya Leslie)
• Simple Passion by Anni...
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[@maureencalder9911]

Having just finished this prize winning novel, I wholeheartedly agree. This is definitely a book to admire rather than enjoy. Your summary is in my mind 100% correct. I listened to a lot of the music mentioned which was a bonus.

[@ianp9086]

I actually went to a reading by Jenny Erpenbeck last year which was fascinating. There was some discussion about the meaning of ‘home’ and she was really interesting on the fact that the country where she was born and brought up no longer exists and a western society and culture were imposed on her country almost overnight which was deeply unsettling for many in the GDR. I understood from her talk that the two protagonists are meant to reflect the generational differences in their responses to the unification. I haven’t got around to reading it yet but really want to! I can recommend her novel Visitation where the main character is a house which has a number of different occupants during the twentieth century.

[@EricKarlAnderson]

Ah, interesting. Yes, I feel like that comes across in the story. I'd like to read "Visitation" and I'd really recommend "Go, Went, Gone" if you've not read that.

[@a_bookish_gemini]

I had a friend of mine send me the German hardcover and I’m both excited and anxious about reading it. Thank you for this!

[@antonypearce8477]

I thought it was a great novel but challenging reading experience. I had to put it aside for a couple of days as the relationship was making me increasingly uncomfortable. However I think that you get a real sense of how a failing state impacts on individual lives. That said it is clear that all is not rosy in the west and a bit that really struck me was her visit to relatives early on in the novel and being shocked by sights of poverty and people begging. So cleverly done and really makes you think. Like you it gave me an alternative reading of the fall of the wall which I remember well. I think of the shortlist it deserves the win but there were others I enjoyed more but would I re read them whereas I would with Kairos? Great review as ever! Thank you

[@donaldadams1549]

I’m with you 100% on this novel. I wouldn’t want either character in my life. I’ve always said that an experience isn’t all bad if you learn something from it and move forward. I didn’t feel that Katharina learned a damn thing from the abusive affair. The reader might finally understand that Hans was a trained government mole but that realization doesn’t seem to affect Katharina at all.

[@selenophile5256]

Yes she is stupid , but saying she is as bad as the literal Nazi spy who fuxks someone who can be his kid is wild

[@selenophile5256]

Yes she is stupid , but saying she is as bad as the literal Nazi spy who fuxks someone who can be his kid is wild

[@steveurick3044]

Thanks for all of your great videos. Just read Simple Passion and looking forward to this:) For me, Milkman had a similar claustrophobic feeling...

[@rebecca.reader]

I have just finished this book and I agree with your thoughts. I really loved and enjoyed reading the first half. I found that the way Erpenbeck structured the writing was really emersive and I could really "feel"the characters . But the second half was such a harrowing reading experience and I really had to disengage myself from the characters and therefore felt list and uninterested at times but also overwhelmed. This, I believe, was totally the purpose. But the second half I really didn't enjoy. I also felt that there was a lot being said that went over my head. It also opened my eyes to that point in history and what was going on politically, particularly in East Germany....I really had very little idea, like you , growing up in the west. It really made me rethink consumerism, which is so much more of an issue today even. Ultimately, a very thought provoking and timely read.

[@Rosiemayj]

I finished reading Kairos today, and found it to be a complex, frustrating and ultimately rewarding read. Like you I found reading about the relationship increasingly frustrating, and I despised Hans so much! The writing is so beautiful and rich, I agree this would be such a rewarding re-read. I have been reading 'Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990 by Kate Hoyer alongside which has really aided my understanding of the historical context/back drop of the novel, I highly recommend the one too. Thanks as always for such a thoughtful and engaging review 😊

[@debrahills8148]

Objectively, Kairos certainly deserves its place on the International Booker Shortlist and even the win… but I can’t say I personally enjoyed it. Part of it was that the story of Hans and Katarina became not just appalling but tedious. But the other part is more on me… I felt like I just didn’t have the deep understanding of the German postwar years and eventual reunification to digest the historical and cultural aspects of the novel. I almost DNF, but carried on, skimming much more than I usually do. I did find the perspective of East Germany at the end of the book interesting. I think it stands a good chance of winning the prize. Oddly, it was both a slog and a book I may want to reread someday…

[@dqan7372]

Well, you definitely increased my desire to read the book, but my desire was already so low I'm not sure it made a functional difference. :) Maybe next year when (if) I am in a better reading headspace. Whether it's representing suffering, paranoia, or boredom, etc., some books are just too good at what they do. Well, I'm not sure it's the book's fault; it's partly a me problem. I need to be a bit better at confronting bad situations a bit more unflinchingly. I'm more of an avoider.

[@hanszobel9590]

I am glad that the book has been so well received abroad. Here in Germany, Erpenbeck was initially pretty much ignored, but after winning the Booker Prize she is now being received - very critically - in this country too. In a way, the book scratches at the German national myth of the "Peaceful Revolution". Erpenbeck reminds us that what the GDR opposition wanted and what was then implemented with reunification were not necessarily congruent.

[@the_snicklefritz]

I have some many thoughts about this book. Despite the incredibly frustrating characters I found this novel captivating and beautifully written. So many times I felt myself admiring the prose. I would not be disappointed at all if this won the International Booker Edited just to say this was a fantastic review Eric! I really enjoyed listening to your thoughts and opinions.

[@-zero.3354]

I'm starting it tomorrow here in Essouria Morocco We shall see !

[@-zero.3354]

Three cafes later here in Essouria on Thursday I've finished Kairos.I loved it. Brilliant translation. Complex characters. I visited Berlin once in 1992 so I could visualise the setting. Lots of cultural references but it helped that I'm a classical music buff. I've even been to Colmar in France and seen the Isenheim altarpiece,Si I understand the two references to it in the novel. Intense experience. Now I'm on to In Ascension which just became available to me on los Angeles county library online

[@user-no3gl7te7s]

I ordered the book in german and can't wait to see how my german upbringing in West Berlin will absorb and interpret this story.

[@erinh7450]

I saw a comment elsewhere that opined that the Germans don't find Jenny Erpenbeck all that; that she's much more popular in translation, and that perhaps that was because a lot of the themes she touches on are already quite (overly?) familiar to Germans. I've found that a bit in the two books I've read by her thus, not bad, but not at all earth-shattering - I read a lot in German, and in college minored in it, and actually a class I took way back then was on East/West Germany, how their cultures and attitudes had diverged so much since the split, that it was inconceivable they would ever get back together. That ship had sailed. This was, of course, just a few years before the fall of the Wall. Oops. I have also read elsewhere that the toxic relationship in Kairos is supposed to be a metaphor for East/West German reunification, and your description of the plot lines kind of bears that out! I think it's an interesting thing she's doing here - the initial excitement, the realization that they're actually really different (hey, maybe that class made some good points), the disappointment that the promise didn't bear out as expected, and the inability to get out of the relationship and instead celebrate milestones..., but not enough that I want to slog through a story about an old married lech and a pretty young thing, even as metaphor. All that said, it could very well win the Int'l Booker. Seems to be the top choice of many lists of those who've read the shortlist...

[@inarticulable]

I think it's also interesting how everyone around Katharina had their own dilemma of how to respond to her relationship,. She is an adult and must make her own decisions, but then she is still very young, which makes her vulnerable. I found the second half very disturbing, indeed it is expected that an abusive relationship would be uncomfortable to read about. It was also interesting to read about life for the East Germans after reunification.

[@DC-iz6nb]

This book made me feel anxious and uncomfortable but I finished it. I also like her references-thoughtful.

[@TKTalksBooks]

To answer the question in your thumbnail: Yes.

[@haroldniver813]

I really like Erpenbeck and while this made me uncomfortable at times, it ultimately ripped my heart apart, and I wept more than once. I hope it does win.

[@cindyhaiken5644]

I share your conflict on this one. I liked it and am glad I read it but I found it increasingly uncomfortable and think there are more worthy winners this year.

[@christinemacdonald3308]

Totally agree with your comments. I was growing increasingly uncomfortable and when he used the work rape I had to put the book down. If it wins the Booker Prize I'll continue where I left off at Box 2.

[@selenophile5256]

Wait does Hans rape the Katharina? If there is rape pls tell me cause I don't want to read it then

[@gwilymeades]

Just like with Study for Obedience I think people's reactions to this book show how shallow of readers they often are. The book is a masterpiece, a symphony of writing from beginning to end. It makes you uncomfortable, it seems tedious at times, you don't like the characters, all of these things recommend the book to me, as something being difficult but rewarding and ultimately worth the effort. I'm so glad it has won! (And sad that Study for Obedience didn't!)

[@jenniferkate7167]

I really wanted to like this book but ended up DNFing. If it wins I think I'll pick it up again in the future. It just wasn't the right time for me and I found it very frustrating.

[@romesg9832]

Thank you for a great summary. I found the novel to be increasingly tedious and bogged down in political history and overloaded with cultural references ( music, plays, novels, philosophy, Greek mythology etc) to the expense of maintaining the plot. The characters were not well rounded, some reduced to little more than a passing reference. Whilst the translation into English must have been enormously challenging the English was at times clunky, particularly with respect to the choice of some poorly chosen idioms, and the syntax didn’t always read smoothly. I found it an exhausting book to read and not enjoyable or entertaining. That said I seem to be in a distinct minority.

[@janethansen9612]

I have never hated a character as much as I hated Hans. I do, however, think he was being manipulated by the state as much as she was.

[@the_snicklefritz]

I think this point may be getting overlooked by our collective hatred for Hans. Yes, he is a TERRIBLE person, but he is a product of his environment, like so so many people of the region and era. He was an unfortunate product of the Hitler youth

[@labcat647]

19 year old girl, 58 year old married man… passionate love affair between a child and an old man… that’s a big nope for me.