{"id":7613,"date":"2017-10-23T11:40:31","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T11:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=7613"},"modified":"2017-10-26T11:23:36","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T11:23:36","slug":"go-went-gone-by-jenny-erpenbeck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=7613","title":{"rendered":"Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Translated by Susan Bernofsky<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by New Directions US, Portobello UK September 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Elsbeth Lindner<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to buy this book<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is fiction for?<\/p>\n

One answer can be found in prize-winning German novelist Erpenbeck\u2019s new novel, a heart-opening story of contemporary immigration to Germany which, in calm tones, asks question both simple and profound about perhaps the most politically seismic issue of our day.<\/p>\n

The narrative is written from the perspective of Richard, a retired and widowed classics professor living in middle-class comfort in what was once East Berlin, where he grew up under an absolutist regime that eventually crumbled in a matter of weeks. Through Richard\u2019s eyes, readers come to view the individual horrors and collective misery of a handful of the people who fled their countries, crossed the Mediterranean in immense peril and were welcomed into the unified nation by Angela Merkel.<\/p>\n

Escaping wars and massacres in their own or adopted African nations \u2013 Niger, Libya, Burkina Faso \u2013 these men\"\"<\/a> (Erpenbeck does not include women or children although they are glimpsed on the periphery) are given identity and context by Richard who, cast adrift from his professional life, creates a project for himself of interviewing them, asking about family, food, custom, belief and experience. Thus a group of individuals emerges from the nameless throng, given classical, mnemonic identities by Richard (in, presumably, an ironic nod by the author to the clich\u00e9 of racial non-recognition), like Thunderbolt-hurler for Rashid, a man of imposing physique, or Apollo, for a young Tuareg man with abundant curls.<\/p>\n

But there is nothing disparaging about Richard\u2019s involvement with these survivors, instead we see curiosity, \u00a0instinctive empathy and a large measure of self-scrutiny as he comes to understand their stories and losses, and the Kafka-esque impossibility of their situations as, trapped in a thicket of supposedly humane rules and laws, they are systematically repressed and crushed.<\/p>\n

Richard is too old to be a firebrand and of the wrong temperament for political activism. Instead, he simply makes friends with these figures, offering his piano to Osarobo who wants to play; accompanying Rufu to the dentist. And of course it\u2019s a two-way street. By visiting the men and becoming acquainted with them, teaching them German and assisting in other ways, Richard\u2019s own life expands too. Rashid even keeps Richard company over what would otherwise have been an empty Christmas. Richard\u2019s most heroic act is to buy a piece of land in Ghana \u2013 the cost is compared to, and scarcely eclipses, the price of the new lawn-mower he had been considering \u2013 for one of the men, thereby lifting a lifetime\u2019s burden of obligation from the African\u2019s shoulders.<\/p>\n

Erpenbeck\u2019s voice in all this is unostentatious, restrained, yet powerfully incisive, asking questions at multiple levels, about the meaning of time, history, race, peace, humanity. Her enquiries, sometimes shocking, rarely clich\u00e9d, are frequently bolstered by classical reference or quotation which lend an additional if significantly Western element of insight.<\/p>\n

This is a cerebral book, and unashamedly so, invoking European culture both good and bad as a counterpoint to contemporary, non-‘first world’ events. Best of all, it looks nationalism, morality and behavior straight in the eye, and challenges any reader to consider her\/his own stance.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t that what fiction\u2019s for?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Elsbeth Lindner<\/p>\n

There is nothing disparaging about Richard\u2019s involvement with these survivors, instead curiosity, instinctive empathy and a large measure of self-scrutiny as he comes to understand their stories and losses, and the Kafka-esque impossibility of their situations as, trapped in a thicket of supposedly humane rules and laws, they are systematically repressed and crushed […] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-fiction-and-non-fiction","category-notable-books","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7613"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7619,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7613\/revisions\/7619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}