As the world fawns over the criminally irresponsible (and painfully predictable) Joker, I thought it as good a time as any to go back and reread The CAs the world fawns over the criminally irresponsible (and painfully predictable) Joker, I thought it as good a time as any to go back and reread The Clown, a criminally underrated (yes, I went there) and possibly one of the best post-war novels to come out of Europe.
Heinrich Böll's Clown is not entitled like Arthur Fleck. By the start of the novel, Hans has already walked out on his wealthy family and wants nothing to do with what he is owed. As a child, he saw his parents adopt the Nazi way of thinking when it became profitable to do so. His mother encouraged his teenage sister to go join the war efforts from which she never returned. Hans refuses to let his mother forget this, especially after she makes a sudden U-turn just as soon as the war is over and starts working for racial and social integration for West Germany. He sees Nazi sympathizers join the newly formed democratic institutions and he refuses to let society forget this.
Once the war ends, his struggle with organized religion begins. By the start of the novel, Marie, a deeply craven and confused woman that he loves, has already walked out on him because he cannot bring himself to fake a faith and marry her in the church or bow to the church’s demands and sign papers that promise that his future children will be raised Catholic. Marie’s later marriage to a proper Catholic man looks like enforced prostitution to Hans, since she is now in a sexual relationship with a man not of her own choosing but one imposed upon her by society.
As a clown, Hans considers it his duty to hold up a mirror to society to remind people of who they really are and show them the inherent ridiculousness of their lives. There is nothing heroic about his sister’s sacrifice for the Reich, his mother’s integration efforts, or Marie’s choice of life and partner. Ultimately, Hans is poor and lonely and deeply depressed. And so, he, the ridiculous clown, must put on his mask once again and show society its own ridiculousness.
You do not know despair until you hear it out of the mouth of Hans Schnier. And you do not know what it means to be the 'other' in your own society until you see it out of the eyes of the Clown. ...more
The Price sisters function as mere mouthpieces for the author. Orleanna's chapters serve no purpose within the narrative structure of the book. NathanThe Price sisters function as mere mouthpieces for the author. Orleanna's chapters serve no purpose within the narrative structure of the book. Nathan reads as a stale and lazy caricature (denying him POV chapters further demonizes him). And it's a pretty lengthy book. A whole lot of reading for no real payoff....more
I prefer the first two phases of Kundera's work, that ended in 1990 with publishing of Immortality. His latter works lack meat, almost divertimento-esI prefer the first two phases of Kundera's work, that ended in 1990 with publishing of Immortality. His latter works lack meat, almost divertimento-esque in nature. Kundera, if it makes sense, has become uber-Kundera; his writing, far too deconstructed for my taste.
Perhaps the fall of the Soviet Union has something to do with it. It's unthinkable, after all, to picture The Joke or Unbearable Lightness of Being without the lurking specter of the Soviet Union in the background. I like to think of the fall of the Berlin Wall as finally setting something free in Kundera. That allowed his latter works to achieve a type of lightness that defies definition.
It's not in the nature of Tomáš or Sabina to seek definition, after all. That's all Tereza and Franz.
But I still remember Tomáš and Sabina and Tereza. I still remember Ludvik and Jaroslav. Characters from Slowness are already fading from my memory. ...more
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