Who is Martha? By Marjana Gaponenko-2012, translated by Arabelle Spencer, 2014

Official Announcement for German Literature Month, 2017

Links to Posts for German Literature Month, November, 2017

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Works Read So Far for German Literature Month, November, 2017

1.   Vertigo by W. G. Sebald, 1990

2.    The Last Weynfeldt by Martin Suter, 2006

3.    “An Earthquake in Chile” by Heinrich Von Kleist 1809

“I am looking for my own romanticism and find it in the midst of reality, in irony.”. - Marjana Gaponenko 

One of my goals for this year’s German Literature Month is to read some works from the Twenty First Century.  I recently read, from 2006, The Last Weynfeldt, by the Swiss author Martin Suter.  Today I am posting upon a work by a Ukrainian author, Marjana Gaponenko, written originally in German, published in 2012 and translated in 2014.  

Like The Last Weynfeldt,  lead character of Who is Martha? I an older man, a confirmed bachelor, highly cultured with few intimate friends.  We meet him at age 96, his doctor has just told him he has cancer.  He decides rather than go through gruelling chemotherapy that he will live out the rest of his life in luxury.  

Luka Levadski, a Ukrainian Jew, retired from a distinguished career as an orthiologist.  He has lived most of his life in Berlin, he feels the historical irony in this, living in a city once dedicated to the extermination of Jews and a deadly enemy of the Ukraine, but he does not dwell on this.  Above all he loves birds, especially their songs and method of communication.  He decides he will spend his remaining days at the sumptuous elite Hotel Imperial in Vienna.

In remarkable shape for 96 years old, he begins to realise he needs he needs help with the day to day affairs of his life.  He speaks with the hotel concierge who appoints a Palestinian bellman to help him.  We see Levadskj gradually moving out of his comfort zone getting to know Habib.  He makes a friend, another older man living at The Imperial and his world widens.

The very real pleasure of Who is Martha? (Hint, she is not his long lost Lady love) is in being drawn into the consciousness of Levadski, seeing him bravely cope with imminent death keeping a sense each day is worthwhile.

For all interested in quality translations of literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, I highly recommend you visit the webpage of the publisher of this book, New Vessel  Press

http://newvesselpress.com/

They have several recent publications that would be perfect for German Literature Month.

Marjana Gaponenko was born in 1981 in Odessa, Ukraine. She fell in love with the German language as a young girl, and began writing in German when she was sixteen. She has a degree in German studies from Odessa University. Who is Martha? is her second novel and was awarded the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize in 2013. She has also published volumes of poetry and lives in Vienna and Mainz..  from the publisher’s webpage.  

Avant Bousweau 

The Last Weynfeldt by Martin Suter - 2006, translated From German by Steph Morris

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Adrian Weynfeldt, the central figture in The Last Weynfeldt by Martin Suter, was born into old money.  At around age fifty, he lives alone, though he does have a full time live out household manager and her various assistants, in a huge, elegantly furnished and decorated apartment.  He inherited the five story building in which it is located.  The remainder of the building is occupied by a bank.  Weynfeldt grew up in the apartment. Weynfeldt, childless, is the only child of his deceased parents, hence the title.  His apartment is a virtual museum.

Weynfeldt is highly educated, deeply knowledgeable on the visual arts, we don’t learn much about his reading life.  He has worked for many years for a highly prestigious art auction house, describing works for catalogs, providing expert opinions and valuing art, more for something to do than for the money. There is a lot of interesting material on the high end art business.  

Weynfeldt has two groups of friends.  One group is drawn from older people, all at least seventy, who were friends of his parents.  He also hosts a periodic evening meal at a very expensive restaurant, he is a gourmet and a oenophile.

Those in this group, he always pays bill telling himself his wealth obligates him, are younger.  Weynfeldt helps members of this group, as well as some older friends financially, some seem like parasites and I wondered if Weynfeldt is buying attention with his money.  Much of the opening third of the novel is a description of his life.  We learn of a woman he was long ago involved with but he has been single for a long time.  His manners are courtly, his dress refined and near arcane.

Weynfeldt likes to help others.  This impulse draws him into a complicated involvement with a younger woman, with a sinister background.  She uses his good side, his loneliness and sex to try to ensare him in scemes.

The art work depicted on the book jacket plays an important part in the plot.  

I enjoyed this book a lot, I felt twinges of envy for Weynfeldt’s wealth at times 

.

It seemed a bit like even the trouble he got into through the woman was just a drama for him.

Martin Suter

Born

in Zurich, Switzerland

February 29, 1948

Martin Suter (b. February 29, 1948, Zürich) is a Swiss author. He became known for his weekly column Business Class in the Weltwoche newspaper (1992–2004), now appearing in the Tages-Anzeiger, and another column appearing in "NZZ Folio". Suter has published seven novels, for which he received various awards. He is married and lives in Spain and Guatemala. ..from Goodreads. 

I hope to read his Deal With the Devil  soon.

For all interested in quality translations of literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, I highly recommend you visit the webpage of the publisher of this book, New Vessel  Press

http://newvesselpress.com/

They have several recent publications that would be perfect for German Literature Month.

Mel ü