This week I share a novel that deals with life in East Berlin before the Wall comes down and a chilling film about a Nazi Commandant who lives with his family just outside the camp at Auschwitz. For my local friends, thoughts on another Indian restaurant.
CHALLENGING NOVEL
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
In 2015, the Chief Penguin and I spent a week in Berlin. We stayed in a hotel in what had been East Berlin. The entire visit was an amazing experience and a dive into WWII and Cold War history. Not that long ago, I read The Chancellor, a nonfiction work about Angela Merkel’s life and career by Kati Marton. Merkel grew up in East Germany and this book provided some further insights about the politics of the 1960’s and 70’s. I mention all this as background for approaching German author Jenny Erpenbeck’s latest novel, Kairos.
Opening in the late 1980’s in East Berlin, Kairos is both a turbulent love story and a political one about the denouement of East Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall. A chance encounter on a bus between 19-year-old Katharina and mid-50’s writer and radio broadcaster Hans leads to long-running affair. Katharina is still a student, Hans is married to Ingrid, and their meetings are clandestine and eventually less frequent. It’s an affair marked by bitterness, tension, infidelity, and tenderness too. Simultaneously, life in East Berlin is changing as the governmental infrastructure fractures and cracks before breaking.
The lovers’ story is told through reflection, diaries, and Katharina’s listening to cassettes about them that Hans has recorded and given to her. Woven into their feelings and actions are references to literary figures (Bertolt Brecht, e.g.), mundane details about the topography of the city, and descriptions of political events. Throughout their affair, Katharina matures while still fantasizing about having a child with Hans someday. Meanwhile, he remains married to Ingrid and simultaneously castigates Katharina and makes her suffer for her infidelity.
I found Erpenbeck’s writing dense, and for me, reading this novel was very slow going. It’s been so highly praised and nominated for at least one award, that I was determined to finish it. Parts of it were wonderfully written, but I wished I had a richer background for some of the finer political points.
Kairos, the title, is a Greek word for “the right time” or “a time when the conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action.” Go, Went, Gone, Erpenbeck’s earlier novel, was also translated from the German. (~JWFarrington)
UNCOMFORTABLE VIEWING
Zone of Interest (Amazon Prime)
Nominated for five Academy Awards, the German film Zone of Interest won Best International Feature. It is a quiet horror film and an uncomfortable one to watch. The awfulness of what is happening the other side of the garden wall is known and is heard and seen with random gunshots, a constant rumble, and occasional flames. And yet, Auschwitz Commandant Rudolf Hoss and his large family have an idyllic life just the outside the Auschwitz camp. Wife Hedwig has plenty of household help, and she takes great pleasure in tending the lush flower and vegetable garden she created. Their children romp and play in the sunshine and the pool, pretty much ignoring what’s happening close by.
All together, this family is building the perfect life in the Polish countryside while Hoss is implementing the Fuhrer’s heinous goals. Watching it is a chilling experience, but it’s so very well done, it’s worth the investment of time.
ADVENTUROUS EATING #4
Cilantro Indian Café
Continuing our sampling of Indian fare in Cary, we joined a group for lunch at Cilantro, a longtime local favorite. While Cilantro started more than ten years ago with sandwiches and then chicken tikka sold behind a gas station, today it boasts a two-level contemporary space with flowing white drapery.
The vibe is casual, and you order your meal at the counter and then it’s delivered to your table. Spice of some type is the name of the game in almost everything. The Chief Penguin and I sampled the vegetable samosa, tasty with a bite. He enjoyed the very spicy chicken tandoori while I tucked into the Bihari coconut chicken curry. Even my “medium” spicy curry was quite hot. Rice and naan and some form of chickpeas, usually Moroccan hummus, are the accompaniments. Many dishes are also made with lamb, and for those who want less spice, the pan seared fish looked equally tempting. Staff were welcoming and everything was delicious!
Note: Header photo of dawn in Cary ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
Zone of Interest is chilling as you wrote. There were moments in the film, ie when she tries on the fur coat or the clothes are thrown on the table that bring back the horrors of what is going on beyond the walls. Also the occasional views of smoke coming out of the chimneys. A must see film lest we forget.