Sad end 1

I read almost all the books of Imre Kertesz. I had noticed when Kaddish, stunning text, and I would like Fateless for a monument of literature of the second half of the twentieth century. I understand his loyalty to his Jewishness and anchoring its work in the Shoah.

Nevertheless, the coming age, the Hungarian Nobel Prize has closed what constitutes the heart, soul live its identity: Auschwitz. Obsessed with Auschwitz (to the point to hold in low esteem the "competitor" Primo Levi), it is equally obsessed with anti-Semitism, he sees again sweep across Europe. If we can share his apprehension about Hungary 'which we have seen and deplored the evolution' I can not express reservations and regrets about his way of thinking that sees anti-Semitism in the West and it identifies, blindness or bad faith customary hawks, any critical stance vis-à-vis the actions of the Israeli state.

I had respect for Imre Kertész, almost reverence, but I have to go to Clearly, while including some flashes (especially in the first 60-70 pages), the paper does not argue in its favor. Certainly, there is the poignant progression of the forfeiture of a man plagued by both doubts and Parkinson's disease. But there is especially a text without generosity directed by a monumental egotism built around its Jewish identity and narcissism besieged by doubt and paranoia. This is not because he recognizes his faults and he stages them that attenuates (p 176. "I think I'm a bad man who does not care even to go for a good man. ").

But let's get to the point, the text itself and my grievances.

The Journal covers the period 2001-2009, of which the first part had already been covered by Backup.

The aging man (72 years old at the beginning of this book is that really old? Can relativize when one is not himself concerned) closes in on his identity, arcboute is what has formed and based its destiny.

He rails against, embittered. Few find through these eyes. Kafka, Nietzsche, Dorst, Unseld, Thomas Bernhard (by the admission of IK, spiritus rector of the Kaddish and the English flag, the concluding pages of the text are pure Thomas Bernhard), Amery, Sebald, in Mahler and Debussy music , Barenboim, Schönberg.

Roundtrip Berlin (where he settled) 'Budapest, work (speeches, Liquidation, Dossier K., film adaptation of Fateless), readings, post-Nobel obligations, upset his friendship with Ligeti, cancer his girlfriend, married life, urban observations, Parkinson's, commentary of his works. Journal without dates, but it is easily identified.

The best of his book: doubt, some form of bitterness. Worst: the obsession of anti-Semitism in which has evolved its Auschwitz-centrism. This begins p.71: "Anti-Semitism held in check for a long time back the quagmire of the unconscious, as an eruption of lava and sulfur. "

The worst: his paranoia of anti-Semitism, against which it considers any criticism manifestation to Israel. It adopts the basic fallacy: Israel is the cause; Jews are the cause of Israel; So the Jews are the cause. So basic and so easy, unworthy of the writer and his great books of yesteryear. Obviously, if the Jews criticize Israel, there is the usual argument of self-hatred. Better, p. 74: "The number of international Jews who turned against Israel, furious, foaming, to escape the hatred [my emphasis] that struck the Jews. "

Monomaniac, he adds, p. 74: "I'm pretty curious to know what they will invent after Auschwitz. "

He belches again and again against those he accuses of fear and self-hatred, so distasteful. P. 87, we read this: "I want to ask those pious and stupid Jews who deny themselves and vomiting insults against Israel:" How is it that bothers you, you moron? ['] "I come to the conclusion that the Jews of Europe is indeed a harmful character who hate seeing defense weapons between the arms of Jews and sees its own destruction the only solution to his life lived with a conscience abject and confused. He will not stop until it has not reached its goal, as it has not been deported to a new Auschwitz, beaten, stripped, so he will not have dug his own grave, etc. "

Anti-Semitism, it inevitably happens and logically to its assessment of those who are the cause of all this criticism of the State of Israel. Let's go merrily! Haro! "I would say how Muslims invaded Europe, monopolize, short, destroy" (p. 176), "The conquered peoples need to attack someone for their abject soul finds compensation. "(P. 217)," the most shameful Eastern power (the Palestinians) "(p. 245)

Finally, what about this ignoble sentence, openly racist, p. 173? "The evening flight is filled with destitute Arabs en route to the Middle East, calling at Budapest. Odd families, miserable, with women, children bighead grow aggressive cries; instead of having the heart cracked, I associate them with bombs and terror. "He added:" Europe will soon perish because of his childish and suicidal liberalism. "

I feel abandoned by the spirit in which I believed. A pedestal is empty. I also came high. Sadness.