MARCH 2011 - AudioFile
This novella, rescued from WWII, has recently been translated for the English listener. James Clamp narrates with a precise English accent that matches the matter-of-fact tone of this story of people who hide a Jew from the Nazis out of a sense of neighborliness. When the hidden Jew dies, the young Dutch couple that hides him struggles with how to dispose of the body in a way that won’t implicate them. Clamp's proper voice adds to the “comedy” found in the absurdity and small-mindedness of the characters. The author’s lighter take on a serious subject, along with Clamp’s narration, gives new insights into human nature. R.Z.R. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
For busy, harried or distractible readers who have the time and energy only to skim the opening paragraph of a review, I'll say this as quickly and clearly as possible: The Death of the Adversary and Comedy in a Minor Key are masterpieces, and Hans Keilson is a genius . . . Although the novels are quite different, both are set in Nazi-occupied Europe and display their author's eye for perfectly illustrative yet wholly unexpected incident and detail, as well as his talent for storytelling and his extraordinarily subtle and penetrating understanding of human nature. But perhaps the most distinctive aspect they share is the formal daring of the relationship between subject matter and tone. Rarely has a finer, more closely focused lens been used to study such a broad and brutal panorama, mimetically conveying a failure to come to grips with reality by refusing to call that reality by its proper name . . . Rarely have such harrowing narratives been related with such wry, off-kilter humor, and in so quiet a whisper. Read these books and join me in adding him to the list, which each of us must compose on our own, of the world's very greatest writers.” —Francine Prose, The New York Times Book Review
“This first-ever English translation of Keilson's gripping 1947 novel about a Dutch couple hiding a Jewish perfume merchant in their home during WWII marks a welcome reintroduction to the author's unfortunately obscure oeuvre . . . Beautifully nuanced and moving, Keilson's tale probes the more concealed, subtle forces that annihilate the human spirit.” —Publishers Weekly
“[Comedy in a Minor Key's] design is so neat, spare, and geometric that to think of it is like tapping a spoon to a crystal glass.” —Yelena Akhtiorskaya, The Forward
“A brisk, engaging work of Holocaust literature that deserves to be better known.” —Brendan Driscoll, Booklist
“What Keilson had experienced, body and soul, went into this precisely composed book, which succeeds in capturing the tragedy of countless anonymous victims alongside the grotesquerie of the individual tragic case.” —Ulrich Weinzierl, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
MARCH 2011 - AudioFile
This novella, rescued from WWII, has recently been translated for the English listener. James Clamp narrates with a precise English accent that matches the matter-of-fact tone of this story of people who hide a Jew from the Nazis out of a sense of neighborliness. When the hidden Jew dies, the young Dutch couple that hides him struggles with how to dispose of the body in a way that won’t implicate them. Clamp's proper voice adds to the “comedy” found in the absurdity and small-mindedness of the characters. The author’s lighter take on a serious subject, along with Clamp’s narration, gives new insights into human nature. R.Z.R. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
