'Kairos' by Jenny Erpenbeck: Book Review
Unfiltered thoughts on the books I consume ...
“She would like a shallow life, swift and shallow, till some day she can start again. Get through her time fast until then. And when will that be? Then.”
Apologies
My dear reader,
How are you? I hope your week’s treating you well.
Firstly, I apologise for leaving you stranded last week.
‘Life happened!', we often say in adulthood, as if life’s never happened before. Of course, it has. Of course, it does. And, of course, it’ll continue to do so beyond our insignificant, individual existence.
Only, certain days are harder to manage than others. Striking gold in terms of the balance between:
giving it a hundred percent at work,
sparing a little for those at home, and
saving whatever is left for ourselves
isn’t always simple.
It should be, and we’ve watched the motivational TED talks, read the Self-Help books and preached to the heavens about the importance of work / life balance. We talk the talk but walking the walk requires discipline and self-control.
I struggled with the concept of ‘walking the walk’ last week. Unfortunately, a post on Nooks Full of Books didn’t make it onto my To-Do list.
Enough babbling.
Disclaimers
To give you a break from my personal reading history (which I’m sure you’re fascinated by), I’ve decided to publish my first review.
In the future, I expect these to be lengthier and focused on the books I’ve loved and can’t stop thinking about (Spoiler Alert: This may or may not be the case with ‘Kairos’).
‘Are you saying that you’ve already cheated on the principles guiding how you review books?’
‘In a nutshell.’
Enough babbling.
About the Author
Jenny Erpenbeck was born in East Germany in 1967.
She is a writer and an opera director. Her 2012 novel ‘The End of Days’ won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and, in 2024, Erpenbeck won the International Booker Prize with her fourth novel ‘Kairos’. On top of long form fiction, she has written several plays, collections of short stories and novellas. Erpenbeck’s father is a philosopher and writer John Erpenbeck, and her mother was Doris Kilias (an Arabic translator). Both of Erpenbeck’s paternal grandparents were also writers. Her own writing career began in the 1990s, beside directing, and included the running of a bi-weekly column in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Since then, her work has been translated in c. twenty-five languages.
Why Did I Pick ‘Kairos’ Up?
It started with an impulse, I won’t lie.
Back in June, I spotted a stand in my local library (a small branch of a chain of libraries in our county), which sported a few evidently new (both in publication and condition) books. As a nosy curious person by nature, I had to check it out as soon as. In my defence, the librarians had set it up directly opposite the entrance. One couldn’t miss it even if they were desperate to.
The six shortlisted contestants for the 2024 International Booker Prize had been donated to the library. Nearby, a stack of bookmarks, with the International Booker Prize branding, was left for readers to help themselves.
I had no idea who’d won at this point, and I hoped not to, but the Internet can’t keep a secret! After a quick peruse, I removed ‘What I’d Rather Not Think About’ and ‘The Details’ from the shelves first. Out of the six titles, they drew me in the most.
It was then, when I borrowed ‘What I’d Rather Not Think About’ and ‘The Details’, that I committed to reading the entire shortlist.
Post the ‘who-won-the-International-Booker-Prize-in-2024’ spoiler, ‘Kairos’ was to be read last, yet I experienced another ‘Life happened!’ moment whereby ‘Mater 2-10’ had gone walkabout. I couldn’t find it anywhere and accepted that I’d have to read the winner before I read the last remaining contender. Later, it turned out ‘Mater 2-10’ had never left the library but was filed incorrectly…
Summary
‘Kairos’ is the story of Katharina and Hans: an unlikely couple, living in East Germany in the late 1980s (in other words, with the disintegration of GDR as the backdrop), with an over thirty-year age gap. You guessed it: Katharina’s the young and beautifully irresistible teenager (nineteen when she meets Hans), and Hans is the fifty-something married man with a kid. She’s an art student. He’s a writer. It’s match made in heaven. Or is it?
The novel opens ‘in the future’. With a life in the USA, Katharina’s now a grown woman, who after having located two boxes full of her diaries and journals, relives her first love through their pages.
The book’s split into two sections, corresponding with the contents of Box One and Box Two, which signify the two stages of Katharina and Hans’ relationship. While there’s an ostensible shift from the prior to the latter (I won’t delve into the emotional, psychological and physical red flags), the relationship was warped from the get-go.
At its core, ‘Kairos’ explores the complexities of human relations; the tensions, the doubts, and ups and downs of a romance doomed from the start. It was the all-consuming disillusion of the lovers which kept the fire burning.
They may have pretended that their relationship was about art, culture and literature. They may have wined and dined at trendy spots in East Berlin. They may have indulged in classic music and navel gazing.
But the relationship was always about one thing, and one thing only.
The Bold and The Beautiful
Readers and critics alike may argue that ‘Kairos’ is a character study.
Is there a plot? Yes. The book spans years: from late 1980s to early 1990s. However, as plots go, nothing very dramatic happens. Even the incident is hardly stomach-turning. As a chronicle of the daily woes of a couple, whose relationship has to remain veiled in secrecy, ‘Kairos’ is concerned with the human psyche, not action-packing its narrative.
Written in the present tense and switching from Katharina’s perspective to Hans’ (and vice versa), the book is effective in its immediacy. Readers are plucked out of their own heads and dropped into the heads of our protagonists, listening to their thoughts, feeling their emotions, experiencing the world from their perspectives. Given the nature of the relationship between Hans and Katharina, hearing from both in ‘real time’ is a treat. The weight of words, the consequences of actions, the lasting effects of lies and half-truths hammer down on Hans and Katharina, but readers, too. The present tense is a tool that aids Erpenbeck in delivering those blows mercilessly.
It’s subtle and, to be fully appreciated, one ought to read until the end, but Erpenbeck uses Katharina and Hans’ relationship to portray the economic, political and social fate of her home; the game of Tug of War between the East and the West is shown (rather than told) symbolically via the Tug of War that Katharina and Hans play. Like a cat and a mouse, they stalk, they pounce, they retreat, they sulk. Throughout the narrative, this representation simmers under the surface, but is explicit once the plot twist is revealed in the Epilogue. This element of the novel is clever, and, to a large extent, I think the author does a marvellous job of being obvious and not obvious in equal measures.
My Wishlist
Having said that, the penny of the allegory truly drops in the Epilogue. A subset of readers might have given up by then, failing to recognise what the author was trying to achieve (if it was what she was trying to achieve).
In addition, the juxtaposition between East and West Germany could have been more prominent. The book could have explored the realities of life in these locations in relative depth. Placing Hans and Katharina in Berlin, a city separated by a wall, could have been employed to discuss the enormous influence of political regimes both on a wider and a narrower scale. The reader sees snippets of those differences, but a serious look into the contrasting experiences of the East and the West would have allowed the book to utilise the historical context better.
For a character study, Katharina and Hans feel less developed than I’d have liked. For the sake of a spoilers-free review, I can’t give concrete examples, but their personalities are revealed in the context of each other and nothing / nobody else (with a handful of minor exceptions). I understand this may have been the exact angle Erpenbeck was set on taking, and that’s ok, but it reads unconvincing to me.
Lastly, what would have been intriguing is if Hans and Katharina had swapped roles. For those of you, who are yet to immerse yourselves in ‘Kairos’, you’ll know when you do. An opportunity to challenge the traditional status quo was missed. But hey: it’s not my book, so why am I to say? Erpenbeck might not have wanted to challenge the traditional status quo …
Who Is This Book For?
‘Kairos’ may be a good choice for those with an interest in the Second World War and its aftermath. Plenty of literature has been written on this horrific part of European history. In a sense, this is why I wasn’t enamoured with ‘Kairos’. Personally, I struggle to find ‘freshness’ in the stories from 1940s Europe. If you are a history enthusiast, though, and especially fond of German history, this might work for you.
Perhaps give ‘Kairos’ a chance if you have a (mild) fascination with Socialism / Communism. It’s true that the emphasis is on the ‘love’ story between Katharina and Hans, but a glimpse into their changing environment, on the cusp of GDR’s transition into democracy, peeks through.
Art and music lovers are likely to enjoy ‘Kairos’ because it’s bathed in cultural references: from musicians, through painters, photographers, and film directors, to poets and writers. Going to the cinema, visiting art galleries and museums, playing vinyls in the comfort of their homes while sipping red wine on the balcony under the stars are among Hans and Katharina’s favourite leisure activities. I’ve written a few names to check out later. Get your Post-Its ready!
If you haven’t read ‘Kairos’ yet, and wonder whether you should, I hope you’ve found this review useful.
Drop me a comment or send me a message if you want to chat about the book (over and above this review).
Have a great remainder of the week and …
Until Next Time and With Love,
Nooks Full of Books
I've just ordered this yesterday after seeing it at bookstores again and again. But damn I don't think I can take another story where a young girl is romantically paired with a man her father's age 😭😭