The Wall (98 page)

Carefully and quietly encouraged by me, after much hesitation his mother decided to teach him herself. We borrowed a child’s violin. Johanna found the boy to be gifted and skillful. He picked it up quickly, liked to practice, and even had to be kept from practicing too much. For Michael’s sake, Johanna broke her vow and picked up her violin, which she had once wanted to give to me, in order to demonstrate what he needed to hear and see, and, in addition to that, she played duets with him when he asked to, for he loved to play them. How pleased I am whenever I hear the two play while I am sitting in my study working. It makes things in the house seem nicer, easier, brighter. Eva also loves to listen and quiets down; it does us all good.

Otherwise nothing has changed, nor will much change, or, at least, I mean with me. It’s different with the children. They are at the beginning; perhaps, God willing, things will work out well for them. Then, hopefully, they will get over their father, then they will themselves claim him. May they be protected and live a joyous life! May they love their mother, honor
her, and thank her, but forgive their father and bear with his weakness without resentment, his affliction as Adam, the loneliness he suffers before the wall!

Michael and Eva, if you ever read these lines, which I have carefully preserved for you, then may you be blessed with the fear of the Lord, then may a buoyant spirit protect you, and everything that I have written here, may it help you find a right awareness. Your father’s work, especially this book about the wall, all of these efforts, should make the experience and achievements of a tested and fragile and yet, amid his ultimate despair, an honest and hardworking person at least a little comprehensible and credible, if indeed not endearing and beloved.

Certainly you won’t be living on West Park Row anymore, but I ask you, if you have the chance, to visit the site of your childhood. Perhaps the little house where you played will still be standing, and next to it the houses where you ran around with the Stonewood and Byrdwhistle children. Also, the vendors in the shops around the corner on Truro Street will still be selling their wares, there being fresh fruits and vegetables in Simmonds’s shop, and perhaps there will even be a dog there that looks like Santi. Perhaps across the street at a window two women will appear and look down at you, between them a cat strutting along the sill. On the street there might be a ragman like old Ron there now, pulling his cart and knocking on doors, asking for old clothes and rags.

The train will certainly still run nearby, and you’ll hear it, and I expect that at MacKenzie’s they will be repairing and overhauling cars as they do now. Only the heavy smoke from the squat chimney will faintly drift smoky and dark over the streets.

You, however, should live, dear children, and honor life, and should you have children, may my blessing help you to set your sons and daughters on the right path. Perhaps then your life will seem to you an enormous treasure.

T
HE
G
ERMAN TEXT FOR THE NOVEL IS TAKEN FROM
Die unsichtbare Wand
, published by Zsolnay Verlag in 1989. Although this title would translate as
The Invisible Wall
, H. G. Adler clearly intended to call the novel
Die Wand
, and only the publisher’s concern about confusion with Marlen Haushofer’s novel
Die Wand
prevented this from happening. Hence, I have chosen to restore the original title in translation.

I wish to express my thanks to the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Deutsches Literaturarchiv for grants that allowed me to research Adler’s letters and manuscripts in his archive in Marbach, Germany. I am also grateful to Bard College at Simon’s Rock for a sabbatical and leave, and for the support provided by a residency at the James Merrill House, where part of the translation was completed. As always, I remain deeply grateful to my colleague Chris Callanan for his kind contribution in answering many questions on the German, and to Jeremy Adler for his patient and supportive response to queries throughout. I also wish to thank Susan Roeper for her faith and sustenance throughout the process, and Lindsey Schwoeri and Sam Nicholson, my editors at Random House, for their committed and generous support during the many months spent on the novel’s translation.

D
R
. A
RTHUR
L
ANDAU:
Born in a continental city much like Prague, he is a concentration-camp survivor. His parents were deported and killed, and his first wife, Franziska, also died in a camp. After the war, he returns to his native city and works in a museum that collects items belonging to those who perished. Eventually he chooses to emigrate to a metropolis much like London, where he meets Johanna Zinner, marries her, and with her raises their children, Michael and Eva, while he struggles to find enough support to write his
Sociology of Oppressed People
.

F
RÄULEIN
Z
INNER
/J
OHANNA
L
ANDAU:
Having emigrated to the metropolis before the war, she works in the Search Office at the Bureau for Refugees. She lost her parents and her two brothers during the war. She meets Arthur Landau, marries him, raises their children, and provides the principal support for the household.

P
ROFESSOR
H
ILARIUS
P
RENZEL:
Arthur’s high-school teacher. Early on Arthur has a nightmare of returning to his native city to visit him, only to be betrayed by Prenzel and turned in to the authorities at the train station as an alleged spy.

M
ICHAEL AND
E
VA
L
ANDAU:
Arthur and Johanna’s children.

H
ERR AND
F
RAU
K
UTSCHERA:
Proprietors of the fruit stand around the corner from the clothing store run by Arthur’s father, Albert. When Arthur returns to his native city, they are the first to tell him that his parents were taken away.

P
ETER:
A young man who finds Arthur sprawled on a sidewalk in his native city after Arthur stumbles while fleeing a collection point for refugees at the train station. Peter then takes him to his friend Anna Meisenbach.

A
NNA
M
EISENBACH:
She takes Arthur in and allows him to spend a night, before having him move in with Peter. Anna’s brother, Arno, went to school with Arthur
but has since been executed for political crimes. She and Arthur talk of the postwar conditions in the old city and the loss of her first husband, Hermann, in the war.

S
O-AND
-S
O
/L
EONARD
K
AUDERS:
A boyhood friend of Arthur’s and a sociologist who escaped to the metropolis before the war, and the first person Arthur writes to from his native city after the war. So-and-So tries to help Arthur find support in the metropolis, but with little actual success. His wife’s name is Karin.

P
ROFESSOR
K
RATZENSTEIN:
A very prominent sociologist and the head of the International Society of Sociologists. Arthur approaches him for help in getting the support he needs to work on his
Sociology of Oppressed People
, but Kratzenstein discourages him and does not approve of his scholarly approach.

D
R
. J
OLAN AND
H
ANNAH
H
AARBURGER:
Refugees from Budapest who host a party at which they introduce Arthur to a circle of intellectuals and prewar refugees.

H
ERR
B
UXINGER:
A bookseller in the circle of prewar refugees living in the metropolis.

R
ESI
K
NISPEL:
A press agent from Zurich. She later tries to get Arthur to help her start a journal called
Eusemia
.

L
ARRY AND
I
DA
S
AUBERMANN:
Philanthropic factory owners. Later, Johanna seeks work in their factory, which manufactures artificial beads, but Frau Saubermann instead condemns Arthur for failing to properly provide for his wife and children.

D
R
. E
DUARD AND
K
LARA
S
INGULE:
He is the head of a foundation but was trained as a zoologist. She is his wife and a prominent socialite. Arthur asks Singule for financial support for his work, but to no avail.

B
RIAN AND
D
EREK:
Pallbearers assigned to pick up Arthur at his home on West Park Row and take him to a crematorium, where he is to be cremated. They later return to take him to the Sociology Conference held at Shepherd’s Field, at which he is to be honored. The driver of the hearse is named Jock.

H
ERR
S
CHNABELBERGER:
He is the director of the museum at which Arthur works after returning to his native city following the war.

F
RAU
D
R
. K
ULKA:
The assistant to Herr Schnabelberger at the museum. She believes the goods left behind by the victims belong to the state, whereas Arthur treats them like precious beings that need to be tended to with the utmost care.

F
RAU
H
OLOUBEK:
Once the servant of Arthur’s grandmother, she now passes on goods to Arthur from those who have died.

F
ORTUNATA:
A Gypsy fortune-teller Arthur first encounters at a fair at Shepherd’s Field, and then again at the Sociology Conference later held there.

H
ELMUT:
Anna Meisenbach’s second husband, who, along with Peter and Anna, sees Arthur off when he leaves his native city by train. Later Helmut dies suddenly, prompting Anna to emigrate to the metropolis, where Arthur and Johanna take her in and help her start a new life.

H
ERR
G
ESCHLIEDER:
The porter at the museum where Arthur works.

F
RAU
F
IXLER:
Professor Kratzenstein’s secretary.

S
IEGFRIED AND
M
INNA
K
ONIRSCH
-L
ENZ:
He is another philanthropist who offers to help Arthur, but only by offering to hire him to do menial work in his wallpaper manufacturing business.

G
UIDO AND
M
ITZI
L
EVER:
Visitors from Johannesburg who grew up in Arthur’s native city and fled before the war, and who later return to the city and visit the museum where Arthur works. Guido’s family name used to be Lebenhart. His brother, Eugene Lebenhart, owned the portraits of their grandparents that Arthur cataloged at the museum at the start of his employment there.

M
RS
. M
ACKINTOSH:
The wife of a high-ranking official at the British Embassy who tries to buy furniture from the collection gathered in the museum in Arthur’s native city.

D
R
. O
SWALD AND
I
NGE
B
ERGMANN:
Brother and sister. He is a prominent scholar who knew Arthur in his native city, which he escaped before the war, changing his surname to Birch after immigrating to the metropolis. His sister is a poet and an illustrator of children’s books. They are there to greet Arthur when he arrives by train, though Oswald had initially been unresponsive when Arthur wrote from his native city to ask for his help in emigrating.

O
TTO
S
CHALLINGER:
A friend of Arthur’s from middle school, who is also there to greet Arthur when he arrives in the metropolis.

E
BERHARD
S.: The editor who initially gets Arthur to write for
Eusemia
, and who is disastrous at running the journal.

B
ETTY:
Johanna’s second cousin, who lives in South Wales, where Arthur and Johanna find a welcome respite from their struggles in the metropolis.

The Wall
is a novel of sudden and subtle transitions between the past and the present, operating much like a symphonic score in its repeated themes and motifs. To aid the reader in moving through these transitions, the following synopsis is provided.

This page
:
Arthur Landau at home on West Park Row, in a metropolis much like London.

This page
:
Arthur dreams of a train journey back to his native city, a clear stand-in for postwar Communist Prague, where he is betrayed by a former teacher, Professor Prenzel, and detained by the state authorities.

This page
:
Back in the present metropolis, Arthur and his wife, Johanna, are called in for questioning by an immigration officer, who grants Arthur a visa without any significant difficulty or restrictions.