by H. G. Adler
Suddenly I am able to rally, a single movement of the hand enough to order me out of the dungeon of my breast, myself shaking and breaking into a coughing fit. Then usually better days follow, only a razor-thin fear remains and soon embeds itself as a small, smoldering desire coursing through my head from sleep to sleep, and that knows neither source nor goal.
On such days I have the desire to listen to music, uninterrupted music, almost feeding upon it. I myself have never played music, but I have always loved listening to it. Unfortunately, for many years that was only rarely possible. I never had the time, and thus music was drowned in wishes. Now it appeals to Michael. He always loved to sing, and at the age of three he had warbled many little songs quite well. Then it had inspired the boy to take up the violin. That is the newest, most important event in my house. Johanna and I thought about it a great deal, for the cost of a good teacher, which is the only thing Johanna would have, frightened us.
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.
For Luzzi Wolgensinger
What is life? A trial?
We search, but never know;
Behold, your life alone
Becomes an enormous treasure.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
THE GERMAN 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.
LIST OF CHARACTERS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)
DR. ARTHUR LANDAU: 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.
FRÄULEIN ZINNER/JOHANNA LANDAU: 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.
PROFESSOR HILARIUS PRENZEL: 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.
MICHAEL AND EVA LANDAU: Arthur and Johanna’s children.
HERR AND FRAU KUTSCHERA: 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.
PETER: 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.
ANNA MEISENBACH: 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.
SO-AND-SO/LEONARD KAUDERS: 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.
PROFESSOR KRATZENSTEIN: 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.
DR. JOLAN AND HANNAH HAARBURGER: Refugees from Budapest who host a party at which they introduce Arthur to a circle of intellectuals and prewar refugees.
HERR BUXINGER: A bookseller in the circle of prewar refugees living in the metropolis.
RESI KNISPEL
: A press agent from Zurich. She later tries to get Arthur to help her start a journal called Eusemia.
LARRY AND IDA SAUBERMANN: 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.
DR. EDUARD AND KLARA SINGULE: 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.
BRIAN AND DEREK: 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.
HERR SCHNABELBERGER: He is the director of the museum at which Arthur works after returning to his native city following the war.
FRAU DR. KULKA: 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.
FRAU HOLOUBEK: Once the servant of Arthur’s grandmother, she now passes on goods to Arthur from those who have died.
FORTUNATA: A Gypsy fortune-teller Arthur first encounters at a fair at Shepherd’s Field, and then again at the Sociology Conference later held there.
HELMUT: 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.
HERR GESCHLIEDER: The porter at the museum where Arthur works.
FRAU FIXLER: Professor Kratzenstein’s secretary.
SIEGFRIED AND MINNA KONIRSCH-LENZ: 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.
GUIDO AND MITZI LEVER: 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.
MRS. MACKINTOSH: 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.
DR. OSWALD AND INGE BERGMANN: 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.
OTTO SCHALLINGER: A friend of Arthur’s from middle school, who is also there to greet Arthur when he arrives in the metropolis.
EBERHARD S.: The editor who initially gets Arthur to write for Eusemia, and who is disastrous at running the journal.
BETTY: Johanna’s second cousin, who lives in South Wales, where Arthur and Johanna find a welcome respite from their struggles in the metropolis.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS
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.
This page: Arthur hears a voice that threatens him and calls him Adam, saying he can never escape.
This page: Back at West Park Row, Arthur considers Johanna, and their children, Michael and Eva, and reflects how his own memory is a “wall” between both his past and his future.
This page: Arthur remembers the duress of war and expulsion.
This page: Arthur recalls his return to his native city after the war and the search for his parents. He learns from the fruit vendor Herr Kutschera that they perished.
This page: Arthur dreams that his parents condemn and reject him, while his mother sews his shroud.
This page: After fleeing a collection point for refugees at the train station in his native city, Arthur stumbles and falls. A young man named Peter comes upon him and takes him to his friend Anna Meisenbach, who takes Arthur in and cares for him. Anna’s brother, Arno, was at school with Arthur but has since been executed for political crimes. Arthur and Anna talk of the postwar suffering in the old city.
This page: Arthur falls unconscious and has another nightmare about his parents.
This page: Arthur comes to and Anna offers him a place to stay for the night, though Arthur cannot help thinking of her dead husband returning home to find a stranger there.
This page: Arthur awakens from the memory of this incident to find himself again at home on West Park Row with his wife and children. In his thoughts he finds himself standing before a wall that he cannot get past.
This page: At the invitation of his boyhood friend and fellow sociologist So-and-So (Leonard Kauders), Arthur attends a party at the home of the Haarburgers, who try to help him make important contacts in the metropolis. There he meets Professor Kratzenstein, an influential sociologist. He is also introduced to Fräulein Johanna Zinner, who works for a refugee organization in the metropolis. At the same party, he meets Herr Buxinger, a bookseller, Resi Knispel, a press agent from Zurich, Herr and Frau Saubermann, philanthropic factory owners, and Dr. Singule, the head of a foundation, and his wife. At the party, Arthur discusses his work on the sociology of oppressed people.
This page: Arthur recalls looking at Arno’s books in Anna’s apartment and asking about her husband, Hermann. Anna gives Arthur some of Hermann’s clothes. Arthur tells Anna that his parents and his wife, Franziska, died in the war.
This page: Falling asleep, Arthur dreams of walking in a mountain forest with Franziska.
This page: Arthur wakes up on West Park Row only to find that two pallbearers, Brian and Derek, have arrived with orders to take him to a crematorium in order to be cremated. Johanna urges him to do as he is asked. Arthur manages to persuade the pallbearers to allow him to walk to the crematorium. The pallbearers stay for breakfast before accompanying Arthur to the crematorium.
This page: Arthur falls into a reverie and thinks back to his last walk with Anna in a mountain forest before deciding to leave his native country for good. He thinks back to similar hikes with Franziska.
This page: Arthur thinks of the many families who have lost ancestors, then about his earlier work in a museum in the old city that collected the left-behind goods and portraits of the many who had died. At the museum, Arthur works with the director, Herr Schnabelberger, and his colleague Frau Dr. Kulka to sort and catalog the paintings and objects. Though he would like to see the works returned to the families, Frau Dr. Kulka argues that they now belong to the state.
This page: Arthur’s thoughts then revert to the party at the Haarburgers’ and how he complained of not having a single picture of his parents. Others question why he did not remain in his native country. Marriage and moral freedom are also discussed, Arthur finding the crowd of exiles to be pretentious and corrupt. Only Johanna Zinner is sympathetic to his past suffering as she tells him of family members she herself lost. On leaving, she invites Arthur to call her sometim
e.
This page: Segue to West Park Row and the present, as Arthur sits in his study, writing letters in order to seek funding and support for his work on the sociology of oppressed people.
This page: Segue to Arthur’s native city after the war, where Peter urges him to write to friends who escaped before the war in order to seek their help in emigrating. Arthur writes to So-and-So but finds it nearly impossible to express what he has been through.
This page: Arthur reflects on Peter as a difficult person who nonetheless has tried to help him. Then, from the future, he reflects on Peter’s own emigration as Arthur writes to him from the metropolis. In a letter to Peter, he recalls So-and-So’s return letter to him back in his native city, when he first wrote to him in the past (we learn of So-and-So’s letter to Arthur in the old city, in a letter Arthur writes to Peter from the metropolis). In that letter So-and-So asks Arthur’s help in his efforts to be compensated for his family’s property that was seized by the state.