How German Is It

by Walter Abish

  A week ago, after a brief stay on one of the East Frisian Islands, I was on my way to visit a woman I had met in Würtenburg when the bridge I was about to cross in my car was blown up. The woman wasn’t expecting me. I wasn’t really going out of my way to see her. But the dynamited bridge made all the difference in the world. I asked myself, why was I going to see her? Was it simply because I suddenly found myself in possession of her address? Or because I wanted to clarify if she had really, as I’ve been led to suspect, infiltrated the Einzieh Group … not a terribly difficult thing to do if you have a passable knowledge of the jargon. The name she had given me when we first met was not her real name. I still don’t know her real name. What she couldn’t have known is that the name I bear is not my real name either. I was within a few minutes’ drive of her house when the bridge blew up … literally in front of me … I could see pieces of it flying up in the air. You must have read about it in the papers. I returned to my car, musing over the fact that had I arrived at the bridge a minute sooner I would have died without knowing my real name. That is all I have to say for now.

  Have you ever been hypnotized before?

  No.

  Well, what I will ask you to do is very simple. To start with I would like you to relax … place your hands on the arms of the chair. Just relax. You can rest your head against the back of the chair. Now look at the ceiling … that’s right … now roll up your eyeballs, all the way … keep looking at the ceiling … that’s fine … now take a deep breath and slowly close your eyelids. As you count to three, let your breath out.

  One … two … three …

  Now you are quite relaxed. Every part of your body, your legs, your hands, your head, your chest, your back is relaxed … you feel a pleasant listlessness … as if you were drifting in space … just drifting … deeper and deeper into a pleasant void … You are filled with well-being as you lie back … Can you feel me touch your hand … your hand is light as a feather … it is beginning to rise up … slowly … slowly … can you feel it rising … nod your head if you can feel it … there … Your arm is moving, bending at the elbow … as the hand floats up … higher … higher … higher …

  And Ulrich, who felt pleasantly relaxed, slowly raised his arm, perhaps for no better reason than a desire not to impede the hypnosis, or a wish to please the doctor. For no other reason … He knew, he was convinced, he was positive that he was not a good hypnotic subject as he opened his eyes, with his right hand raised in a stiff salute.

  I think we’re getting there, said the doctor pleasantly.

  .

  10

  Is it possible for anyone in Germany, nowadays, to raise his right hand, for whatever the reason, and not be flooded by the memory of a dream to end all dreams?

  ALSO BY WALTER ABISH

  Alphabetical Africa

  Copyright © 1979, 1980 by Walter Abish

  All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, or television review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

  The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ingram Merrill Foundation.

  Sections of this novel, some in different form, have appeared in: Granta Magazine (King’s College, Cambridge, England), Partisan Review, New York Arts Journal, Sun, and Sun & Moon: A Journal of Literature and Art.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First published clothbound and as New Directions Paperbook 508 in 1980

  Published simultaneously in Canada by Penguin Books Canada Limited

  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

  Abish, Walter.

  How German is it.

  (A New Directions Book)

  I. Title.

  PS355I.B5H6 1980 813’.54 80-20838

  ISBN 978-0-8112-0776-8

  ISBN 978-0-8112-2482-6 (e-book)

  New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin

  by New Directions Publishing Corporation,

  80 Eighth Avenue, New York 10011

  Table of Contents

  Half-Title

  Title

  Part One: The Edge of Forgetfulness

  Part Two: The Idea of Switzerland

  Part Three: Sweet Truth

  Part Four: Could Everything be Different?

  Other Titles

  Copyright

  Back Cover