Liquidation [Paperback]

. . . a tragedy to those who feel. Horace Walpole.

Liquidation is the fourth in a series of books by Imre Kertesz, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 2002. Three, "Fateless", "Kaddish for a Child not Born", and "Liquidation" have been published in English. The fourth, "Fiasco" awaits translation. Although each is related to the other, the recurring characters and their life's story tends to change, the common thread in all is that monstrous thing known as Auschwitz. Kertesz himself is an Auschwitz survivor, and all his books have put Auschwitz, something that defies explanations or answers, on center stage.

Liquidation contains a story within a story. The protagonist, the aptly named Kingbitter, is a book editor in Budapest. It is the turn of the new century, 2000, and company that employs him is in serious economic trouble. The book opens with Kingbitter and his small circle of `friends' discussing "B". "B", an author, committed suicide in 1990 by means of an overdose of morphine, the morphine provided by his ex-wife. The friends are discussing "B" last known work, a play entitled "Liquidation". Oddly enough, the play, which discusses Kingbitter and that circle of friends, has foretold their personal course of events in the ten years since his suicide. Additionally, references in the play to a book supposedly written by "B" have caused Kingbitter to spend ten years in search of the manuscript. The manuscript is never found and doubts arise as to whether it ever existed.

Although Kingbitter is the principal `living' person in the book, the story does focus on "B" and his life and death. "B" was one of those few children born at Auschwitz. The story of his birth and survival is one of life's small miracles, a small drop of water in a sea of evil and death. As the story progresses, and as the play within the play progresses, Kertesz exposes us to "B", his ex-wife, his mistress, and Kingbitter and company. Each has their own take on "B's" life and each provides the reader with some insight into "B"s life. As one friend notes, "B" once said that "Man, when reduced to nothing, or in other words a survivor, is not tragic but comic, because he has no fate." Taking the quote from Walpole, above, as a reference, it is clear that "B" is one given to thought and not to feeling. In fact, I had the distinct imperssioin that feeling was an emotion that "B" avoided, perhaps understandably, at all costs. Ultimately, as with his other books, neither Kertesz nor his characters can answer the question that is Auschwitz and the meaning of survival. For "B", his survival has rendered him fateless as the fact of his surviving deprived fate of an intended victim.

Kertesz' writing is sparse and to the point. He does not provide the reader with emotional content. He provides text and a description of his characters, their actions, and their thoughts. As was the case in Fateless, any emotions to be gained from reading Liquidation will come from your own sense of the text. Kertesz does not provide you with an emotional road map.

Although Liquidation is one of a series, each book stands on its own and may be enjoyed on its own merits. However, for anyone interested in reading Kertesz, I suggest they start with Fateless. Although Kaddish comes next chronologically, I suggest reading Liquidation next. The only reason for this order is the assertion by some devotees of Kertesz that the book "Kaddish for a Child not Born" may represent the manuscript not found by Kingbitter in Liquidation. That may or may not be the case but it may enhance the reader's enjoyment if it is viewed as the lost manuscript of "B". The reader should also be aware that although each book is related to the other and there is an overlap in characters at times, this is not a trilogy. Kertesz shifts the story line around quite a bit. The Auschwitz survivor in Fateless, for example, was taken to the camps as a teenager, unlike "B" who was born there. The stories are connected by theme, not by plot line.

Kertesz writes same old book over and over again, from Fateless to Liquidation. And yet, we cannot get enough of it. Questions posed in those books poke at the mind with such fiercness that sheer struggle remains to hold on to ones sanity. It is the question of existance, of possibility of existance. And of the world that made that question possible.

How can one live a life where even his birth was an anomaly, something that never should have happened, luck, coincidence, life in the camp of death where Arbeit mach frei...Can he exist as a writer, and is his personal legacy in a from of literature strong enough to revoke effects of concentrational camps. Kertesz say "no", and leaves an emptiness for every reader to fill out himself. Love and sex, marriage and relationships hold no meaning in Kertesz's world of pain, world of morbid and twisted humanity which is, sadly, world that we live in.

What is a Jew, and what is the meaning of being Jew? Questions posed in a postmodern (yeay! everything is postmodern nowadays) way of author who had written a play that speaks of character of an author reading it...Yet, that is just a style practice...Final part of Kertesz's tetralogy doesen't close this chapter at all, it just prolongs a moment of necessary answer...A must read!

In this novel, the central character answers the same crucial question posed in 'Kaddish for a child not born': why staying alive after Auschwitz?'

In 'Kaddish' the author decided to live in order to write: 'My pencil is my shovel'. The real rebellion for him was to stay alive.

The central character here commits suicide and orders that his literary creations be burned. The liquidation is complete.

'Why he did it?' is the question that the narrator of this book tries to find out.

The novel is an accumulation of liquidations. The narrator's family was a product of wars and dictatorships. After fascism and Auschwitz, as a lector in a publishing house he gets in trouble with the collectivist bureaucracy, where 'state subsidies are a disguised form of liquidation of literature'. Finally, his publishing house goes bankrupt.

The overall sentiment in 'Liquidation' is one of bitterness and nausea provoked by the poison of universal impotence.

Although the combination theatre/novel is highly original, I found that this book was more loosely built than 'Kaddish'.

But it is still a very worth-while read.