Soul of Wood
By Jakov Lind; Ralph Manheim (Translator); Michael Kruger (Introduction by)
(NYRB Classics, Paperback, 9781590173305, 208pp.)
Publication Date: January 5, 2010
Categories: Short Stories (single author)
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Selected by Indie Booksellers for the November 2009 Indie Next ListJakov Lind’s Soul of Wood brought its author immediate fame when it was published in Germany in 1962, earning him a reputation as one of the most boldly imaginative postwar German writers. In the title novella and six stories here, Lind deals masterfully with a world of horror through fantasy, paradox, and sardonic distortion and brings to life the agonies of twentieth-century Europe.
In “Soul of Wood,” Anton Barth, a paralyzed young Jew, is smuggled to safety as his parents are shipped off to their deaths. Then, however, we discover that Barth’s purported protector, the wooden-legged war invalid Wohlbrecht–who is the deeply unreliable, self-pitying, half-mad narrator of the story–has simply abandoned the helpless boy in a forest cabin. Wohlbrecht returns to Vienna, where he is soon busy assisting a psychiatrist in administering lethal injections to his patients. But as Germany collapses before the Russian offensive, Wohlbrecht rushes back to the woods in the frenzied hope that he will somehow be able to reclaim “his” Jew, and so preserve himself from retribution. Horrifying and humorous by turns, Lind’s stories alternate scenes of pure savagery and madcap hilarity, displaying a grim inventiveness unmatched in modern literature.
Jakov Lind (1927—2007) was born in Vienna. He fled Austria when he was eleven, finding temporary refuge in Holland, and then surviving inside Nazi Germany by assuming a Dutch identity. After a literary apprenticeship in Israel, he moved to London, where he wrote short stories and novels, including Soul of Wood, Landscape in Concrete, and Ergo.
Michael Krüger's successful career as a poet and novelist has been paralleled by his long and distinguished record as head of the German publishing house Hanser Verlag and editor of the influential journal Akzente. He received the Mörike Prize, one of Germany’s most prestigious awards, in recognition of his contribution to both sides of the trade.
Ralph Manheim (1907—1992) translated Gunter Grass, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Hermann Hesse, and Martin Heidegger, along with many other German and French authors. His translations of NYRB Classics include Short Letter, Long Farewell; Slow Homecoming ; and A Sorrow Beyond Dreams.
"Hilarious, tragic and beautiful...the most notable short story writer to appear in the last two decades...what symbolism, what nightmare visions and surrealistic drama--what art!...At times, Lind seems a Viennese blend of Charles Addams and Roald Dahl--though he is more talented...I have not read a book like this one in some time." --Maxwell Geismar, The New York Times Book Review
"An important and brilliant piece of work." --Alan Sillitoe
"This remarkable collection of short stories (the title story is actually a novella) concerns the madness of 20th-century European civilization." --The New York Times
"Without a doubt the most shattering work of fiction I have read in years...a reader is shaken both by laughter and horror. This is an amazing writer." --Willian Hogan, San Francisco Chronicle
"'Soul of Wood' is emblematic of what Lind does best. He takes us from a world that can be seen and described in all its detail and complexity, into a world of inexplicable, magical events. The suddenness of this transition, and the absence of an explanation or a reorientation, is dizzying, but the reader is pulled along by the evenness of Lind's tone, as if nothing could surprise him...The effect is powerful and disturbing." --NextBook
"Jakov Lind is the greatest living writer of Jewish Europe...Lind doesn't deserve to be read--he's necessary, both in the vicissitudes of his life and, too, in the work it created. His books are the last late bloom of the European Jewish landscape, straining sunward through the concealing concrete." --Forward Magazine (A tribute to Lind on his 80th birthday, published 6 days before his death)"
This is a richness of meaning in these pages that demands reflection." --Chicago Daily News
"Behind the imaginative lunacy of Lind's novels and tales -- and he never permits us to forget it -- looms the historical deracination that inspired it." --The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination
"Jakov Lind writes about the monstrous, the absurd, the unimaginable and the real. In this collection of six short stories and one novella it is often difficult to determine where reality ends and fantasy begins...Lind is a modern German writer whose stories are filled with symbolism and power...It is a fascinating experience to visit Lind's imaginary world of dreams and realism." --Charles Weisenberg, The New York Times
"Marvelously ironic, wonderful examples of story telling. Writers as talented as Jakov Lind are extremely rare." --Cecil Hemley, Saturday Review
"Lind has a brilliantly black imagination; as a poet of twentieth century horror he has few equals, Grass and Genet being among them." --Frederic Morton
"Jakov Lind is a genius." --Harry Golden
"Deserves to be read by anyone seriously interested in contemporary fiction." --Mordecai Richler
"Jakov was a bad boy. . . . He was a coyote, a trickster. He enjoyed hash and LSD. A wicked smile played around his mouth, while witty aphorisms and deep insights tripped off his lips. He emanated inner strength—and an electric intelligence that we all wanted to emulate." —Anthony Rudolf
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