Ödön von Horváth and ‘The Age of the Fish’

Books by Lois

I wrote some time ago about a little known Hungarian/German author, Ödön von Horváth, who I had heard about on the radio.

http://loiselden.com/2012/11/02/night-waves/

I mentioned that I was interested in getting his short novel, ‘Jugend ohne Gott’, ‘Youth Without God’ when translated into English or, and when you read this book ( I really insist you do) you may, like me, think a better title is ‘The Age of Fish’.

It is an incredible book, written with such clarity and remarkable for the courage he shows in writing about the rising tide of Nazism, even though he wrote it in exile in France in 1938. It is about an unnamed teacher in an unidentified but readily identifiable country, who has a class of repulsive students and having been a teacher myself I could identify each one as someone I had taught! A dreadful tragedy occurs but it has been set up in such a skilled way that it is horrifically realistic ,  the characters who create this situation are so cleverly drawn, especially the narrator/teacher that it is only too believable. I was utterly gripped by it, and the bitter ending is no disappointment.

It sent a shiver through me as I read it, set as it was in the year before the war, because I could only too easily imagine the rise of fascism once again threatening us, from within as well as from outside.

Ödön met a sad death at the age of thirty-seven; not from the Nazis or by any act of war, but by a bough falling on him during a storm on the Champs-Élysées on June 1st 1938

6 Comments

      2. Lois

        Oh goodness, I wish!! I really would have liked to learn German, but I just did French… maybe I should go back to French and start learning it again! Do you speak any other languages?

        Like

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