The Tortoises
The Tortoises (trans. from the German by Ian Mitchell) focuses on a tense waiting period endured by a Viennese Jewish couple. In late 1938, Andreas and Eva Kain expect their visa to arrive any day. They do not want to leave Austria, but as Nazi power gains momentum, they realize leaving is the only wise choice. Yet this same momentum prevents the Kains from easily obtaining their visa. When an SA officer commandeers their apartment, the normalcy of their life erodes. With Andreas’s brother Werner, and their friends Herr Felberbaum and Hilde, they face a very uncertain future.
Since this novel was published posthumously, Veza Canetti missed sharing it with a wide audience. It is clearly autobiographical. I did not need the notes about the author to know that she experienced the events of which she wrote. Associating tortoises with longevity, privacy, and peace–seemingly lost to Viennese Jews in 1938–she weaves references to this dignified reptile into her prose. She writes with intensity and irony, and shapes characters well. Their voices, however, are not distinguishable in the frequent unreferenced blocks of dialogue.
I found this novel extremely depressing, but my response testifies to its realism.
