Daniel Stein, Interpreter, by Ludmila Ulitskaya. Published 2012 by Overlook. Literary Fiction. Translated from the Russian.
I originally reviewed this in 2013 and it's one of my all-time favorites.
Daniel Stein, Interpreter, is a "novel in documents," a
kind of epistolary fictional meditation on the life of a Polish Jew
named Daniel Stein who survives the Holocaust and World War 2 by, among
other things, translating for the Gestapo. Then during the war he saves
the lives of 300 Jews during a raid and eventually becomes a Catholic
priest and moves to Israel. Daniel's story is based on that of a real
man, Oswald Rufeisen, and while the character Daniel is based on him,
Daniel is not he himself. Award-winning Russian writer Ludmila Ulitskaya
tells Daniel's story through letters, diaries and official documents
and thus the story shifts both in time and perspective. Over the course
of the novel connections form between the characters, who seem disparate
and diverse at first but who are all connected through a small Polish
community torn apart by murder.
The book starts with Ewa Manukyan, a Polish woman searching for
information on her father. Her mother Rita is a difficult, unlikeable
woman, aging and needy, who had in her youth a reputation as a ferocious
soldier. Ewa cannot relate to her at all, and she begins a friendship
with Esther Gantman, a wealthy exile living in Boston who, together with
her late husband, worked in the Polish ghetto of Emsk during the war.
Ewa and Esther's story connects with others, who then connect with
Daniel Stein, the enigmatic man at the center of this very complex
story.
Brother Daniel's story starts as one of shifting identity. He hides in
plain sight by pretending to be Polish; a gifted linguist, he speaks
German and Polish fluently and is an accomplished horseman. He works for
the Gestapo but tries to undermine them at the same time; he finds both
danger and friendship in this life, and has to make heartbreaking
choices with consequences that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
After the war he establishes a church in Israel that attempts to return
to a time before Christianity split from its Jewish founders and then
with itself.
In doing so, he steps into the quagmire of Israel's many religious sects
and their zealots. He runs afoul of the Catholic Church with some
unorthodox preaching and he runs afoul of the state of Israel by asking
for Israeli citizenship as a returned Jew. But he has friends. His
followers love him; his assistant Hilda, a German woman who has made a
home for herself in the desert, would, it seems, follow him to the ends
of the earth but her love for him isn't romantic. That she shares with
Musa, an Arab Christian who also assists Brother Daniel's ministry. And
Brother Daniel has a powerful friend in his boyhood acquaintance Karol,
who ascends to the highest office the Church has to offer. Over the
years his life intersects with many lives, and Ulitskaya tells their
stories alongside his; they embellish each other and create a detailed
panorama of life during and after the war.
I loved this book, and so did many, but it has been criticized, too.
Some have said that Daniel is a distant figure, that we never get close
to him, and because this is an essentially epistolary novel we see
Daniel either through the eyes of others as mediated by whatever form
Ulitskaya is using, or through his own public statements, so I think
that's a valid observation but it doesn't limit the book's power for me.
I think she means to hold him at a distance, to make him unknowable
even as she meditates on him. The book has also received criticism for
its negative portrayal of life in Israel in the years following World
War 2- the inflexibility of its government and the fractiousness of its
people. I would agree that she does not portray Israel as a paradise but
I'm not sure that's a valid critique of the novel as such.
So yeah, I loved it. Reading Ulitskaya is always a treat and
unfortunately only four of her many books are available in English. I've
read two others and I have the fourth on the shelf. I almost don't want
to read it right away because then I'm all out! I loved this book for
its characters and the way Ulitskaya unwinds their relationships, and I
loved the way they evolve and grow. The characters have distinct voices,
problems, perspectives and limitations; Daniel himself lurks in every
story even when he's not mentioned explicitly. Ulitskaya uses these
other people as lenses through which to see and understand him, to work
out what made him tick and how he became this strange and unusual
person. And I drank in every word. It's very character-driven as you
might guess, very emotional too. Ulitskaya deals with a lot of heavy
issues that will raise strong emotions in many readers. As a Catholic
with a Pope who seems to value compassion as highly as dogma, it was
fascinating to read about a priest similarly inclined, set at a time
when religious movements were actively staking claim to land and
followers based on dogma. And I want to learn more about Rufeisen, the
man behind the story. And I want to read more Ulitskaya. Actually, I
can't wait to!
A serious and moving literary novel, Daniel Stein is definitely one of my favorites of 2013.
Rating: BUY
FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.
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