Chess - Stefan Zweig

'... a human being, an intellectual human being who constantly bends the entire force of his mind on the ridiculous task of forcing a wooden king into the corner of a wooden board, and does it without going mad!'

During his final days in Brazil, staying in exile, days before ending his life,  Stefan Zweig completed his last work of fiction, sent it across to his American Publisher. A short but brilliantly conceived and presented short novel, went on to become a masterpiece.

The travelers in the cruise ship from New York to Buenos Aires, have a dignitary among them, the reigning world chess Champion, Mirko Czentovic.  The all encompassing, never lost any game of the mind, not known for being friendly or social and usually remained in his own quarters. However, the narrator( nameless) and his friends had other ideas. The long, boring journey can be made a bit entertaining, if they manage to lure the champion for a game of chess. The early attempt to bring him to a discussion or conversation failed, and a direct attempt was put at bay by the champion asking for an exorbitant amount of money for a game ( only one he reminded).  There was some one wiling to fund the money, in the form of a Scottish Millionaire.  The one against many was abandoned as there was not sufficient boards , and as an alternate, they decided to join force against the champion. The first game was lost, as expected even before the group of men realised.  One more board was set up, and the game was moving towards a similar end, when an old gentleman, a doctor, intervened and manipulated the way out to a draw, with his clear predictions of the moves in advance. The equation is now changed, as there is someone to stand up to the champion. They immediately wanted to set up a dual again, but the old man was reluctant. He hasn't touched a chess board for 2--25 years and did not think he can ever do it again.  

Dr B, as he is known, an Austrian, belonged to a family of physicist and financial consultants of the Monarchs who ruled Austria. The family, who had the the possession of the documents and information of the wealthy and mighty of the Austrian elite, thus became the target of the Nazi authorities who conquered the tiny Austrian empire. HE was arrested and was put under a solitary cell ( shut in a hotel room, converted as a detention center by the Nazis) without any contact to the rest of the world, except for the occasional interrogation. As is known, the solitary confinement can break down the resistance of any individual and the case wasn't different for him. his ability to withstand and resist the interrogation was at the brink of break down. The need for something to get his attention to succeeded after few months when he managed to slip his hand to the coat pocket of a Nazi Officer ( during an endless wait for interrogation in the adjacent room) and brought out a small book. Hidden in his trousers, he sneaked the book into his room, only to realise that this contain the record and commentary of the 150 chess world championship matches. Savoring whatever was available, setting up the square patterns in his blanket, playing with imaginary pieces, he mastered all the games, and started playing matches against himself . So much was the obsession, it broke down all his sanity, ending up in an asylum, to recuperate. The game of chess aboard the vessel, brought back the days of detention and his trouble past.

The game of chess was agreed upon and despite his ability to play the game physically, the challenger managed to defeat the champion, as is expected in such tales. The game is growing back on him and the days of obsessive, self destructive days and the symptoms of the dark history of insanity resurfaced, as warned by the doctors who treated him earlier. The rematch is now getting into an act of self destruction and personal sabotage as the reigning champion witness the changes in his opponent.

Stefan Zweig, brings out this subtlety of human psychological conditions in this beautiful tale. The game of chess is also a game of survival, a game of resistance to the oppressors. The board is same and the strength of the army is the same at the beginning. The fight is played in the mind, and executed on the board ( interestingly, the champion, undefeated since the age of 15, can not play blind fold, he need a physical representation in the form of a board) , while his opponent is played all along in mind, never to touch the board).  The collective conscience of the crowd against the might of the champion can also be referred to the conditions of this country. The duality of the individual under extreme conditions when he plays with himself ( White 'I' and Black 'I'), the psychological conflict and anguish, resulting in the mental conditions that put him in the hospital, Zweig, interestingly uses multiple narrative technique, with the unnamed narrator giving way to a third voice to describe the early days of prodigal grown of the Chess Champion from an orphan from Yougoslavia to a legend,  and a first person narrative of the detention days under the Nazi's recounted by the challenger.

The book is written in 1942, when the second world war as at its peak. The references can be made to the prevailing conditions of world . The arrogant, unfriendly and brutal leader ( for Germany) is being challenged by the powerless, but ambitious minnows , with the help of a mysterious support ( the Allied forces).  Fairly simple sounding narrative, but the writing is loaded and deep. Similar to a chess game, it is progressed move by move, psychic and dramatic , towards a check-mate. Another stunning little book.

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Chess ( 1942)

Stefan Zweig ( translated from German by Anthea Bell in 2006)

Penguin Modern Classics

83 Pages
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A Common Reader, Wiki,

Short Letter , Long Farewell - Peter Handke

This is my first book of Austrian Writer Peter Handke. I would have preferred to read his more celebrated works like "The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick" or "The Left-Handed Woman". He is a prolific writer, albeit his recent controversies regarding the Slobodan Milosevic issue. He had published large number of books ( almost 2 per year for the last 30 odd years) and was considered by many as one of the potential candidate for Nobel. Short Letter, Long Farewell is more read like a travelogue than a full fledged fiction. There are no clear plot and is have left more unanswered questions. It is a plight of an abandoned husband in search of his destiny triggered by a letter from his estranged wife. Upon receipt of a letter from his separated wife from the US, a young Austrian come over to the land of dreams, land of abandonment and a land of escape, the United States. Following the clues from the letter and later from the hints and chances, he follow her track through the width and breadth of US. From NY to Philadelphia to Chicago to LA. Little did he realised that the table is turning reverse. It was evident that his wife is now chasing him and following him through his journey. Soon the hunter became hunted with she drop evidence of her being at the place of his current stay. At one instance, she even put some goons on him and rob him off his cache and other belongings. The showdown was inevitable, as they cross the country in trail until the place of encounter.

What is left unsaid, is more than the spoken words in this book. The style and prose is crisp and controlled. However, it does not go beyond the beautifully crafted words. The entire story is not convincing, neither it gives anything to ponder. While it might track an individuals isolation and his quest for the 'unknown', it fails to create an 'escape' theory. Wait, may be that is what is the intention. May be it is planned to be so. To depict the failure of the individual to find peace with himself as he drift from one place to other.

It can be read as an autobiographical story, or a travelogue, or a crime thriller. This is my curtain raiser to the world of Peter Handke's writing. But this book was disappointing.

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Short Letter, Long Farewell ( 1972 )

Peter Handke ( Ralph Manheim 1974)

NYRB Classics

167 Pages
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Other Reviews : Bookslut

Weights and measures - Joseph Roth

This book, considered by many as a 20th century classic. I wanted to read this for the past 10 years or so. I was unsuccessful until last month, when I accidentally came across this title in a bookshop. I had managed to get hold of his another book The Legend of the Holy Drinker a couple of yeas back.

Anslem Eibenschutz moves to the district of Zlotogrod as an Inspector of Wights and Measures. He had to take this job on the insistence of his wife. As in case of every Army men, civilian life and dress are not making Herr Eibenschutz very happy. He however, goes on with his new job. Typical to an army man, he is truthful to his job and is already a name spoken with fear and contempt by the shopkeepers and merchants. Unlike, his predecessor, he is strict and non corrupt.

While things are fine at the office front, it is not all that good at the family front. Already a trouble marriage, and without a child, Eibenshutz and his wife leads an uninteresting life without love or affection. Soon he realises that his wife is having an affair with his clerk. He manages to get his clerk transferred to another district, but not before her wife is pregnant with the clerks son. Shaken and raged Eibenschutz spends less and less time at home and becomes a frequent at eh border tavern, known for its notorious activities. He became attracted to a Gypsy woman who is the mistress of the landlord Jadlawker. In a sudden turn of event, Eibenschutz gets Jadwalker arrested and put in prison and takes over the running of the tavern by an order.
As he manages to take his new found love for the woman and alcohol cherish, another tragedy hits the districts in the form of Cholera. People after people are falling prey to this and the life in the district is affected by this. He looses his wife and son( of Clerk) to the disease. Though he survived the epidemic, his life also gets to a tragic end.
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This book is written in the year of 1937 and he himself drank his way to the grave ( as written in the credits) at a young age of 45. Reading this book under isolation this will not give you a good impression. It looks just like any other 20th century fiction from the first half. As Milan Kundera says in his new book ( the curtain) , no fiction can be understood without having basic knowledge of the author, the period and the geography. From that point of view this book was very interesting to me. Whole book gives us an atmosphere of loss and unhappiness to me and the epidemic adds to already pathetic state of people. The villagers live an uneventful life , the only place of action being the tavern full of escaping people from the Soviet Union, drinking their way to the new freedom, before migrating to far away lands such as Canada , South America.

Here is a short article from Granta by Michael Hoffman on The Rediscovery of Joseph Roth

Wiki details of Joseph Roth

Wights and Measures
Written By : Joseph Roth ( Translated from German by David Le Vay )
Published by : Peter Owen , London
150 Pages
Rs 349.20