About
the Book
Title:
The Kaminsky Cure
Author:
Christopher New
Genre:
Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction
The
Kaminsky Cure is
a poignant yet comedic novel of a half Jewish/half Christian family
caught up in the machinery of Hitler’s final solution. The
matriarch, Gabi, was born Jewish but converted to Christianity in her
teens. The patriarch, Willibald, is a Lutheran minister who, on one
hand is an admirer of Hitler, but on the other hand, the conflicted
father of children who are half-Jewish. Mindful and resentful of her
husband’s ambivalence, Gabi is determined to make sure her children
are educated, devising schemes to keep them in school even after
learning that any child less than 100% Aryan will eventually be kept
from completing education. She even hires tutors who are willing to
teach half-Jewish children and in this way comes to hire Fraulein
Kaminsky who shows Gabi how to cure her frustration and rage: to keep
her mouth filled with water until the urge to scream or rant has
passed.
Author
Bio
Christopher
New
was born in England and was educated at Oxford and Princeton
Universities. Philosopher as well as novelist, he founded the
Philosophy Department in Hong Kong University, where he taught for
many years whilst writing The China Coast Trilogy (Shanghai, The
Chinese Box and A Change of Flag) and Goodbye Chairman Mao, as well
as The Philosophy of Literature. He now divides his time between
Europe and Asia and has written novels set in India (The Road to
Maridur), Egypt (A Small Place in the Desert) and Europe (The
Kaminsky Cure). His books have been translated into Chinese, German,
Italian, Japanese and Portuguese. His
latest novel, Gage Street Courtesan, appeared in March 2013.
Links
EXCERPT
There are lots of
things I notice this Christmas that I’ve never noticed before. When
my mother takes me shopping, for instance, which is only between the
hours of three and five, there are certain village stores she will go
into and certain stores she won’t. And the stores she will not
enter are usually the smarter ones, the fish shop and the
cooperative, for instance, which are near the best inns like Franzi
Wimmer’s and have glossy por-traits of the Führer prominently on
show inside, while the shops she does enter are the cheaper ones,
even the dirtier ones, like the baker whose bread is often stale and
the dairy where the milk is often sour. They have pictures of the
Führer on their walls too, of course, but smaller ones and not so
often dusted. Some of them even have little specks of fly-shit on his
face.
I’m puzzled by my
mother’s shopping choices. I take it that as we are from Berlin, we
must be a cut above the rest, so we should be going to the best
shops, not the worst. And why do we go only in the late afternoon? I
know that other people like Jägerlein go at any time of the day. My
mother doesn’t explain these anomalies, and I sense I’m not
supposed to know the real reason, although I’m still convinced it
has to do with our being proper Germans, while the villagers are not.
Nobody tells me where I’ve gone wrong. Nobody explains that Gabi is
a vicious and degenerate Jewess, that the best shops won’t serve
her, that in any case she’s allowed to shop only between the hours
of three and five so that decent Aryans shoppers can arrange to avoid
the disgusting sight of her altogether.
My parents have
always been bickering and crying (I think that’s normal—what else
do I know?), but they never openly mention this source of their
troubles. Imagine, I can’t recall ever being called a half-Jew yet,
let alone a Yid, and perhaps I never have been. I don’t even know
what a Yid or half-Jew is. Sara does, of course; she knows all right.
And so do the others. But not me. Why should I? I’m never allowed
out to play with the village children, so they aren’t going to tell
me. And neither Jä-gerlein nor my mother is going to either. As for
my brother and
sisters—they’re
certainly not going to tell me what it’s like to be called a
half-Jew or a dirty Yid. Like rape victims, they never tell because
they feel they’re guilty.
No comments:
Post a Comment