The first word in this mesmerizing novel by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature is “No.” It is how the novel’s narrator,...
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Dec 22, 2008
Eugene
rated it: 
a great and dark autobiographical book, speaking impossible truths with brazen and an often almost obscene courage... a courage so courageous it becomes obscene.
echoing bernhard -- whom kertesz has translated -- this is a great monologue of negation and destruction, which nonetheless (hopelessly) creates. speaking about the one thing that saved him ("albeit it saved me for the sake of destruction"), i.e. his work, kertesz writes, "In those years I recognized my life fo More...
echoing bernhard -- whom kertesz has translated -- this is a great monologue of negation and destruction, which nonetheless (hopelessly) creates. speaking about the one thing that saved him ("albeit it saved me for the sake of destruction"), i.e. his work, kertesz writes, "In those years I recognized my life fo More...
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Feb 06, 2012
Mariana
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El libro empieza con un ¡NO!. Después, desmenuza las preocupaciones del personaje principal: B, un autor y traductor que tiene pequeños tintes autobiográficos de Kértesz. La novela, después, a la manera de un ensayo, habla del entorno, vivencias y cuestiones personales desarrolladas. Cómo los judíos se asumen, qué hace él como escritor, porqué el mal tiene una explicación y el bien no tiene lógica y así. Sin embargo, también se cuenta una historia. Él, su vida, su ex-esposa, los hijos que no lle
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Jul 09, 2010
Jhannas
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Dec 02, 2011
Megan
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Kaddish for an Unborn Child is truly worthy of its esteem, and Imre Kertesz is absolutely worthy of his Nobel Prize. I read the Wilkinson translation, unaware that there was another translation available. Now that I know it has been translated before, I am curious to see for myself how they differ in language, poetics and style.
I found the Wilkinson translation haunting, musical with a unique rhythm to its words. How do you describe something that is so perfectly beautiful? The str More...
I found the Wilkinson translation haunting, musical with a unique rhythm to its words. How do you describe something that is so perfectly beautiful? The str More...
Jul 10, 2011
Kris
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Kaddish for a Child Not Born by Imre Kertész is one of a series of four novels which examine the life of a man who survives the Nazi concentration camps of World War II.
If Fatelessness offered a relatively conventional narrative approach, Kaddish for an Unborn Child, written fifteen years later, is anything but. It is a difficult novel of repetition and ambiguity, the narrator acknowledging all his uncertainty, and constantly reminding the reader of the difficulty of exact expression. More...
If Fatelessness offered a relatively conventional narrative approach, Kaddish for an Unborn Child, written fifteen years later, is anything but. It is a difficult novel of repetition and ambiguity, the narrator acknowledging all his uncertainty, and constantly reminding the reader of the difficulty of exact expression. More...
Oct 12, 2008
Kirsten
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This is basically a 95 page rant. The style is very lyrical and manic. Even in my head it's hard to read the words without going at a fervent pace.
The subject matter itself deals with divorce, being a survivor of Auschwitz, the collapse of his marriage, and not wanting to carry on the lineage of the damaged Jew.(Which is not to say that I think every Jewish person is damaged. I'm speaking more of the people who have felt the aftershock of Nazism.) A subject that was touched upon, one More...
The subject matter itself deals with divorce, being a survivor of Auschwitz, the collapse of his marriage, and not wanting to carry on the lineage of the damaged Jew.(Which is not to say that I think every Jewish person is damaged. I'm speaking more of the people who have felt the aftershock of Nazism.) A subject that was touched upon, one More...
Jan 29, 2012
Jean d'Arp
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Extraits:
"[...:]puisque ce qui est a toujours une explication, même si cette explication est par nature purement arbitraire, erronée, quelconque, mais c'est un fait qu'un fait a au moins deux existences, l'une factuelle et l'autre, pour ainsi dire, spirituelle, un mode d'existence spirituel qui n'est autre qu'une explication, un amoncellement d'explications, et qui plus est, une surexplication des faits, ce qui revient en fin de compte à les annihiler, ou tout au moins à les br More...
"[...:]puisque ce qui est a toujours une explication, même si cette explication est par nature purement arbitraire, erronée, quelconque, mais c'est un fait qu'un fait a au moins deux existences, l'une factuelle et l'autre, pour ainsi dire, spirituelle, un mode d'existence spirituel qui n'est autre qu'une explication, un amoncellement d'explications, et qui plus est, une surexplication des faits, ce qui revient en fin de compte à les annihiler, ou tout au moins à les br More...
Nov 23, 2008
This is one of the most profound, and most moving, and most profoundly moving works I have read in my life--and certainly within the last year. It's one long run-on paragraph (with many sentences, thank goodness) of a man who is tortured by his relationship with his past: "a tale of identity and memory--the story of a middle-aged man taking stock of his life in the ever-present shadow of the Holocaust." It's extraordinary, and it will not take you long to read...to boot.
Sep 14, 2009
Hamidreza
rated it: 
فقط میتونم بگم وقتمو با خوندن این کتاب هدر دادم شاید بدترین کتابی بود که تا الان خوندم.نمیدونم ترجمه بدی شده بود یا واقعا همین جوری بود .اسم ایرانی کتاب دعا برای کودکی زاده نشده است تا ترجمه صبا راستگار.عنوان کتاب با متنش اصلا نمی خونه نمیدونم شاید من نفهمیدم.
Aug 29, 2011
Jonfaith
rated it:
This piercing unbroken paragraph novella ups the emotional and philosophical ante concerning the Shoah and leaves only scorched earth and tattered memories in its wake. Throughout the work there a number of nods to Bernhard, whereas Kertesc further gilds the homage to the Austrian with trademark recurrences and stilted rhythms.
Jan 31, 2009
Matthew
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"Auschwitz, I told her, appears to me in the image of a father; yes, the two terms, Auschwitz and father, resonate the same echos in me, I told my wife. And if the observation that God is an exalted father, then God, too, is revealed to me in the image of Auschwitz, I told my wife."
Oct 08, 2007
Ryan
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Calling this a novel is a bit of an overstatement ... or an inaccuracy, as overstatement implies that it is something less than a novel, or that it is (was) brought about as an attempt to create a novel, or that it is a novel in miniature. It is none of this. A monologue, 90 some pages, less circuitous than proceeding by fits and starts ... or by refinements constantly rethought, negated, and re-offered. It says very little, says it very precisely, and worries myriad possibilities in arriving at
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Jan 29, 2012
Mazel
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C'est pour l'enfant auquel il n'a jamais voulu donner naissance qu'Imre Kertész prononce ici le kaddish - la prière des morts de la religion juive.
D'une densité et d'une véhémence peu communes, ce monologue intérieur est le récit d'une existence confisquée par le souvenir de la tragédie concentrationnaire.
Proférée du fond de la plus extrême souffrance, la magnifique oraison funèbre affirme l'impossibilité d'assumer le don de la vie dans un monde définitivement traumatis More...
D'une densité et d'une véhémence peu communes, ce monologue intérieur est le récit d'une existence confisquée par le souvenir de la tragédie concentrationnaire.
Proférée du fond de la plus extrême souffrance, la magnifique oraison funèbre affirme l'impossibilité d'assumer le don de la vie dans un monde définitivement traumatis More...
Nov 19, 2009
Lauren
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A difficult and complex book. a man struggles with his long ago decision not to bring children into this world after his survival at Auschwitz.
Sep 16, 2009
Ellee
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This isn't quite stream-of-consciousness writing, but is pretty close. I don't know if that's Kertesz' style or if it's the effect of translation. It's not a quick read for being such a short text. The author refers to Fatelessness (or I think he does anyway) and many similar ideas are expressed. The idea of explaining oneself to his or her unborn children why they weren't born is a very uncomfortable notion if you really think about it. "I was too busy for you" seems pretty fe
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May 07, 2011
Shannon
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Beautifully written, though I suppose I'm not intellectual enough to completely understand it.
Dec 22, 2010
kissmyshades
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some nice passages but ultimately unsatisfying. the style made it kind of tedious reading.
Oct 21, 2007
http://nhw.livejournal.com/854859.html[return][return]I guess I shouldn t try and read heavy literature while I am travelling and feeling under the weather, because I found the peculiar narrative structure of this book rather off-putting. The central human dilemma, an Auschwitz survivor who is looking back on his childlessness and his failed literary career, is an important one, but I couldn t get into it.
Mar 01, 2011
Julia
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Kertész se recusa a ter filhos após Auschwitz - não só porque não pode prometer ao seu filho hipotético que ele não passará pelo mesmo sofrimento, não só porque um mundo em que existiu Auschwitz não é um mundo que valha a pena. Kertész não quer ser a autoridade suprema, o Auschwitz de alguém.
Muito interessante, bem argumentado e bem escrito. Quero ler mais livros desse autor.
Muito interessante, bem argumentado e bem escrito. Quero ler mais livros desse autor.
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Jul 21, 2008
Cheryl
rated it:
A very potent philosophical reflection of the narrator’s Jewishness spanning his childhood, survival at Auschwitz, and childless adult life. As with Fatelessness, Kertesz does not write emotionally. Though in this novel so much despair and feeling is conveyed. The repetition of phrases and images enhances the sentiment without using hyperbolic language.
Jul 24, 2008
Trevor
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Another excellent book in the Kertesz tetralogy. This one is similar in style to Notes from Underground. To read my full review:
http://mookse.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/i...
http://mookse.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/i...
Feb 28, 2010
Ruby
rated it:
Left me with heavy arms and legs.
Now all I wish for is my personal copy of this, in which I can underline - and I never underline - all the wisdom, knowledge and beauty and sadness in it. Very impressive.
Now all I wish for is my personal copy of this, in which I can underline - and I never underline - all the wisdom, knowledge and beauty and sadness in it. Very impressive.
Apr 17, 2008
Claire
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Hard to get into, but I LOVED this book. I wanted to close it and go straight back to the beginning and start it again. I was fascinated by this character and his reaction to his past.
May 29, 2008
Robyn
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"for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history..." Imre Kertész is a boss.
=)
=)
Mar 15, 2007
Jafar
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Every paragraph starts with a 'No'. But there aren't many paragraphs and many no's. One paragraph is 65 pages paragraph. He won the Nobel prize in 2002.
Apr 27, 2008
Miriam
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A difficult read, but very good. You are immersed in the mind of a holocaust survivor who can't bear to bring a child into the world.
