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Hester Among the Ruins
History meets reality when biographer Hester Rosenfeld--very American and marginally Jewish--goes to Munich to research the life of Heinrich Falk and becomes his mistress. Born in Berlin in 1943, raised in the ruins of defeat by a generation of "murderers and cowards," Professor Falk is neither infamous nor famous--he is simply the German Everyman. Hester believes his life story could make for an important contemporary historical document--kitchen-table history. But as she uncovers more of his family history and its possible connection to Nazism, she finds herself reexamining her own feelings about her German immigrant parents and her complicated attraction to Heinrich. As the lovers' intimacy grows, each suspects the other of hiding something about the past.
With the moral power of Bernhard Schlink's The Reader , Kirshenbaum's searing novel bears powerful witness to history's unforgettable legacy and its continuing impact.
With the moral power of Bernhard Schlink's The Reader , Kirshenbaum's searing novel bears powerful witness to history's unforgettable legacy and its continuing impact.
- GenresFictionLiterature
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
1 person is currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
Binnie Kirshenbaum
21 books133 followersBinnie Kirshenbaum is the author of two short story collections, six novels, and numerous essays and reviews. Her work is noted for its humorous and ribald prose, which often disguises themes of human loneliness and the yearning for connection. Her heroines are usually urban, very smart, and chastened by lifetimes of unwelcome surprises. Kirshenbaum has been published in German, French, Hebrew, Turkish, and several other languages.
Kirshenbaum grew up in New York and attended Columbia University and Brooklyn College. She is the chair of the Writing Division of the Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts, where she has served as a professor of fiction for more than a decade.
Called, “a humorist, even a comedian, a sort of stand-up tragic,” by Richard Howard, Kirshenbaum has twice won Critics’ Choice Awards and was selected as one of the Best Young American Novelists by Granta Magazine. Kirshenbaum was also a nominee for The National Jewish Book Award for her novel Hester Among the Ruins. Her new novel, The Scenic Route, was published in May, 2009. Of the novel, Gary Steyngart says, “The Scenic Route is warm, wise, and very difficult to put down."
Binnie Kirshenbaum lives and works in New York City.
Binnie Kirshenbaum was born in Yonkers and grew up in Westchester County. After attending Columbia University as an undergraduate, Kirshenbaum earned her MFA at Brooklyn College. She taught at Wagner College before joining the faculty at the Writing Division of Columbia University's School of the Arts.
Kirshenbaum grew up in New York and attended Columbia University and Brooklyn College. She is the chair of the Writing Division of the Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts, where she has served as a professor of fiction for more than a decade.
Called, “a humorist, even a comedian, a sort of stand-up tragic,” by Richard Howard, Kirshenbaum has twice won Critics’ Choice Awards and was selected as one of the Best Young American Novelists by Granta Magazine. Kirshenbaum was also a nominee for The National Jewish Book Award for her novel Hester Among the Ruins. Her new novel, The Scenic Route, was published in May, 2009. Of the novel, Gary Steyngart says, “The Scenic Route is warm, wise, and very difficult to put down."
Binnie Kirshenbaum lives and works in New York City.
Binnie Kirshenbaum was born in Yonkers and grew up in Westchester County. After attending Columbia University as an undergraduate, Kirshenbaum earned her MFA at Brooklyn College. She taught at Wagner College before joining the faculty at the Writing Division of Columbia University's School of the Arts.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 23, 2010
The Ruins of History
Hester Among the Ruins by Binnie Kirshenbaum is a book about a woman named Hester Rosenfeld. She is from a second generation of immigrants, her parents were Jews from Europe. One day, in her capacity as historian, Hester meets Heinrich Falk. He is a German professor whom she falls in love with. In order to be with him, she decides to write the story of his life, the story of an everyday German man born during the Second World War. As his mistress she stays in Munich and by spending a great deal of time together, she gradually learns about his life, his family history, his marriages and his children. Even though they are madly in love with each other, throughout the story the historically created opposition “German versus Jew” stands in the way of their relationship.
Hester Among the Ruins consists of Hester’s narrative, her letters from Heinrich, pages from the memoir of his mother and bits and pieces from other books. This may come across as chaotic at first sight, but it does not make the story any less coherent. This original way of writing is one of the reasons why this book is so interesting and refreshing. Though the narrative is written from Hester’s perspective, through Heinrich’s letters and the memoir of Frau Falk, you also see where Heinrich comes from and why he probably became the man he is today.
Both Hester’s and Heinrich’s heritage play a large part in the story. The fact that both sides of the story are shown makes this book so interesting. First of all Hester. Everywhere she goes in Munich, and in Germany in general, she always feels the history of her parents and her people pressing like a big weight on her shoulders. She never feels at ease in Munich. When a group of young Croatian soccer fans walks by, for example, she is reminded of militants. She also notices that a lot of people in restaurants and shops are not very friendly towards her, probably because they think she is Arabian. However, when she wears a necklace with a star of David people are suddenly very friendly. Hester struggles with the memory of her parents. She confesses on several occasions that she was ashamed of them. Ashamed of their accent, their glorification of everything American and the fact that they did not notice they were excluded by their neighbours. She hates Germans for the fact that her parents were made victims, that they had to flee their country. Even though she loves Heinrich, she is not able to even say or write his name, because it is such a typically German name. Therefore she always refers to him as “HF”. It is clear that even though she herself never experienced the War, she is very much influenced by it through her parents and her Jewishness.
Heinrich struggles with the history of his country and of his family in particular. His brother alledgedly was a wherewolf, a militiaman who vowed to continue fighting after the War had ended. His mother used to work in a gas company, which brings up a lot of questions with Hester. What his father did during the War is unclear, which is very suspicious to her. Heinrich warns Hester that she is looking for Nazis everywhere and that not every man and woman old enough to have witnessed the war is one. However, in the course of the story it becomes clear that no matter what Heinrich says, Hester stays suspicious of everyone and everything. It is because of what happened to her parents and to her people that she can never live in ease in Germany.
Hester Among the Ruins is the story of two people struggling with their heritage. Written in an original way, it is a beautiful love story which also teaches us something about the histroy of Europe and Jews in America. It reads fairly easy and it can be recommended to anyone who likes a historical story written in a modern way.
Hester Among the Ruins by Binnie Kirshenbaum is a book about a woman named Hester Rosenfeld. She is from a second generation of immigrants, her parents were Jews from Europe. One day, in her capacity as historian, Hester meets Heinrich Falk. He is a German professor whom she falls in love with. In order to be with him, she decides to write the story of his life, the story of an everyday German man born during the Second World War. As his mistress she stays in Munich and by spending a great deal of time together, she gradually learns about his life, his family history, his marriages and his children. Even though they are madly in love with each other, throughout the story the historically created opposition “German versus Jew” stands in the way of their relationship.
Hester Among the Ruins consists of Hester’s narrative, her letters from Heinrich, pages from the memoir of his mother and bits and pieces from other books. This may come across as chaotic at first sight, but it does not make the story any less coherent. This original way of writing is one of the reasons why this book is so interesting and refreshing. Though the narrative is written from Hester’s perspective, through Heinrich’s letters and the memoir of Frau Falk, you also see where Heinrich comes from and why he probably became the man he is today.
Both Hester’s and Heinrich’s heritage play a large part in the story. The fact that both sides of the story are shown makes this book so interesting. First of all Hester. Everywhere she goes in Munich, and in Germany in general, she always feels the history of her parents and her people pressing like a big weight on her shoulders. She never feels at ease in Munich. When a group of young Croatian soccer fans walks by, for example, she is reminded of militants. She also notices that a lot of people in restaurants and shops are not very friendly towards her, probably because they think she is Arabian. However, when she wears a necklace with a star of David people are suddenly very friendly. Hester struggles with the memory of her parents. She confesses on several occasions that she was ashamed of them. Ashamed of their accent, their glorification of everything American and the fact that they did not notice they were excluded by their neighbours. She hates Germans for the fact that her parents were made victims, that they had to flee their country. Even though she loves Heinrich, she is not able to even say or write his name, because it is such a typically German name. Therefore she always refers to him as “HF”. It is clear that even though she herself never experienced the War, she is very much influenced by it through her parents and her Jewishness.
Heinrich struggles with the history of his country and of his family in particular. His brother alledgedly was a wherewolf, a militiaman who vowed to continue fighting after the War had ended. His mother used to work in a gas company, which brings up a lot of questions with Hester. What his father did during the War is unclear, which is very suspicious to her. Heinrich warns Hester that she is looking for Nazis everywhere and that not every man and woman old enough to have witnessed the war is one. However, in the course of the story it becomes clear that no matter what Heinrich says, Hester stays suspicious of everyone and everything. It is because of what happened to her parents and to her people that she can never live in ease in Germany.
Hester Among the Ruins is the story of two people struggling with their heritage. Written in an original way, it is a beautiful love story which also teaches us something about the histroy of Europe and Jews in America. It reads fairly easy and it can be recommended to anyone who likes a historical story written in a modern way.
August 13, 2012
Two lovers going at it in Munich -- that's the frame upon which the author drapes her very interesting ruminations about history, and Europe, America, World War II, Nazis, etc. Overall, this is a smart, but hugely predictable novel about a doomed affair. Would have helped if the characters had something at stake, but oh well.
Awakwardly, although both of these two lovers were born in the 1940s, they seem preternaturally sexy and unaffiliated by age. He’s got this wild blonde hair that is, as near as I can tell, styled in a “bed head” way, like that vampire in Twilight. So, this German dude, lover of the written word, who was born in 1943, sounds very dreamy. Most 60-something year old German guys I know of, especially the ones who are into books and not triathlons, have a cranium that looks like a boiled ham, but this guy, well...the author is, no doubt, sacrificing a hefty slice of authenticity in order to sneak herself a treat. All those long days at the writing desk, what are you supposed to do? Philip Roth, John Updike, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Louis Begley, John Irving, and so on, these white-haired pervs have all done it, over and over again. We, the reader, are supposed to politely ignore that the author is playing out improbable sexual fantasies in the book. I guess it’s heartening to see a woman do it, too.
All the action here -- other than bedroom-wise -- is with the narrator's roaming and very intellligent mind. Reminicent of Milan Kundera, in that it's plotless fiction about erudite oversexed Europeans who are trapped in history like fleas in amber. History is the big THEME, announced loudly in the epigraph, by James Baldwin: "We are all trapped in history, and history is trapped in us" (or something like that). Anyway, that more or less says it all. Still, the final chapters deliver a satisfying thematic climax, as that very abstract notion comes to life in a vivid and stirring way.
Awakwardly, although both of these two lovers were born in the 1940s, they seem preternaturally sexy and unaffiliated by age. He’s got this wild blonde hair that is, as near as I can tell, styled in a “bed head” way, like that vampire in Twilight. So, this German dude, lover of the written word, who was born in 1943, sounds very dreamy. Most 60-something year old German guys I know of, especially the ones who are into books and not triathlons, have a cranium that looks like a boiled ham, but this guy, well...the author is, no doubt, sacrificing a hefty slice of authenticity in order to sneak herself a treat. All those long days at the writing desk, what are you supposed to do? Philip Roth, John Updike, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Louis Begley, John Irving, and so on, these white-haired pervs have all done it, over and over again. We, the reader, are supposed to politely ignore that the author is playing out improbable sexual fantasies in the book. I guess it’s heartening to see a woman do it, too.
All the action here -- other than bedroom-wise -- is with the narrator's roaming and very intellligent mind. Reminicent of Milan Kundera, in that it's plotless fiction about erudite oversexed Europeans who are trapped in history like fleas in amber. History is the big THEME, announced loudly in the epigraph, by James Baldwin: "We are all trapped in history, and history is trapped in us" (or something like that). Anyway, that more or less says it all. Still, the final chapters deliver a satisfying thematic climax, as that very abstract notion comes to life in a vivid and stirring way.
June 24, 2009
This book committed the grossest of book atrocities- it was BORING! It took me about 200 pages to realize nothing of value or interest was going to happen (not that I'm slow, I'm just an eternal optimist). This is a pity because this book has a promising premise- set in present day, Hester, a Jewish-American woman travels to Munich to write the biography of Heinrich, a German man of the post-WWII generation. There's opportunity for self-discovery, bridging cultures and generations, blah blah blah. Instead, Kirshenbaum inserts an inane "love story" that reads like Twilight with sex.
What I hated most were the characters- a narcissistic philanderer and a self-absorbed, spoiled American, both immature beyond belief, who do not grow or change throughout the course of the story. They "fall in love" (translation: have a lot of sex all over Munich and sometimes in neighboring cities/forests), he's enamored with her exotic ethnicity and she's determined to find his family's guilt in WWII (PS- how the heck does that work if they're madly in love?).
In the end she leaves because she knows she'll always be searching for evidence of evil- "I would tear your life apart, turn it upside down. Never resting, but searching, always searching. It wouldn't matter if I never found anything. I would always be looking." Ughh, can you get more melodramatic?!
Hester handles her personal relationships with her lover and her parents' memories as well as her relationships to Germans on a whole like a petulant teenager rather than a 38-year-old adult. The entire book reeks of adolescent angst, a huge offense when you consider Kirshenbaum is writing about one of the biggest events in human history.
I really disliked this book and do not recommend it to anyone.
What I hated most were the characters- a narcissistic philanderer and a self-absorbed, spoiled American, both immature beyond belief, who do not grow or change throughout the course of the story. They "fall in love" (translation: have a lot of sex all over Munich and sometimes in neighboring cities/forests), he's enamored with her exotic ethnicity and she's determined to find his family's guilt in WWII (PS- how the heck does that work if they're madly in love?).
In the end she leaves because she knows she'll always be searching for evidence of evil- "I would tear your life apart, turn it upside down. Never resting, but searching, always searching. It wouldn't matter if I never found anything. I would always be looking." Ughh, can you get more melodramatic?!
Hester handles her personal relationships with her lover and her parents' memories as well as her relationships to Germans on a whole like a petulant teenager rather than a 38-year-old adult. The entire book reeks of adolescent angst, a huge offense when you consider Kirshenbaum is writing about one of the biggest events in human history.
I really disliked this book and do not recommend it to anyone.
November 13, 2022
Hester, a secular Jewish-American and historian, meets Heinrich Falk, a German professor of medieval studies who lives in Munich. The two hit it off, becoming lovers and Hester residing in Munich. Fascinated by Heinrich, she sees in him not so much a German Everyman but a representative of that postwar generation and a potentially interesting subject for a biography. In her notebook she gathers information about his past, weaving it with quotes from classical scholars and medieval lore.
As she explores Munich, and much of the country, she dwells on her own past, and her parents -- themselves refugees from Munich and Berlin who married in the U.S. and, wanting to assimilate, settled in an ultra-Gentile area, one where Hester suffered for being "different." She tries to uncover secrets of Heinrich's background, in particular any influential family members -- his powerful and brilliant mother, a feminist ahead of her time who worked at a gas company and later became an executive; his uncle, who became a member of the Werewolves (roving bands of youths who attacked Occupation soldiers); and his father, who divorced his mother and emotionally abandoned Heinrich. However, she reveals very little of his life that is extraordinary or notorious, merely depressing: Heinrich, like so many of his generation, struggled through the postwar trauma and moved on. He tells Hester that, although his family had no involvement in the Holocaust, and that he himself bears no personal guilt, he shares a collective guilt. After reading her notebook, he complains that she invented or misread events, as well as tied in medieval references that were completely weird and irrelevant. He also wonders: why has she never, in the heart of Germany, bothered to research her own family background?
Hester realizes that all that time she had been too busy looking for things in other backyards rather than her own. Basically, she was projecting her own fantasies or expectations of all Germans as Nazis. Moreover, her feelings toward Germans derived largely from her ambivalence toward her "goofy and naive" parents (now deceased), whom she had scorned as victims and greenhorns. The novel ends with her back in New York, after breaking up with Heinrich, and researching history of early American Jews -- hinting at a return to her heritage, albeit in a secular, ethnic way. (Maybe in a sequel she'd meet a Chabad rabbi!)
The novel is sensuously written, highly psychological, and character driven. The plot really floats along, as the two drive through post-unification Germany of the 1990s, and Hester discovers a nation still haunted by both its Nazi and Communist pasts. Munich, birthplace of Hitler's politics, is filled with memorials and landmarks, including one dedicated to Sophie Scholl, martyred leader of the resistance White Rose movement. Buildings still bear scars of bombing and repair. Heinrich's ancestral home in the east had been converted into filthy, rundown, communal apartments; the western half, with its supermarkets and casual dress, has modernized to the point of sterility. Germans are polite but largely distant, and Hester feels very much like a stranger. Because of her darker coloring, she becomes aware of prejudice toward southern Europeans or Middle Easterners; however, whenever she dons a Star of David necklace, she is fawned over, as if she were either royalty or a prize object. At one point Heinrich tells her he would love to have a child by her -- because a Jewish baby would be special. No doubt, a liberal status symbol.
Which brings me to comment on the protagonists, neither of whom are likeable. Hester, the Yuppie academic and self-hating Jew, is narcissistic. Heinrich is particularly damaged: a philanderer, he has married several times, and all of his wives are themselves flaky and permissive. One of them has an active interest in Judaism, even arranging to meet Hester for an interview at a kosher restaurant. His daughters are equally amoral; he even jokes with one of them over each other's sexual exploits. Apparently, Heinrich and his peer group, the educated class, are highly Westernized and largely indifferent to tradition, although Hester initially considers his behavior atavistic.
In spite of some explicitness (although none of it very erotic), I enjoyed the novel for the questions it raises about heritage, and how much we are influenced by family, personality, nation, and history. Hester's slanted view of Heinrich reinforced my perspective, largely cynical, toward so many real-life Hesters -- historians, biographers, anthropologists, and others in the social sciences -- who approach their subjects with personal biases, in spite of claims to objectivity. In a sense, all of us carry some kind of baggage, be it personal, ethnic, or religious.
As she explores Munich, and much of the country, she dwells on her own past, and her parents -- themselves refugees from Munich and Berlin who married in the U.S. and, wanting to assimilate, settled in an ultra-Gentile area, one where Hester suffered for being "different." She tries to uncover secrets of Heinrich's background, in particular any influential family members -- his powerful and brilliant mother, a feminist ahead of her time who worked at a gas company and later became an executive; his uncle, who became a member of the Werewolves (roving bands of youths who attacked Occupation soldiers); and his father, who divorced his mother and emotionally abandoned Heinrich. However, she reveals very little of his life that is extraordinary or notorious, merely depressing: Heinrich, like so many of his generation, struggled through the postwar trauma and moved on. He tells Hester that, although his family had no involvement in the Holocaust, and that he himself bears no personal guilt, he shares a collective guilt. After reading her notebook, he complains that she invented or misread events, as well as tied in medieval references that were completely weird and irrelevant. He also wonders: why has she never, in the heart of Germany, bothered to research her own family background?
Hester realizes that all that time she had been too busy looking for things in other backyards rather than her own. Basically, she was projecting her own fantasies or expectations of all Germans as Nazis. Moreover, her feelings toward Germans derived largely from her ambivalence toward her "goofy and naive" parents (now deceased), whom she had scorned as victims and greenhorns. The novel ends with her back in New York, after breaking up with Heinrich, and researching history of early American Jews -- hinting at a return to her heritage, albeit in a secular, ethnic way. (Maybe in a sequel she'd meet a Chabad rabbi!)
The novel is sensuously written, highly psychological, and character driven. The plot really floats along, as the two drive through post-unification Germany of the 1990s, and Hester discovers a nation still haunted by both its Nazi and Communist pasts. Munich, birthplace of Hitler's politics, is filled with memorials and landmarks, including one dedicated to Sophie Scholl, martyred leader of the resistance White Rose movement. Buildings still bear scars of bombing and repair. Heinrich's ancestral home in the east had been converted into filthy, rundown, communal apartments; the western half, with its supermarkets and casual dress, has modernized to the point of sterility. Germans are polite but largely distant, and Hester feels very much like a stranger. Because of her darker coloring, she becomes aware of prejudice toward southern Europeans or Middle Easterners; however, whenever she dons a Star of David necklace, she is fawned over, as if she were either royalty or a prize object. At one point Heinrich tells her he would love to have a child by her -- because a Jewish baby would be special. No doubt, a liberal status symbol.
Which brings me to comment on the protagonists, neither of whom are likeable. Hester, the Yuppie academic and self-hating Jew, is narcissistic. Heinrich is particularly damaged: a philanderer, he has married several times, and all of his wives are themselves flaky and permissive. One of them has an active interest in Judaism, even arranging to meet Hester for an interview at a kosher restaurant. His daughters are equally amoral; he even jokes with one of them over each other's sexual exploits. Apparently, Heinrich and his peer group, the educated class, are highly Westernized and largely indifferent to tradition, although Hester initially considers his behavior atavistic.
In spite of some explicitness (although none of it very erotic), I enjoyed the novel for the questions it raises about heritage, and how much we are influenced by family, personality, nation, and history. Hester's slanted view of Heinrich reinforced my perspective, largely cynical, toward so many real-life Hesters -- historians, biographers, anthropologists, and others in the social sciences -- who approach their subjects with personal biases, in spite of claims to objectivity. In a sense, all of us carry some kind of baggage, be it personal, ethnic, or religious.
July 12, 2009
Story includes infidelity, which is one of my least favorite themes for a novel, but it has such an original twist, I stayed with it. And the protagonist is a single woman, which makes it less boring than 2 married people having an affair. Plus there are laugh-out-loud lines, which I rarely find in novels I read. I've stolen her phrase "needing some couch time" when referring to someone who needs to see a therapist.
Read
June 7, 2010This is one of those stories where part of the fascination comes from the fact that the characters are often unlikeable. I never really identified with anyone, but somehow their actions still made sense as part of their personalities. Character and setting are the key players here, with plot taking a backseat. Themes of guilt, culture, and responsibility and restitution for the past run throughout, making an interesting parallel to the story of an affair.
November 21, 2012
This is the story of the meeting of opposites. A German and a Jew fall madly in love. There lives are seperate and beautiful but there is a growing weariness that developes when Hester tries to write a story to uncover Heirichs past and his parents past. Beautifully writen in must be read to be completely enjoyed. It is funny and smart and the subtle shade of what we know and what we hide from ourselves is revealed in new and profound ways. Truly beautiful.
August 13, 2007
An amusing humourous piece that at the same time addresses a matter worthy of thought and that remains pertinent today -- what does it mean to take responsibility for crimes your people/nation (but not you) committed, or conversely, to inherit a legacy of victimhood. (P/S: I'm biased. I have this thing for books about WWII.)
March 27, 2011
I think I picked up the wrong book.
In terms of the historical background, it was okay.
Everything else was just weird.
In terms of the historical background, it was okay.
Everything else was just weird.
June 19, 2009
This was Ok. I thought the premise of the book was interesting, which is why I kept reading it, but not my favorite. I wanted to like and care about the characters but just couldn't.
October 10, 2010
Unbearable.
April 14, 2012
I found my narrator a little too annoying and lacking in nuance.
May 2, 2012
This book is witty and charming. And best of all? It's a well written page turner that still makes you think.
October 21, 2012
This book reminded me of how liberating it can feel to embark on an affair that you are well aware is doomed even before it starts.
January 16, 2016
An interesting post WWII romance (very post war, set in current times) between a female Jewish biographer and a man whose family was fully supportive of Nazi Germany.
February 11, 2010
Really enjoyed this book. It reminded me of The Scenic Route which I also really enjoyed.
June 20, 2010
This was engaging and enjoyable. The book deals with the continuing impact of the holocaust.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews