Brecht at Night

Kogutud teosed #6

by Mati Unt, Eric Dickens (Translator)

This "documentary novel," the latest of Estonian author Mati Unt's deadpan and playful works to be translated into English, is about a little-known period in the life of the great Bertolt Brecht, when the writer--having fled Nazi Germany-- became stuck in Finland awaiting the visa that would allow him to leave Europe for the United States. As BB, the avowed communist, continues enjoying the bourgeois pleasures of pre-war life with his wife and tubercular mistress, the Soviet Union is not-so-quietly annexing Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia; and the gulf between Brecht's preferred lifestyle and his inflammatory polemics grows larger and larger. Both affectionate and irreverent, this portrait of one of the twentieth century's great authors mixes together a variety of comic styles, excerpts from contemporaneous documents, and Unt's trademark digressions, producing a kind of historical novel as interested in interrogating the past as simply recreating it.

Genres: Literature, Fiction, Literary Fiction

209 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Mati Unt was an Estonian writer, essayist and theatre director.

Unt's first novel, written at the age of 18 after having finished high school, was Hüvasti, kollane kass (Goodbye, Yellow Cat). This made him famous all over Estonia. He studied literature and journalism at Tartu University in Tartu, Estonia.

After this precocious beginning‚ Unt arranged a wide call in the artistic and intellectual circles of Estonia as a writer of the fiction, plays, and criticism. His books The Moon Like the Outgoing Sun, The Debt (1964), On the Existence of life in space, and The Black Motorcyclist rocketed Unt to the top of the novelist world in Estonia. In addition, he served a purpose in bringing avantgarde theatre to post-Soviet Union Estonia. Unt was well known as a theatre director. In 1981, he became a director of the Youth Theatre in Tallinn.

In 1979, his novel Autumn Ball (adapted to a movie in 2007 by Veiko Õunpuu) brought him international recognition. Other books include 1990s Notebook of a Donor and the 2001 play Graal!. Films based on Unt's works Tühirand and Sügisball have been created after his death.

Mati Unt died in 2005. He is buried in the Metsakalmistu cemetery in Tallinn.

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Description: This "documentary novel," the latest of Estonian author Mati Unt's deadpan and playful works to be translated into English, is about a little-known period in the life of the great Bertolt Brecht, when the writer—having fled Nazi Germany— became stuck in Finland awaiting the visa that would allow him to leave Europe for the United States. As BB, the avowed communist, continues enjoying the bourgeois pleasures of pre-war life with his wife and tubercular mistress, the Soviet Union is not-so-quietly annexing Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia; and the gulf between Brecht's preferred lifestyle and his inflammatory polemics grows larger and larger. Both affectionate and irreverent, this portrait of one of the twentieth century's great authors mixes together a variety of comic styles, excerpts from contemporaneous documents, and Unt's trademark digressions, producing a kind of historical novel as interested in interrogating the past as simply recreating it.

Opening: PART I: HE ARRIVES: 1940: BERTOLT BRECHT ONBOARD SHIP AT NIGHT: when Brecht notices that it is growing dark outside over the sea - he can see this through the misty porthole - he goes up on deck for some reason or another.

Interesting rather than enjoyable.

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book that captures estonian history as well as post-modernist attitudes, without the ironic distancing that makes so many such works cold. Unt's other books in english are also well worth finding.

[Raa mses · Rating 1 out of 5]

المترجم عايز ضرب النار بصراحه.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I am going to Estonia, I thought I'd read some Estonian literature. This was fantastic! Here is a small sample:

'An informer,' whispers one Social Democrat to another.
'Whose?' asks Brecht, on his guard, suddenly managing to understand the Finnish language in some mysterious way. Actually, the Social Democrats are not speaking Finnish. They are using the Swedish language, which resembles German somewhat. That is how Brecht manages to understand.
--------------------------
'How d'you mean?' asks Brecht.
'I came from Estonia.'
'What d'you mean, Estonia? Why?'
Brecht is beginning to understand that the world is even more confusing than he could ever have imagined. But he doesn't show his perplexity. He listens politely, as Hella continues.
I'm an Estonian, explains Hella, the Estonians speak the Estonian language and I was born and brought up in Estonia and came to Helsinki to go to the university.
'Didn't what you term Estonia have its own universities?'
'There was one, but I wanted to come here.'

[Cooper Renner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not flawless, but remarkable enough to be five stars. If a tiny nation like Estonia (less than 1.5 million people) can produce an author like Mati Unt, why can't more than 20 million Texans produce a dozen or more authors of this caliber? A sort of historical novel, about Bertolt Brecht's time in Finland, on the run from "What's-His-Name" (Hitler), but distinguished not primarily by its source documentation, but by its tone, its sense of humor, its point of view. Bravo.

[Heba Tariq · Rating 2 out of 5]

حسيت ان الخلل في الترجمة ، بس فكرة الكتاب فعليا حلوة .

[Ragnar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Romaan algab klassikalises ilukirjanduslikus võtmes kuidas BB ehk Bertholt Brecht saabub pagulasena oma kaaskonnaga Soome, Hella Wouolijoki (kirjutanud näituseks Niskamäe naised) juurde. Sisse hakkab tulema põikeid II ilmasõja kronoloogiasse, siis omakorda lahatakse, kuidas NL Eesti anastas ning mis oli Eesti võtmefiguuride ning kultuuritegelaste saatus.

Unt hüppab ka Aleksis Kivi "7 venna" motiividesse ning kirjutab kirja Maria Avdjuškole, ehk siis üsnagi eklektiline kompott jällegi.

Huvitav oli teada saada:

Venelased kutsusid eestlasi tšuhnaadeks, mis tähendab "võõrast", lätlased igauniks, mis tähendab "minema aetu". Soomlased kutsuvad virolaisteks, mis tähendab "piirimaa elanikku".

[Robert Wechsler]

A third-person limited (with many historical inserts) book about Bertold Brecht in Finland in 1940. I liked the idea, much of the humor, and the author’s cleverness in going between narrative and history. However, I found that the book was undermined by the author’s depiction of Brecht as a fool and a jerk, and too little attention given to those around him. I also found the book grew tiresome (particularly its narrative voice), and the writing for the most part is uninteresting, although there are wonderful passages. I put the book down at page 50, but I’m glad I tasted it.

[Steven Felicelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ungenerous to the point of being an attack on Brecht. Mildly amusing, but Unt overestimates the reader's retrospective interest in the pre-war politics of his native Baltic region (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, et al)

[Burcu]

Kisa bir Turkce degerlendirme (A brief review in Turkish):

https://wanderlustpress.net/2017/04/0...

"Belgesel Roman," Postmodern İroni, Bir Anti-Kahraman Olarak Brecht

[!Tæmbuŝu]

Reviewed by Powell's Review-a-Day, The Complete Review

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can really relate to brecht's being driven insane by dialectical thinking

[Stu the reader allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

a wonderful piece of post modernism

[Lisa of Hopewell]

I learned of this book via this blog post: https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/201...