Child of All Nations Book

When one commences reading Irmgard Keun's Kind aller Länder (Child of All Nations in English translations), one is struck almost immediately with and by the exquisite and evocative narrative voice of ten year old Kully. In many ways delightful and always simplistically approachable, Kully tells her story of basically being a "child of all nations" and thus never really at home anywhere with both natural and childlike innocence and with an astute power of observation that is not only interesting and educational but also often rather frightening and disconcertingly powerful and astounding for one so young (but for all that, author Armgard Keun also and thankfully never does slip into the danger of having Kully appear as an artificial child, read as an adult masquerading as a child, as no matter what Kully describes, no matter what she observes and presents to us as readers, she is always remains a ten year old with the attitudes and desires of a child).

Now considering the main thematics of Kind alter Länder, Kully's innocent narration does on the one hand somewhat mitigate the seriousness of the presented topics, namely the daily life, but mostly the often constant and serious financial struggles of a German artist/intellectual and his family in exile from the Nazis during the pre war period of the Third Reich (as Kully' father is a writer with strong political philosophies who has decided that it would be prudent to leave Germany after the National Socialists burned his books and imprisoned some of his friends). On the other hand however, Kully's unadorned and straight-forward simple observational skills also and often point out with incredible and simple clarity that especially with regard to her family, while the main or rather the underlying causes for the exile and resulting woes and problems are indeed the National Socialists' rise to power in Germany, there is also much over which to be both massively annoyed, frustrated and indeed infuriated with regard to especially and particularly the father's general carelessness and lack of even the most basic sense of responsibility.

For as much as Kind aller Länder is truly intriguing, informative and historically relevant, and as much as Kully's personality and observational acumen does brightly shine, I for one also tend to find this novel rather somewhat if not actually even majorly depressing and saddening, and the casual, often entitled selfishness of especially the father and the generally and for all intents and purposes annoyingly, absolutely submissive character of the mother to said selfishness and indifference at times nigh impossible to stomach, and really in at least some ways almost as infuriating and as anger producing as the fact that Kully and her family have been forced into exile by the Nazis, that they have been basically almost mandated (forced) into a bohemian life of uncertainty simply because her father's writing has made him, has made the family by extension, enemies of the state (at least according to the National Socialists and their acolytes and supporters).

And that Kully's father actually and indeed even generally seems to act more immature and childish than his ten year old daughter (but that he also hypocritically and strangely often rather harshly disciplines Kullly when she acts her age, when she acts as a child would or at least likely could act), that he regularly and with scant regret abandons his wife and daughter at the hotels where they had been staying whenever money becomes tight (having them face the wrath of the hotel management when payments cannot or can no longer be made), that the father also and often is more generous towards his many friends than to his nearest and dearest, all this and more leave a rather bitter taste in my mouth and certainly make me much less sympathetic towards especially the father as a person (and while I do much and certainly understand and appreciate the specific political and social reasons why Kully's family has had to leave Germany, why the family is in exile from the Nazis, much of the father's behaviour and his general careless and selfish attitudes towards life and towards his family do leave rather much to be desired, at least for me personally).

And although one can definitely see that Kully intensely loves her parents (both her mother and yes also her father), and would more than likely have been devastated had they followed her grandmother's advice and left Kully in her care when the father decided to leave Germany, to escape from the Nazis' reach, in some ways, when one considers the father's general rather laissez-faire attitudes and careless lack of foresight, the grandmother actually had legitimate reasons for wanting her granddaughter, for desiring Kully to remain with her and in her care (although considering what the Nazis are like, the Gestapo might well have decided to get hold of, to arrest Kully and her grandmother if they wanted her father and could no longer nab him because he had left Germany).

Now all the above having been said, I actually do very much appreciate how Irmgard Keun has both structured and conceptualised Kind aller Länder. The basic and root causes of Kully's and her family's exile (the reasons why they have had to leave Germany) are clearly, realistically delineated and presented (and are definitely portrayed as being first and foremost due to National Socialism and the fact that many many artists, intellectuals etc. along with their families, were suddenly and in some cases almost overnight so to speak no longer personae gratae in Germany).

But nevertheless, the author also and much appreciatively never loses sight of the salient and somewhat uncomfortable truth that while Kully's father, while Kully's family are indeed to be regarded as victims of the Nazis, Kully and her mother are also and indeed victims of the father's general and all encompassing casual and careless selfishness and immaturity, his general lack of will and that he is seemingly both unwilling and unable to provide even a modicum of an ordered and acceptable existence for his wife and daughter (and not really all that interested either). Highly recommended (and even with my four star rating, a well deserved spot on my "favourites" shelf, and a novel that I actually am already planning to reread sometime very soon), however basic fluency in German is strongly suggested (and while Kind aller Länder has been translated into English, I have, to date, only read the German original and thus cannot and will not provide any comments on the possible qualities of the English translations that are currently available).