Being a woman often prompts me to think in a biased way. I somewhat cherish female authors while being a neutral critic of male authors. But when a female author presents a shady image of the female protagonist, I get lost in chaotic thoughts—struggling to rationalize reality and the idea created by that reality. While reviewing Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos, I am perplexed for this very reason.
Kairos – Background
After World War II, the defeated Axis power leader, Germany, was partitioned among the Allied nations—the USA, the UK, and the USSR. The capital city of Berlin was also tripartitioned. Eventually, under the rule of two contradictory ideologies, these twin parts became somewhat opposite, and so were the lives within them. The capitalist-ruled part became West Germany, and the Communist part became East Germany.
By the end of the Cold War, the victory of capitalism over socialism was reflected in the world through three major incidents:
- India’s economic liberalization reforms (LPG)
- The dissolution of the USSR gave rise to neo-liberal Russia
- The reunification of Germany, symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall—at the cost of East Germany’s very existence
Although the Western media portrayed the reunification of Germany as a pleasing byproduct of capitalism’s victory, in reality, there were real losses for East Germans, who lost everything they had ever known and believed as their nation—the earnings of a lifetime.
”The pits are getting darker and deeper as the road rises higher and higher. Here, I have to be biased with Katharina because I can never, ever understand Hans.
Zero Hour
The Story
Jenny’s story starts with an ordinary day in Katharina’s life, which becomes extraordinary for the protagonist as she receives a box of memories from Berlin. The box is filled exhaustively with the love of her and Hans, who has just passed away. After a long wait, when the boxes are finally opened one by one, she relives every moment of her past as the author narrates them.
Youthful Katharina meets the old writer Hans on a rainy day in East Berlin—their home. He is a family man with his wife, Ingrid, and a son. His family house and marriage bed are drenched in her presence when he carouses Katharina that night. From then on, their relationship grew into a long, rough mountain road grappling with East German political history and emotional complexity.
Katharina is increasingly subjected to Hans’s romance, where she loses herself and grows through pain. His continuous letdowns cause her to break down. Their meetings become overwhelming for her. Their days become ritualistic.
During her struggling survival days after Hans gives up on her, she ends up enjoying her life once again. For that beautiful moment on the opera theatre floor, the girls’ night with Rosa she lies down not just because of burning desire but with the determination to live beyond the smothering love fog around her. With Vadim and Rosa, she relieves her agonizing pain.
But the cost she has to pay for that beautiful survival is her integrity, and the chain of blame and shame she receives from Hans adds to the ritual. And he continues; she continues. They love, they hate, and they make love in the open forest, hidden from Ingrid’s eyes. And he blames her, shames her.
In parallel, East Germany is living its final days. Initially, Katherina finds West Germany, where her grandmother and relatives live, fascinating. She is amused by the way capitalism works on a demand-supply model. However, when the West starts engulfing the East both ideologically and politically, she realizes how her home has changed into a strange place. Hans is lost in the waves of reunification. He remains jobless, homeless, and hopeless for the rest of his life.
Nobody could stop the rostrum from shaking hands. The East Germans silently watched the plot that somebody else made for them. Their cries were silenced, and their struggles were chained. kairos Kairos
My Reading Experience
Reading Kairos was difficult for me, honestly. The novel constantly shifts between moods and subjects—from smooth and romantic to rough and factual, from emotions and love to politics and history—I often felt tired and struggled to keep pace with the story.
But I managed to keep going.
Thoughts on the Political Panorama of Kairos
When the author described how fallen East Germany was the home of some people and how they felt traumatized when their address vanished gradually, it was a blow against the Western propaganda that depicts East Germany as commonly hated and West Germany as a paradise.
People crossed the Berlin Wall many times during the Cold War era. However, the idea that everybody hated the socialist way of life and communism is truly impractical—it is a version promoted by capitalists. In a largely unipolar world, we may not get many opportunities to hear the other side. Writers like Jenny open a new discussion for generations who never had to witness the truth but must learn it from books.
I was so happy to read the book from that perspective.
Thoughts on the Emotional Outlay of Kairos
I am not sure if the author had a side in the story. All along, she took the role of a narrator without biases. Although I couldn’t. I have been in Katharina’s shoes, as my country is also traversing ideological turmoil while I am emotionally skipping between lifelines—falling all the way down into pits, climbing out, picking up the pace, and again falling hard.
The pits are getting darker and deeper as the road rises higher and higher. Here, I have to be biased with Katharina because I can never, ever understand Hans. He left her at one point. He denied her every right to be the girlfriend every woman wants to be. She never demanded anything from him. She was happy when he tied her hands and struck her. She enjoyed the pain, and later, the pain became her enjoyment. Whereas he kept her on an emotional rollercoaster.
He denied her existence. He kept her in limbo. He made her wait on the veranda of his flat while he tried to reconcile with his wife. She never had expectations or demands. But after the day he gave up on her, and she finally had a revival behind the opera curtains with Vadim, he blamed her. He rejoiced in long cassette recordings full of her faults. She was supposed to take notes and reply to each of his accusations.
She was not a slave. Neither am I. We are not slaves to your confusion and emotional instability. We deserve better. I am biased.
Conclusion
You can erase East Germany from the maps. But you can never, ever destroy the idea of being East German. Whatever propaganda tools or publicity machinery you have, we live, and we penetrate your polygons, catch you, and leave you for public audit.
Katharinas will continue to exist to box and unbox Hanses, just like the way socialism—now mostly theoretical—still infuses fear among capitalists
