Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Sorry, but I am going to bore you first with a few personal details of how I ended up buying ‘After Midnight’ by Irmgard Keun, before getting into what it was like.
Well, while on a short trip to Singapore, my aunt and her teen son decided to take me to Kinokuniya, the largest bookstore in the island nation. Now, as an Indian national, I had no intention of spending Singapore dollars on novels that would cost half the price back home, but you see, my cousin had coupons worth 40 dollars (an old birthday gift) for the store. So he bought two titles totaling 32 dollars for himself, which meant we were still left with 8 dollars. I picked up the slimmest, cheapest Penguin Classic on sale and had to pay an extra 2 dollars because ‘After Midnight’ cost 11 dollars. Not a bad deal.
But here’s where things get a little more interesting: since it is a super slim copy which easily fits into a small sling bag, I decide to carry ‘After Midnight’ with me to Germany. So I finally read it on a train from Frankfurt to Cologne (Köln), and it was only on that day that I finally read the blurb for the book:
Arrested in Cologne for remarking that the Führer looked sweaty, nineteen-year-old Sanna has fled to Frankfurt. But her troubles are far from over. Her best friend Gerti has fallen for a Jewish boy, her brother writes books that have been blacklisted, and her own aunt could turn her in to the authorities at any moment. Darkly humorous and utterly heart-rending, this gripping novel vividly captures the terror and hysteria of pre-war Nazi Germany.
It thrilled me to bits to know that I was traveling in reverse (Frankfurt to (Köln while reading the book. And here’s a little photo of my copy of ‘After Midnight’, translated by Anthea Bell, at a cafe in Köln, right across the city’s famed Cathedral. In retrospect, it feels like I should’ve taken a photo of the book with the gorgeous gothic Cathedral in the background, but if I had such a good sense of photography, I would’ve been a social media star by now.
The ‘After Midnight’ Review
“You can open an envelope and take out something which bites or stings, though it isn’t a living creature. I had a letter like that from Franz today.”
Those are the opening lines of ‘After Midnight,’ narrated by 19-year-old Sanna, who lives in Frankfurt with her writer brother. Franz is the boyfriend she leaves behind in Cologne after being arrested and then released by the secret police, having been reported by someone she knew. Terrified that she might not survive a second arrest, Sanna now finds herself navigating a world where anyone could denounce anyone else for a few brownie points with the Nazis. And World War II hasn’t even started.
What some readers may not like about ‘After Midnight’ is that Sanna often comes across as a privileged, bratty heroine who spends much of the novel drinking, partying, flirting, and generally enjoying herself while so much suffering unfolds around her. Yet that is precisely what others may find most fascinating about the book.
Rather than focusing solely on persecution and hardship, Keun offers a glimpse into how many upper-class Germans continued to live relatively normal, even comfortable lives despite the fear and paranoia of Nazi Germany. Of course, “normal” is a relative term. Sanna may be a white, upper-middle-class German, but she is still arrested simply for remarking that the Führer looks sweaty during his speeches. She genuinely fears for her future, worries about saying the wrong thing, getting reported by someone close, while attending parties and going out drinking every other night.
Even though the story unfolds in the years leading up to World War II, “After Midnight” often feels like a Jazz Age novel, reminiscent of the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. The parties, gossip, and romantic entanglements are all there, but Keun’s heroine is refreshingly different from many of Fitzgerald’s characters. Sanna may spend plenty of time thinking about Franz, yet she is never defined by the man in her life. Keun deliberately presents her as a somewhat lost young woman who frequently admits she doesn’t fully understand the political realities unfolding around her. Yet when it comes to taking charge of her own life, Sanna is far more decisive and proactive than Franz himself.
Through the parties, dinners, and social gatherings that Sanna attends, Keun introduces readers to a small cast of diverse characters, each offering a different perspective on life under the Nazi regime. There is the self-important journalist whose opinions seem to grow more pompous with every conversation, Sanna’s older brother, who becomes increasingly disillusioned as he can no longer write freely, and her volatile, deeply envious aunt, with whom Sanna temporarily stays in Cologne. There’s also a close love-struck friend, deeply in love with a Jewish boy, which is bound to create problems.
Together, these characters help paint a portrait of a society trying to maintain a sense of normalcy while steadily losing its freedoms. The novel’s climax takes a surprisingly dark turn, a reminder of how quickly lives can be upended in an atmosphere of fear, suspicion, and political repression. But instead of leaving readers in despair, Keun closes “After Midnight” on a cautiously hopeful note, with Sanna boarding a late-night train and setting off toward an uncertain future.
Rating for ‘After Midnight’: 4 stars on 5.
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