The Director
A Novel
-
-
4.3 • 30 Ratings
-
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR • AN NYPL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A Washington Post NOTABLE BOOK
A Late Show with Stephen Colbert Book Club Pick
“Nothing short of brilliant.” —The Wall Street Journal
From “a surpassingly gifted storyteller” (The New York Times), a visionary novel inspired by the life of film director G.W. Pabst, who fled to Hollywood to resist the Nazis only to return to his homeland to create propaganda films for the German Reich.
An artist’s life, a pact with the devil, and the dangerous illusions of the silver screen.
G.W. Pabst, one of cinema’s greatest directors of the 20th century, was filming in France when the Nazis seized power. To escape the horrors of the new and unrecognizable Germany, he fled to Hollywood. But now, under the blinding California sun, the world-famous director suddenly looks like a nobody. Not even Greta Garbo, the Hollywood actress whom he made famous, can help him.
When he receives word that his elderly mother is ill, he finds himself back in his homeland of Austria, which is now called Ostmark. Pabst, his wife, and his young son are suddenly confronted with the barbaric nature of the regime. So, when Joseph Goebbels—the minister of propaganda in Berlin—sees the potential for using the European film icon for his directorial genius and makes big promises to Pabst and his family, Pabst must consider Goebbels’s thinly veiled order. While Pabst still believes that he will be able to resist these advances, that he will not submit to any dictatorship other than art, he has already taken the first steps into a hopeless entanglement.
Kehlmann’s latest oeuvre explores the complicated relationships and distinctions between art and power, beauty and barbarism, cog and conspirator.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tyll author Kehlmann offers a clear-eyed and propulsive chronicle of Austrian filmmaker G.W. Pabst (1885–1967), whose achievements included launching the careers of Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks before he reluctantly collaborated with the Nazis. As an expat in 1930s Hollywood, Pabst enjoys a reputation as a gifted artist and is eager to continue working. His latest idea is a parable for the rise of fascism in Europe, but his pitch doesn't sell, and he's reduced to making a superficial romance. He returns to his native Austria with his wife and their son after learning that his mother's health has declined. But the homecoming is an unpleasant one, as the Nazis have just taken over. Pressure on Pabst escalates after Germany invades Poland and he's summoned to Berlin, where he's coerced into making propaganda films. Though he survives WWII, his reputation is stained by his complicity with the Nazis. Kehlmann is especially effective at illustrating the ease with which people accept the realities of living in a violent police state. As one of Pabst's colleagues puts it to him, "You have to be extremely careful not to say anything wrong, even more so since the beginning of the war. But once you get used to it and know the rules, you feel almost free." It's a searing look at the mechanics of complicity.
