While cataloging my library I came across a paperback edition of Irmgard Keun's Nach Mitternacht. I have no idea how or when I acquired the book, or why I hadn't read it. But I am happy I (re)discovered it.
Irmgard Keun achieved fame in the waning days of the Weimar Republic with two books, Gigli, eine von uns and Das kunstseidene Mädchen. Both became bestsellers, and Keun was celebrated in Berlin by Kurt Tucholsky and others. American readers can find a new translation of Das kunstseidene Mädchen - The Artificial Silk Girl - on Amazon, but After Midnight - Nach Mitternacht - will be more difficult to locate. Shortly after achieving success with her two books, the Nazis came to power and condemned Keun's work as Asphaltliteratur and Keun could no longer make a living as a writer in Germany. She must have been a fearless woman, since she filed a lawsuit against the Nazi government for "loss of livelihood"; the Nazis retaliated by issuing a death warrant for Irmgard Keun, but by then she had already slipped across the Dutch border. Nach Mitternacht was written in exile in 1936.
Nach Mitternacht replays the standard Keun theme of a young woman from the provinces who comes to the big city seeking adventure and love. This time, however, the young female protagonist - Sanna Moder - must negotiate a city where fear - the Nazi terror - is beginning to take root. Sanna is a typical fun-loving girl who thinks about her hair and make-up, while circumventing the Rassengesetze - the restrictions on consorting with Jews - or rebuffing amorous advances from SA thugs. Sanna moves in a brutalized society, where neighbors are denouncing neighbors to gain competitive advantage. But this everyday terror is filtered through the often humorous observations of the young woman. Through a flashback we learn that Sanna has had her own brush with Nazi terror: her own aunt had denounced her to the authorities, and there is a harrowing interrogation at the local Gestapo station. There is a climactic scene where Hitler comes to Frankfurt to deliver a speech and Sanna gets caught up in the ecstatic crowd. The latter part of the novel is comprised for the most part of long, cynical but despairing monologues of Sanna's writer friend Heini, who sees no future for himself in Germany. Heini is certainly the mouthpiece of Irmgard Keun's bitterness and anger as she observes the events in her homeland from exile. But Nach Mitternacht runs out of steam at this point; Heini's despair is not nearly as interesting as Sanna's breezy humor. Still, as an actual portrayal of everyday life in the early days of the NS period, Nach Mitternacht is an important novel.
An interesting footnote: Nach Mitternacht was made into a feature film in 1981 and Irmgard Keun has a cameo appearance as a cafe patron. She died just a few months later at the age of 77.
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