Klaus

by Allan Massie

This is the story of Klaus Mann, son of Thomas and a bold political activist who strove beyond his father’s shadow to become an important author. Klaus was an exile, forced abroad while the Nazis defiled his homeland; a homosexual in a time of bigotry and intolerance; a heroin addict slithering between recovery and relapse. Above all he was a writer.Allan Massie vividly imagines Klaus’s final days — traipsing from cafe to bar in the haze of his various vices, replaying a lifetime of affairs and relationships while he toils over an unfinished manuscript. Encounters with family, old flames and famous literary figures reveal the stems of his fragile state. References to Mephisto, his most famous work and the battle for its German publication expose the bitter fall-out with Gustaf Grundgens, his brother-in-law and ex-lover.With compassion, familiarity and subtle prose, we are lead into Klaus’s Mind and discover the dashed hopes and inner turmoil of a flawed, singular character. Beyond the addictions and entanglements, Massie explores one writer’s struggle for identity and recognition in a time of historical and personal crisis.

Genres: Literary Fiction

115 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 31, 2010

About the author

Allan Massie was a Scottish journalist, sports writer and novelist. He was one of Scotland's most prolific and well-known journalists, writing regular columns for The Scotsman, The Sunday Times (Scotland) and the Scottish Daily Mail. He was the author of nearly 30 books, including 20 novels. He is notable for novels set in the distant past and Vichy France.

Reviews

[Hugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book I picked up on a whim, just because the subject looked interesting and because Massie was familiar to me as a reviewer. It is a stylish, elegiac and very personal novella that examines the life of Klaus Mann, a writer who never escaped the shadow of his famous father Thomas Mann ("The Magician"), and also an anti-Fascist campaigner. It recreates a lost artistic milieu, and covers his struggles to come to terms with homosexuality, depression, money problems and addiction in a climate much more hostile than the present. I suspect I'd have got more out of it if I'd read anything by Klaus Mann first - it is clearly a labour of love.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very beautiful and honest and moving novella dealing with the last few days in the life of Klaus Mann the wayward, talented - but not talented enough - unhappy son of Thomas Mann who never really managed to find a role after WWII - one of the most poignant moments in the novella is when Klaus goes to visit his family in California - he is a European lost in a world totally alien to him. Allan Massie is a really great writer and I urge you, if you have not read anything by him yet, to start here and then move on to his many other wonderful books.

[Alistair · Rating 4 out of 5]

During the northern Spring of 1949 Klaus Mann restlessly transfers from one hotel to another, from one country to another. Two countries he cannot go to are his native Germany or his adopted land America : as he says "you can't go home". Klaus is also exiled from his father Thomas (The Magician), and his beloved mother Mielein and sister Erika. His despair is palpable; Mephisto has failed to find a publisher in Germany, and he sees himself as a second rate writer, forever in the shadow of his famous father. Reduced to alcohol and drugs, Massie has done a superb job evoking Klaus' hopelessness in the last days of his life. Melancholic rather than sad or depressing this an excellent achievement.

[Jack Deighton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is an exploration of the last days of Klaus Mann, son of Thomas Mann. Klaus’s life was always lived somewhat in the shadow of his father, who is often referred to here as The Magician.
Klaus’s homosexuality is made obvious to us from the start as on page one he is in bed with a young man but has just woken from a dream about his childhood home, now at best a ruin, but in any case one that can never be returned to. That dream brings thoughts of his elder sister Erika with whom Klaus had a close relationship. As young adults the pair had been intimate with their fellow actors Pamela Wedekind and Gustaf Gründgens. Erika and Pamela had been lovers, as too for a short time were Klaus and Gustaf. Nevertheless, Klaus got engaged to Pamela and Erika married Gustaf. Neither relationship lasted.
As a homosexual and an anti-fascist in a country and time (Nazi Germany) where to be either was dangerous, Klaus’s days in his homeland were numbered; as were Erika’s. Klaus eventually arrived in the US. He joined the US army in 1943 and became a contributor to Stars and Stripes, producing one of the first reports of the extermination camps.
Klaus’s 1936 novel Mephisto was a slightly disguised account of Gustaf’s career as an actor which not only did not cease under Nazism, it thrived. After Gustaf’s death his adopted son sued the publisher to have Mephisto removed from sale.
Considerations such as this, along with Klaus’s drug use, money troubles and his homosexuality, put him under strain. The relatively short book is filled with reminiscences about his youth and reflections on his present, the burden of which along with his estrangement from his homeland are too much to bear.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novella but not an easy read. Based on last few days of the life of Thomas Mann's son. sad but beautifully written.

[Vagabond Voices · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The tale of Klaus Mann's final days is, however, tremendously interesting, a warning and an example. Aspiring authors should read it. They'd do worse than study Massie's craftsmanship, which is evident thoughout this collection." – Colin Waters, Scottish Review of Books

"Allan Massie is a master storyteller, with a particular gift for evoking the vanishing world of the European man of letters. His poignant novella about Klaus Mann bears comparison with his subject's best work." – Daniel Johnston, editor of Standpoint

[Book Dragon Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love books that consume my whole mind.

[World Literature Today]

This book was featured in the Nota Benes section of the March/April 2015 issue of World Literature Today Magazine.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2...