Het tegenwindschip

by Jaan Kross

Het tegenwindschip, waarmee je tegen de wind in kunt zeilen, was de dierbaarste uitvinding van Bernhard Schmidt, die in deze roman over zijn leven vertelt en anderen jaren later op hem laat terugkijken. Tegenwind ondervond Schmidt genoeg. De Est met de Duitse naam was weliswaar de uitvinder van een revolutionaire spiegeltelescoop, maar hij was ook een man die bijna zijn hele leven een hand moest missen, een buitenstaander en een autodidact, die door de buitenwacht vooral als een soort tovenaar werd gezien.

We zien Schmidt zijn hand verliezen op het eiland van zijn jeugd en we zien hem zijn grote liefde ontdekken. Schmidts leven speelt zich af tijdens de nadagen van tsaristisch Rusland en onder de Weimarrepubliek, maar het is uiteindelijk de tegenwind van de nazi’s die hem tot waanzin zal drijven. In

Het tegenwindschip is Jaan Kross wederom onvermoeibaar op zoek naar wat mensen drijft en hoe ze zich handhaven in de marge van de grote geschiedenis.

Jaan Kross (1920-2007) startte zijn literaire carrière in de jaren vijftig na zijn terugkeer uit Siberië, waar hij acht jaar gedwongen woonde. Na zijn ballingschap specialiseerde hij zich in het genre van de historische roman. Kross wordt algemeen gezien als de grootste Estische schrijver van de twintigste eeuw.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Jaan Kross (1920 – 2007) was an Estonian writer. He has been tipped for the Nobel Prize for Literature on several occasions for his novels, but did in fact start his literary career as a poet and translator of poetry. On his return from the labour camps and internal exile in Russia, where he spent the years 1946-1954 as a political prisoner, Kross renewed Estonian poetry, giving it new directions.

Kross began writing prose in the latter half of the 1960s, first with a film scenario "A Livonian Chronicle" (Liivimaa kroonika) which dealt with the life of the author Balthasar Russow (1536-1600) and which also became the subject of his first masterpiece "Between Three Plagues" (Kolme katku vahel, 1970), a suit of four novels. From that time onwards Kross moved by stage nearer to our present time in history, describing figures from Estonian history, first in short stories and novellæ, later in novels, also in writings where he has drawn upon his own experiences. The heroes of his novels tend to be of Estonian or Baltic German origin and cultured people, though on the margins of society and are usually faced with a moral dilemma of some sort.

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5
Vielen Dank an Netgalley und den Osburg Verlag für das kostenlose Leseexemplar.
Für mich hat nur der direkte Handlungsstrang gut funktioniert. Das Thema und die Prämisse sind hoch interessant. Die Umsetzung fand ich etwas träge, weswegen ich für die Lektüre leider etwas länger gebraucht habe.

[Jos vdG · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biografische roman over de buitenissige Est en uitvinder Bernhard Schmidt tegen de achtergrond van de financiele crisis en opkomende fascisme in Duitsland voor WO2. Het leest makkelijk weg en is in een leuke stijl geschreven (dagboek in ik-vorm en interviews met mensen in zijn omgeving jaren later). Ik zocht wat extra informatie over hem en zijn uitvindingen op tijdens het lezen wat het boek nog boeiender maakte.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second Jaan Kross book, the first one I read I preferred to this and it is called "The Czar's Madman." I really loved that novel so I was looking forward to reading this one, as it is also a historical novel. This novel is about Bernhard Schmidt, the one-handed telescope inventor and lens polisher, whose inventions were used in Germany and California well into the late 20th century. There are two narrators in the book, Schmidt and the fictionalization of Kross himself, who interviewed people who knew Schmidt. This gives a layered quality to the book. Most of the book is from Schmidt's point of view and he moves through time, sometimes confusingly, from his time in Mittweida where he had a tortured love affair with Johanna, to his childhood on Naissaar Island in Estonia, to his time in Hamburg where he is a "voluntary collaborator" with a company where he can design telescopes. Schmidt is very good at telling us what he did but the reasons for it have to be guessed at and finagled from his story. He blames a lot on having one hand. He lost it in an accident when he was 15 and for the rest of his life it both spurs him on to success, he is the best polisher around, and is considered a genius, and he uses it as an excuse to remain distant from everyone, especially Johanna, whom he loves. But he says that he doesn't want to tie her down to a cripple.

Schmidt is not a liar, but he is not honest with himself about his motives and he is often blinded by his drinking, which takes more and more of his time. He is a brilliant man but lonely, and it is self-inflicted. People like him, they admire him, Johanna loves him, and yet he plays the martyr to himself. Schmidt may be physically maimed by having lost his hand, but he is emotionally maimed too and seems to have an identity crisis. He is Estonian with a German last name. During his life time Estonia has been part of Czarist Russia, independent, and soon to be taken over by Nazis. His nationality is even in more of a flux because he has spent his adult life in Germany, with occasional trips to Estonia. He doesn't feel at home anywhere. He is a tragic figure in a tragic time. The latter part of the book is about the Nazi build up and the violence that was growing and overtaking Jews and other foreigners. And even people who he considered his friends start rejecting him and being suspicious. His final self-destructive move is when the Soviets want to buy his telescope and he attempts it. I couldn't help but wonder if as much as he wanted to see his work come to fruition, he may have been playing suicide by Nazi. In some ways he does seem very naive, but it is hard to believe he thought he would get away with selling a potential military tool to the Soviets, under the nose of the Nazi regime.

The interviews are done by a nameless character who talks to Johanna and other people who knew Schmidt. They are enlightening, especially in the debate about if Schmidt is a genius or not. What is genius anyway? How is it defined, this elusive thing that seems to be connected with madness? I felt these interviews added a richness to the text that gets more and more depressing as it goes along with the starving Germans and the hyperinflation and the rise of the Nazis and their persecutions. The most moving parts of the book are those where Schmidt's persona is deliberately being analyzed by other characters in the interviews, and even some of the accidental give-aways that Schmidt makes, such as when he casually mentions that his boss handles his money for him.

I didn't always enjoy this read, but I admire the way Kross can use the exploration of a historical figure to also explore a very complicated and tragic time in history, and larger themes such as national identity and the role it plays in our personal identity and sense of self-worth.

[Anna-Mari Kaján · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jaan Krossin Vastatuulen laiva oli jännä kirja.

Kirjaa oli paikoitellen raskasta lukea ja monesti tuntui, että sitä olisi pitänyt lukea yhtämittaisesti kauemmin (kuin mihin iltaisin pystyn ennen nukahtamista). Jossain keskivaiheilla tuntui, että olen ihan pihalla. Paikoitellen taas kirjassa oli iso imu. Mutta kirja ei ollut siis aivan helppo luettava, sanottakoon se.

Jokin tässä kuitenkin kiehtoi. Ehkä kummallinen päähenkilö, johon ei synny oikein samastumispintaa. Mutta kyseessä ei ollut se, että päähenkilö olisi jotenkin lattea tai epäuskottava, kuten joskus huonoissa kirjoissa. Päinvastoin, päähenkilö on outo ja salaperäinen, vieras, hämmentävä. Kuten ilmeisesti oikea henkilö kirjallisen version takana.

Tällainen lukijan suhde päähenkilöön kiehtoo. Tuntuu tärkeältä lukea kirjoja, joiden henkilöt eivät vastaa jotain epämääräisiä omia odotuksia.

[Mikko Lähdesmäki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mielenkiintoinen teos Viron unohdetusta ja omintakeisesta suurmiehestä. Kroos on hyvin valaissut Scmidtin mahdollista ajatusmaailmaa. Teoksen juoni on aika lattea, mutta kirjasta mielenkiintoisen tekee Kroosin kuvailut hänen taustoituksi tekemistään töistä, jotka avaavat fiktion ja faktan välistä suhdetta.

[Sirkkis · Rating 3 out of 5]

En oikein jaksanut keskittyä. En aina pysynyt juonessa mukana, kun en jaksanut keskittyä.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder]

In Estonian language,Eesti keeles