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Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann - 4.5* - My Review

Tyll is reimagining of the legend of the German folk character Tyll Ulenspiegel. Tyll is a performer with many talents, such as rope-walking, juggling, and singing. He is also a trickster known for exposing hypocrisy and foolishness This story places Tyll within the context of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), a time of catastrophic upheaval in central and eastern Europe. The storyline mixes myth with history. The characters wander through a real historic landscape. Villages are disappearing, populations are being decimated, and the views of religion and social order are changing dramatically. Disease is rampant. There are also talking donkeys and cures using dragon’s blood (or at least that’s what is commonly believed). Tyll performs the role of court jester and his art becomes a form of resistance and survival.

The structure is fragmented and nonlinear. It is episodic, almost like a series of short stories, with Tyll as the common link. There are many embedded literary references, especially to Shakespeare, which I enjoyed immensely. It begins by focusing on Tyll as a nomadic performer, just before the start of the Thirty Years War, then immediately provides his backstory as a child who is left alone in the forest due to his mother’s impending childbirth. It then moves among different (real) historical people and time periods of the war. Tyll is sometimes as central figure, and other times only on the periphery. We see events through the eyes of peasants, nobility, scholars, and soldiers, and each group experiences and remembers history differently.

The novel constantly probes the nature of truth, which is crucial (but almost impossible to maintain) in times of turmoil. The author employs humor throughout as a much-needed respite to the more serious scenes of war, religious persecution, torture, and bloodshed. Tyll is a slippery character. He is part-human, part-legend. He has survived beyond a normal lifespan, and he walks the line between realistic character and mythological archetype. Kehlmann's prose is playful and changes in style to fit the scene (I read the English translation by Ross Benjamin).

Tyll is a sophisticated historical fiction that spurs questions relevant to today’s world. How do individuals maintain their humanity amid systematic dehumanization? How do we distinguish truth from propaganda in times of turmoil? Can art provide meaning when religious and political systems fail? How do societies remember (or misremember) collective trauma?

While it is set during the Thirty Years' War, the reader does not need a detailed understanding of this conflict to appreciate it (though I’m sure to be reading up on its history soon). It is only necessary to know that the war devastated the region and left lasting religious and political divisions. Don’t let the history angle put you off. The book is accessible and entertaining. I found it surprisingly hopeful. It is ultimately about survival, not only for individuals like Tyll, but also the survival of meaning, art, and human connection. This is only my second time reading Daniel Kehlmann’s work. I am very impressed.

4.5