NYRB Classics discussion

[This is the Topic for the January/February read of book:Effingers|223641781] by Gabriele Tergit translated
by Sophie Duvernoy 864pp

Three generations of German Jewish family undergo the tumult, upheaval, and brutality of nineteenth- and twentieth-century history in this panoramic and skillfully nuanced family drama, rich with gossip and incident, capturing a Germany now lost to time.

Gabriele Tergit’s Effingers is a novel both epic and intimate as it chronicles the lives and fates of three generations of a German Jewish family. Beginning from 1878—the year after the narrative of Buddenbrooks ends—and ending in 1948, we follow the Effingers, a family of modest craftsmen from southern Germany, who are joined through marriage to two families of high-society financiers in Berlin, the Goldschmidts and the Oppners.

The Effingers soon rise to prominence as one of the most important German industrialist families in Berlin, but with the outbreak of World War I, they fall on hard times, and must then navigate the tumultuous changes of the Weimar Republic.

Full of parties and drama and the most delicious gossip, and featuring a kaleidoscopic cast of unforgettable characters, Effingers is a vibrant and keenly observed account of German Jewish life in all its richness and complexity. Tergit’s journalistic precision and limpid prose dazzle in Sophie Duvernoy’s elegant, fluid translation.

Criminally underrated when it first came out in 1951, and only in recent years undergoing rediscovery, Effingers is a searching meditation on identity and nationality that establishes Tergit as one of the most significant writers of the twentieth century.

I will not begin this novel till January but thought I would open the topic to post the review from The Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

I started a few days ago and am about 120 pages (or 20%) in. Indeed, lots of parties, strong characters, I am reminded of Elsa Morante at times also because we read it at the same period last year.

But this also quite interesting perspectives on the economy - it's still the 1880s in Bismarck Germany, but the debates about industrialisation (compared to todays debates on German deindustrialisation), mass production vs tailor-made, support existing sectors vs betting on new ones are all fascinating given this was written in the 1950s and not today.

Reviews:
M.A Orthofer from The Complete Review blog always gives information packed reviews with links to reviews as well. I won't read the review till finished but this will be my first stop after.

https://www.complete-review.com/revie...

This review from the Wiener holocaust Library has links for further reading on subject:

https://wienerholocaustlibrary.org/20...


https://www.thejc.com/life/books/good...

https://inotherworlds.org/the-effinge...

Biography of Tergit:

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/...

Video lecture on book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRS6F...

Just received my book and looking forward to it! It's been a long time since I've read a long novel and I hope we can keep a discussion going on this one as we go along.

I just began the novel today. Since we are extending the novel over two months, I will probably read a few chapters every day or so. Today I read the first 10 chapters. I was just trying to get acquainted with the author's style and approach but I enjoyed the period descriptions of Germany and like Ruben the discussion of industrialization as industry is moving from a traditionally skill based practice to that of a numbers driven mass production with the main intent on profit. But what lingers most is the sense of foreboding, since we know from history what is yet to come. Feel free to add observations as we go along. I have a busy month so my read is for pleasure. I won't be doing a study of the novel or dig too deep when confronted with material I don't fully understand, so all thoughts are welcome.

I'm about that far in also. At this point, it seems to be just setting the stage. It will be interesting to see if they can make a screw factory exciting or dramatic!

Great you have started. I actually just finished today. I won't spoil, except to say that it is a FANTASTIC novel and I am so glad I read it. It will stay with me for a very long time.

This sounds like a fascinating and important novel, but I have The Oppermans and I don’t know when I would get to it or the even longer Effingers, but Ruben’s comments are making it hard to resist.

There seem to be a lot of novels about multigenerational Jewish families in early 20th century Germany. I read The Family Carnovsky a few years ago, and while I liked it a lot, I'm just not sure how many of these epics I have in me.

Both The Oppermans and The Carnovsky's sound excellent. I had not heard of either.

I wonder how much the 'dread' factor plays a role in us readers appreciating these novels... Knowing how this Jewish world came to an abrupt end sure adds drama (and I don't mean that ironically at all) and as such impacts the reading experience.

I have been taking my time with this since I have been finding I wish to mull about the material abit after I read it. Chapters focus on a episode, scene, or topic, and the novel coheres into a whole as we process that material in our minds. I like this style but if I do not read slowly down, I find I miss too much and that can cripple the experience for me. A little later I will move faster as I eventually remember the characters and get a sense of what is going on. The novel assumes a certain level of education or knowledge from the reader, and one can chase numerous things mentioned by the author down rabbit holes of research, but as the book moves along, I feel we will get a better sense of what is essential to follow further and what can ignored. The author's tone can be hard to gauge because at times she is straightforward and at other times critical or mocking. For example, the list of titles of Professor Wendlein's paintings, all named "The Death of...," some famous figure, seemed to be very intentionally mocking to me but to what degree the humor is supposed to be taken is difficult for me to ascertain because it is also understated.

There have been comparisons to other books like Buddenbrooks and those named above but I am finding it very much reminds in style of Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl by Uwe Johnson, a book I have still yet to finish. The style of chapters as building blocks assembling into a novel as a puzzle is assembled from pieces is the same.

I am going to push myself a little harder toward the end of the month to get more of the book behind me. My chapter or two every couple of days is not going to get the book finished. How is everyone else doing?

Completed this yesterday. An epic tome and even though I knew historically what the outcome would be just felt saddened.

Rich in detail and perspective - time well spent IMO.

I'm just posting an update to my progress with the novel. I am at 50% and shall continue at the rate of 3-5 chapter a day till I finish. I am finding the novel very engaging with plenty of historical mentions that send me down rabbit holes chasing more information. The stylistic technique of using a gathering such as a party to visit the various characters as they engage and speak on different topics throughout the gathering to push the narrative and fill out the epic sense of what is happening beyond them is a favorite technique which I saw best done by Thomas Mann in Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family. A similar technique where Tergit has chapters that consist of multiple short bits of prose depicting what is happening to various characters at roughly the same time is also quite interesting. I do not remember that done as well in quite the way Tergit is doing it previously.

Such a different approach than other books I have read on similar themes- less of a stark tragedy than concentration camps but catastrophic family impacts are clear throughout whether successfully exiled or too late to do so. Lots of loose ends, never tied up.

Dianne wrote: "Such a different approach than other books I have read on similar themes- less of a stark tragedy than concentration camps but catastrophic family impacts are clear throughout whether successfully ..."

I haven't quite gotten to where you are Diane. In fact I paused my reading after I reached the chapter where the first world war ends. I will be continuing over the weekend. It seemed a proper to pause before the last stretch.


I find the the author's writing approach challenging. Because her writing is so concise, and my detailed knowledge of historical specifics so limited, I could go off exploring Wikipedia for something from almost every page of the novel. For the most part, I have tried to restrain myself so as not to spoil the rhythm of the novel. But when I have let myself pursue further information it has been fun. I did not remember hearing the term, "water-glassing eggs," before and that sent me off looking for more information. I only wished for a clearer explanation but I would up watching a couple of videos, reading some blogs, and even considering my own experiment till I read that store bought eggs were washed and that removed a coating on the egg that helped prevent bacterial contamination. So to make the point, I have to be picky about further reading or I would never get through this novel.

I have finished and took a couple of days to consider what I read. First, let me congratulate all that have finished the novel. This was a demanding read for those that need to research all the details mentioned. I rated the book five stars, first, based on the author's approach that has already been mentioned, which focused so much more on the lives of the characters before the end we know is coming rather than overweighting the novel with horrors of that end. Second, I liked how the author styled the novel using techniques like I noted in an earlier post.

I am glad members raised the role of our anticipated dread in our appreciation of the novel. It definitely plays a part I think. I had expected more focus on the horrors so I was surprised that they were not exaggerated, but I wonder how "trained,' my expectations have become based on all the other literature and content I have seen. I felt Tergit's approach made what happened seem more like a human issue with contributing political and economic factors instead of something unique in history or an exclusive product of antisemitism.