The Director by Daniel Kehlman

 

This is a fictionalized account of the life of famous director G.W. Pabst, a German living during the time of World War II.  Pabst was a famous director who had discovered Greta Garbo and made her famous in his films.  He was living in France when the Nazis took power in Germany and he and his wife and son immigrated to the United States and Hollywood.

But his fame did not translate.  No one wanted to give him work and when he had a great idea for a film, he was told he would have to make a film the studio heads wanted with actors he couldn't pick before they could talk about the film he wanted to make.  The film was a flop as Pabst anticipated and the family decided to go back to where his mother was living in land that the Germans had taken over.

They returned to find disaster.  His mother was much sicker than they had anticipated and the servants were running the house rather than serving.  They intimidated the family into living in the servants quarters and fed them less and less as food became scarce, consuming the rations themselves.  When a high-ranking Nazi came to visit Pabst, he requested that the family move to Berlin and that Pabst make movies for the government.  They offered money, a good apartment, care for his mother and just to make sure Pabst would obey, veiled threats as to what could happen to those who did not cooperate.

Pabst detested the government but thought he could remain independent and do his work unbothered.  He continued to make films until the end of the war, and many were masterpieces.  While his work was supported, he became more and more entangled with the government as thinking that he could avoid them and that the world would understand was idealistic and wrong.

Daniel Kehlman is a German Austrian novelist and playwright whose book Measuring The World is the book with the highest sales since 1985 and who has been nominated twice for the International Booker Prize, once for this novel and once for Tyll.  His works are far ranging, each one researching and discussing varied topics as opposed to some authors who seem stuck in a rut with one character or situation for much of their career.  G.W. Pabst was a real person and the book explores how one can fool oneself into doing wrong in order to achieve the goals that are obtainable only by compromise.  While Pabst never became a Nazi, his son is young when they move to Berlin and is caught up in the Nazi recruitment and sent to battle the Russians when he is still young, another sacrifice Pabst did not expect when he made his deal with the government.  There is so much to think about with this novel and I know I'll be rereading it as it is an amazing novel and exploration about how what we do rather than what we say we believe defines our lives.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.