After reading and enjoying The Scenic Route so much (review to follow in the fall issue of Eclectica) I went looking at the library for other books by Binnie Kirshenbaum and found Hester Among the Ruins which again, blew my mind.
This time up the narrator is Hester, a historian and author who in looking for a new book subject lands on German professor Heinrich Falk. Originally planning to ask his advice on European history she ends up becoming his mistress and deciding to write about his life, as "the German Everyman". The idea is to look at the German generation who grew up in the shadow of WWII - knowing generally what happened, but not wanting to ask their families specifically what they did. It is the sort of kitchen table history Hester excels at but she is hampered both by her immense attraction to Heinrich (who is married) and her own struggles with her family history as the daughter of German Jews who independently fled to America in the early years of the war. The more she thinks she is in control the less she proves to be and then there are all the questions about Heinrich's family and what they might have done and her parents and where they might have been and in all that history Hester unravels. But because this is a book by Binnie Kirshenbaum, the unraveling is brilliant to watch and the language - the narrative - the little bits of history and literature and tour guide excerpts (including multiple postcards) - are fabulous.
It's raw and sexy (as sex is a big part of why Hester is attracted to Heinrich) and incredibly intimate. But it's not so much a love story as it is about parents and children; in fact that is totally what it is about. What's so interesting is that Heinrich, for all his lies and philandering, becomes someone to admire for how he loved his parents (all the parents are deceased) but Hester, the good and dutiful daughter, must face some devastating truths about herself and how she still feels about her mother and father. It breaks your heart as she finds her truth and makes you pause a moment or two as you consider what you would think and what you would do and maybe - awfully - what you have done.
This is grown-up fiction in the best sense of the word - now I'm off to see what else I can find from one of my now favorite authors.
