BookTalk.org

After reading this post modern novel, several questions pop up in my mind
-Can reality be so relative? can happiness be found in a concentration camp?
The protagonist suffers deprivation in many forms: freedom, hunger, medical care, etc. He is also discriminated within the prisoners and forced to work long hours in total uncertainty.
I would like to discuss the title: Fatelessness
On page 259 Georg states:
"I made it clear to them that we can never start a new life, only ever carry on the old one. I took the steps, no one else, and I declared that I have been true to my given fate throughout."
We could infer that he (a teenager) believes in every experience in a source of learning to build the type of person you are. Later on the same page he questions himself: "Why did they not wish to acknowledge that if there is such a thing as fate, then freedom is not possible?..()..--if there is such a thing as freedom, then there is no fate; that is to say--and I paused, but only long enough to catch my breath--that it to say, then we ourselves are fate, i realized all at once, but with a flash of clarity I had never experienced before"

I think this idea of living each step at the time to experience our fate or freedom (depending on the way we want to take it) also refers to understand that life, meaning happiness, pain, deprivation or joy happen in each minute, not in the past or the future.

I reviewed this when I read it a couple of years ago
http://johnandsheena.co.uk/books/?p=1664

I don't see why happiness cannot be found in a concentration camp anymore than depression can be found when you have every need met. Emotions are so very subjective.

And I think our present experience of happiness is very much shaped not only by our memories of the past but also what our vision of our future is too.

Thank you for you reply and link. I it is interesting to see how effective kertesz is in provoking the reader. Gyuri teaches us another perspective of what fate is! I hope my students can get and reflect upon this ideas...
Carla

and it's all the more remarkable a book because it is written by a survivor of the camps themselves. Only a survivor could dare to say such things like “I would like to live a little bit longer in this beautiful concentration camp.”

There are several books from concentration camps survivor. One of the things that makes this book unique is that is narrated by a 15-year old