“Karl and the Twentieth Century” is the story of a man within the record of the times in which he lived, from birth to death. It is by an Austrian called Rudolf ###runngraber and it is issued here by Morrow in a translation ###den and Cedar Paul. It has a double-edged fascination and, ### as it is, I am not at all surprised to learn that Jacob Was-###mann read it through at one sitting. Every chapter is rich ###vivid.
### child is born toward the end of ### twentieth century to an Austrian ###ant maid and a soldier who, at ### time of birth, is serving a sen-###e in military disciplinary bar-###s. The mother is a drudge, the ###er a wastrel and a drunkard.
### we observe the life of this ###tched trinity as a minute speck ### the life of the times. You may ### miss the story of Karl Lakner as ### minor account, but you cannot ###smiss the record of social, political ### military history which is one of ### chief justifications for “Karl ### the 20th Century.” And yet ###h part serves, in differing de###es, to enrich and embellish the ###er. If the story of Karl Lakner ### his parents were excluded, the ###ok would still be fat with its con-###nt of social history, but the story ### Karl serves to leaven that huge ###ass of matter. Mr. Brunngraber #talizes, impregnates his mass of ###story and statistics with his own ###scinated interest in them. His ### personal material has something ###f the interest which attaches to the ###uman tragedy of Karl, while the ###ory of Karl itself derives a kind ###f glamor from the spectacle of ###orld history in which it is set. No ###ne can read the chapter on the war, ###ntitled Explosion, without deriving ###rom it, in capsuled form, a dramatic record of what the war meant ###o the world and to a typical atomic ###art of it, in the person of a human ###eing. For the benefit of those to ###hom such things mean something, it may be of interest to know that “Karl and the 20th Century” was awarded the Julius Reich prize. It is nevertheless, as indicated, a book well worth your reading.
H.S.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
