observer.co.uk
Ruth Rehmann, German literature's lost illusionist
Inside a gleaming office building four workers gather their belongings and prepare to leave the self-contained kingdom to which they pledge fealty. One window cleaner, a circus worker on sabbatical, cavorts in the air as he performs his labour. He is uniquely capable of viewing these employees, whose dichotomous dual existences – the will to duty and the allure of individualism – battle against each other. From 1947 until 1967, German authors began to gather annually to embark on the rearticulation of what literature might look like after the Second World War. Founded by Hans Werner Richter, Group 47 held discussions and readings of new work, voting for the best example. Although the group’s influence was profound, producing Nobel winners Günter Grass and Peter Handke, its women writers were not accorded their due notice. As a result, Illusions, the debut novel by Ruth Rehmann (1922-2016), has been largely forgotten. Faber’s choice to reissue this beguiling work is important not only to celebrate a singular and neglected author, but also because Illusions is brutally insightful on matters that haunt western society now as they did postwar. Here, Rehmann grapples on the most ambitious scale with what compels the human heart toward...
