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PEN World Voices: Conversation: Jeffrey Eugenides & Daniel Kehlmann report

by literary saloon on May 05, 2008

The only Daniel Kehlmann-novel available in English is Measuring the World (though Ich und Kaminski is due out in translation in November); it doesn’t seem to have been quite as successful here as elsewhere (30-some-odd weeks on the Taiwanese bestseller lists, he mentioned—as well as topping the German lists for over a year), but at least that gave conversation-partner Jeffrey Eugenides a solid point of focus. And since Eugenides only has two (published) novels under his belt—Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides—they could concentrate on these few titles between them.

Eugenides noted that they had met on a panel last year, but an overzealous moderator seems not to have let them get too many words in edgewise (that would be this panel, where even the German newspapers complained about how much Michael Naumann liked the sound of his own voice ...) so for this event they were flying solo, just two writers talking about writing. But they did come prepared: they opted for a format in which they alternated questions for each other, which worked out quite well.

Eugenides began by asking about Kehlmann’s choice to write an historical novel, wondering whether he didn’t have doubts about the form and its inherent fraudulence. Kehlmann responded that he was, indeed, deeply suspicious of the historical form, and even had doubts about whether he could pull it off. The approach he chose was to try to to write the way non-fiction history is written, always maintaining a sense of distance—and using a lot of indirect speech (which is more obvious in the German original than in the English translation). He wanted to maintain a serious tone, even when writing about things that aren’t at all serious: he wanted to sound like a very serious historian who had gone mad .....

Kehlmann also mentioned that, because of the reliance on indirect speech, he doesn’t think a good movie can be made of Measuring the World (though they’re having a go at it—and he’s said he’s staying away from that).

Asked whether Kehlmann saw his Gauss and Humboldt as opposites or spiritual brothers, he said: both. He elaborated: it’s a book about two ways of doing science—but did admit that by the end Gauss had probably emerged as the ‘winner’ (not that he tried to set it up that way, or even felt that’s the way it was when he finished the book, but seeing all the reactions he’s come to believe that).

Noting that Ich und Kaminski is a very different novel, Eugenides asked about Kehlmann being a writer who changes with every book (which one would certainly think, considering also his other work). Kehlmann noted there are authors who write the same thing over and over again, but he doesn’t quite do that. Still, he finds his underlying themes are the same again and again (though often far from obviously so), and even where there are differences, his own voice does always come through. But he noted he fights to stretch his limitations; given how young he is (born 1975) it’ll be interesting to see how much more he can push his envelope.

Kehlmann’s first question for Eugenides was how much of an influence Gabriel Garcia Marquez was, with Eugenides acknowledging he was a great admirer, and that Chronicle of a Death Foretold was an influence on The Virgin Suicides. Kehlmann, too, considered ‘magical realism’ important—especially in showing an alternative to the European fiction of the same time. He mentioned how, to some extent, he had used it dealing with Humboldt in South America—though he had Humboldt react to the completely new and unbelivable things he saw there by ignoring them, a very German reaction of adapting them to his mindset.

Kehlmann asked Eugenides about the narrative-voice—the ‘we’—of The Virgin Suicides, and Eugenides revealed that at first he had had the whole town narrating the story, with an ‘I’-narrator popping up on occasion, but when he saw most of the heat of the narrative came from the teenage boys he went with that. He noted that, despite having a chorus of narrators he never thought of Greek tragedy—but gets asked that all the time (and wonders whether he would if his name were Abromowitz or something like that ...).

The by comparison prolific Kehlmann asked Eugenides about only having published two novels, noting that one could divide the world into authors who publish a lot and accept a range of quality, and those who only publish a few, trying to achieve perfection—and whether he thinks each necessarily envies the other; Eugenides did (and noted that he finds himself surprised that he’s not more prolific, since he works at it every day, and has accumulated tons of stuff (admittedly all just for the drawer ...)). Kehlmann also asked whether he agreed that, unlike novels, short stories can be perfect. Eugenides did, and said he found them much harder to write than novels—and notes it’s sort of misguided that in creative writing courses students focus on the short story, which he considers technically more difficult.

Both authors were in good form, and even if it was more of a question-and-answer session than a true discussion a lot of fairly interesting subjects were covered. Certainly it helped in introducing Kehlmann to an American audience—which didn’t seem very familiar with his work, but certainly knew their Eugenides.

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