The Immortal Bartfuss (Appelfeld, Aharon) [Paperback]

Aharon Appelfeld (Author)

Book Description

Series: Appelfeld, Aharon | Publication Date: April 1, 1994

Set in contemporary Israel, The Immortal Bartfuss is perhaps the most profound and powerful portrait of a Holocaust survivor ever drawn. Using the techniques of omission and indirection perfected in such masterpieces as Badenheim 1939 and To the Land of the Cattails, Appelfeld tells the story of Bartfuss, enigmatically "the immortal" because of his experience in the camps. Now locked in a hopeless marriage, Bartfuss struggles to suppress the emotions and recollections he fears and despises, while trying to keep alive the poise, dignity, and compassion essential to a human being. The Immortal Bartfuss is an overwhelming and unforgettable study of a man reduced to his tragic limits.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With this masterly but devastating portrait of a Holocaust survivor, the author of Tzili and To the Land of the Cattails abandons the milieu of WW II Europe and embraces the contemporary setting of modern-day Israel. Appelfeld distills his trademark elliptic, dreamlike poetic prose into a bitter brew, introducing Bartfuss, a wretched, paranoid miser who hoards his words and thoughts as well as his worldly fortune. Nicknamed "The Immortal" because of injuries withstood in a concentration camp (the episode is alluded to but never explained), Bartfuss is enervated by his hatred of his wife Rosa, whom he taunts for sleeping with village peasants to save her life during the war. This work is a blend of allegory and realism (Bartfuss represents a type of survivor whose tragedy has eaten away at his soul; he is also symbolic of an alienated Israel). The claustrophobia of this tale ("Everywhere the same gravelly accent, the same weary blur of people swamped by many disasters which had pressed a mask of staleness on their faces") is relieved somewhat by the protagonist's feeble love for his retarded daughter, Bridget, and a desire, however conflicted and thwarted, that the suffering of Holocaust survivors should somehow ennoble them.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Once again, Appelfeld masterfully uses the techniques of indirection and omission to create a story of real emotional impact. Bartfuss is a survivor of the camps now living in Israel who "somewhere in the sands of Italy" lost his great dream. Ever since, he has struggled between his desire to forget and need to remember. He is distanced from everyone, including his wife, who he feels cannot truly understand since she did not experience what he did. Yet those who do understand have emerged from the experience so emotionally scarred that they see intimacy as something to fear. At one point Bartfuss cries out that he "should have been more generous. People who went through the Holocaust should be generous. Do you understand me?" A magnificent novel from someone who does. David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fl.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 138 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (April 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802133584
• ISBN-13: 978-0802133588
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #553,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Jewish

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterful book, January 29, 2000

By 

bonnie mitchell (WEST HARTFORD, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Immortal Bartfuss (Appelfeld, Aharon) (Paperback)

This is a remarkable book written with words hidden and unstated. For Bartfuss, the holocaust should produce "greatness of soul" either from himself or other survivors. He is frustrated by his inability to do so and give freely. Here is a highly complex character living in Jaffa, Israel. And it should be appreciated by many thoughtful readers.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Accomplished look at modern alienation, June 3, 2000

By 

"elljay" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Immortal Bartfuss (Appelfeld, Aharon) (Paperback)

The titular Bartfuss has lived a largely underground existence since surviving the Holocaust, amassing an ever increasing fortune as a smuggler even as his alienation from those around him--particularly his estranged wife and two daughters--continues apace. As a record of a man's journey from a kind of living death, this book benefits a lot from Appelfeld's terse, simple prose, which keeps the tale rolling at a brisk pace. He's the sort of writer who knows exactly what he can state explicitly and what he can leave unsaid. It may just be me, but I was not altogether convinced by the book, partly due to the somewhat abrupt ending. I will tentatively suggest that the author was only partly successful in dramatizing Bartfuss' internal conflicts... or maybe I'm just missing the point of Appelfeld's minimalist artistry. I will still recommend the book, and suggest that who anyone likes it should also seek out Appelfeld's "Badenheim 1939."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Exploration of the Post-Holocaust Underground Man, June 29, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Immortal Bartfuss (Appelfeld, Aharon) (Paperback)

The Immortal Bartfuss is obviously the work of an accomplished and mature novelist. Appelfeld has his goal well in sight and accomplishes it with surgical precision. Bartfuss is Dostoevsky's Underground Man coping with the holocaust and old age. As we watch the Immortal Bartfuss die, and remeber how he spent his life, we sense true desolation. The holocaust has created an expectation within him, and, as he nears his end, he realizes life does not give anything to anyone for free. A very disquieting portrait of a very troubled man.