About Nicole Krauss

Praatje voor de leesclub van het John Adams Institute

I first came across Nicole Krauss when a friend told me she couldn’t do Nicoles next novel on account of a previous engagement. Not having anything to do I said I would do it. I read Nicoles first novel, Man Walks into Room, which I found to be a very mature work for such a young author. And so I looked forward to the new assignment.

It took a while before the novel turned up and I almost missed out on doing it when I overlook an e-mail in my box asking me for a definite yes to do it. So it could have very been someone diferent sitting here right now.

Immediately after I started working on it, I realised there was something special about The History of Love. Of course, the title is an indication of something special. People who write books with that sort of title are not just anybody. The first character is a lovable, grumpy old guy, and all the other people in the book are endearing, making it very easy to identify yourself with them and what happens to them.. The whole book is somehow covered with star dust. After finishing the translation, I had some queries, which Nicole answered, but we met real-time when she came to Holland to promote her book. The funny thing was, initially Anthos, her Dutch publisher, did not immediately realise they were onto a good thing, but when they did, they went full steam in promoting her.

Some of you were present when she was here in August, talking to a full house, but her first performance in Holland was in a small café, when half of the punters were there just to drink their beers. The turn-up was meagre, but Nicole charmed everybody with her stories. She was being interviewed by Dirk-Jan Arensman, who would proceed to write a glowing review in Parool, the local newspaper, and next thing we knew, her book was the bestselling novel in Amsterdam. It went on to sell about a 100.000 copies.

After the show, Nicole was presented with an Edammer cheese. Unable to take it with her, because she was going on to Norway, she surreptiously presented it to me. It took long time to eat.  She also told me about a public appearance somewhere in the States, promoting her first book. She remember walking through a long hall, eagerly waiting a full room of people, but when they arrived, it turned out there were only two people, one one of whom had bought the book.

The nex book was Great House. And here I want to tell something about the way English and American books come to Holland and why so very often these book are being translated by two or more persons. In the eighties of the past century Dutch newspapers started te review English and American novels as soon as the hardcover version came out, long before the Dutch translation were there. Once the Dutch tranlation was out, however, there was no need to review it anymore. So the Dutch publisher would miss out on free publicity. To make things worse, English and American publisher started making paperback edition specially for the Dutch market, edition that came out at the same time as the hard cover version. They could do this because the percentage of Dutch readers who read Engslish had grow enormously, due tot changes in the education system. Faced with this kind of competion, Dutch publisher found themself speeding up their publication dates, and translators no longer got real books to translate from, but galleys, proofs. In order to beat the English and American publishing dates, Dutch published even availed themselves of two or even three translators.

Because Great House was bulkier that History and the time to translate it was just four month, I decided to ask someone to co-translate it with me. Co-translation is not everyones cup of tea, and some translators refuse to do it. It is very hard to bring about unity of style. Great House, however, consisted of 50 percent monologues by women and fifty percent monologues by men. And so Tjadine Stheeman, who trained at the same Translators’ Institute as I did.

Of course, we had some queries, I always have. Nicoles Dutch publisher, however, forbade us to ask these questions. They said she was nervous about the reception of the book and so they did not want the risk to further upset her with queries. The funny thing was: Nicole, who remembered. I had asked het things last time around, mildly reproached me for not asking anything.

I’ve looked up some of the queries I put to her when I was working on Forest Dark.

4 caressed the ass of the sleeping lover in his

lover: female or male?

12 It was by an Israeli poet, Polish-born, who had died at sixty-six

poet: female or male?

166 Think of all the banal domestic secrets whose cover-up the Mossad has unknowingly sponsored, he said.

domestic: within families of within the state?

139 On the way back to bed, I removed a few items of clothes from my suitcase and stuffed them into a plastic bag I found under the sink. For the sake of unpreparedness, I could say.

For the sake of unpreparedness

I am a bit embarrassed to ask this, but hey ho. It took this to be a convoluted joke, but my private reader asked whether this shouldn’t  be > for the sake of being prepared [for the worst]

163 Something had been dislodged, and in the cavity the nerves conducted raw feeling without purpose.

Does the raw feeling lack purpose?

Is the act of conducting without purpose?

286  I pulled my shirt over my head

blouse or T-shirt?

And then there where typing errors and German words that were not written correctly of were used wrongly. She always answered and I always got her private corrections once the were made. So I can truthfully say I translated the same text that was going to be published in the States in September.

So why was she nervous about the reception of Great House? I think it had to do with expectations that were high, whereas Nicole herself new she had taken a different corner. If you look at the characters in Great House, you’ll see that none of them is as endearing as those in History. Nicole probably realised she had stopped wanting to please and be charming.

As to Forest Dark, to me the return of another ‘old guy’ is very interesting. Why does a young female write need ‘old men’ in her work. Having translated Kroniek van Perdepoort, a fabulous South-African novel by Anna Louw, in which the central character is also an old man, the use of the character of Epstein in Forest Dark was very interesting to me. Even more interesting was Nicoles answer about it: men or old men can do or say things that readers do not accept from women. Womens’ roles are still too confined. Dramatically the scope widens if you use men as characters. But perhaps some of you will disagree about this. To me her answer solved what for a long time had been a riddle.

Anyway, whatever Nicole does or write will always be of interest to me, in more than one ways. I am very happy to be her translator. I feel she is working on some kind of roman fleuve, that started with History. I am very curious to see whether her book of short stories will be, like An arrangement of light, part of that roman fleuve.

But just like all of you, first and foremost I am a reader of Nicole Krauss, very interested to hear what you think of Forest Dark.

Thank you.