“The Hungarian writer Imre Kertesz, who survived the camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald and went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002, announced his retirement last November. Or did he? In an interview with a German magazine, Kertesz, who is 83 and suffering from Parkinson’s disease, said, ‘I don’t want to write anymore. I consider my oeuvre, so closely related to the Holocaust, as closed, whether I succeeded or not’ Sounds like a retirement announcement to me. It did to the French journal ActuaLitte, too, which picked up the news. The Millions followed suit. As these reports spread, however, Kertesz’s American publisher, Dennis Johnson, posted a recollection of visiting Kertesz and his wife in Berlin last March. ‘The only really somber moment occurred when Imre spoke of his fear of not being able to finish the new book he was working on,’ Johnson wrote. ‘Still, he was making progress, he insisted, and was determined to get it done.’ When the reports of his retirement began circulating several months after that meeting in Berlin, Kertesz wrote to Johnson that the rumors were ‘a bit too hasty.’ He added, ‘Naturally, I will try to write as long as I can.’ Ah, ambiguity.” Can Writers Retire? Let Us Count the Ways by Bill Morris
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“The Hungarian writer Imre Kertesz, who survived the camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald and went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002, announced his retirement last November. Or did he? In an interview with a German magazine, Kertesz, who is 83 and suffering from Parkinson’s disease, said, ‘I don’t want to write anymore. I consider my oeuvre, so closely related to the Holocaust, as closed, whether I succeeded or not’ Sounds like a retirement announcement to me. It did to the French journal ActuaLitte, too, which picked up the news. The Millions followed suit. As these reports spread, however, Kertesz’s American publisher, Dennis Johnson, posted a recollection of visiting Kertesz and his wife in Berlin last March. ‘The only really somber moment occurred when Imre spoke of his fear of not being able to finish the new book he was working on,’ Johnson wrote. ‘Still, he was making progress, he insisted, and was determined to get it done.’

When the reports of his retirement began circulating several months after that meeting in Berlin, Kertesz wrote to Johnson that the rumors were ‘a bit too hasty.’ He added, ‘Naturally, I will try to write as long as I can.’ Ah, ambiguity.”

Can Writers Retire? Let Us Count the Ways by Bill Morris

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  3. bookreviewtv said: That’s what’s great about writing. You can do it till your last gasp.
  4. millionsmillions posted this