Vienna, 1938.
I UNDERSTAND THAT people have taken television features on
the holocaust very calmly. To witness the actual beating up of a Jew outside
one’s hotel makes a difference. He was a respectable man of about fifty years,
very well dressed and with a confident walk. He may have been taking a morning
stroll. I was watching from my balcony. He paused for a moment outside the
hotel and nodded affably to the commissionaire. At that moment five young men
emerged from a side alley. They were dressed perfectly normally saved for the
suddenly fashionable Swastika armbands. They stood around the Jew and
apparently exchanged one or two words with him. I saw that he was smiling
uncertainly as he answered. The commissionaire had turned his back and was
walking away. Then one of the youths produced a short cudgel and struck the Jew
a blow which hit his chest and sent him reeling back until he struck his head
against the wall of the hotel. He looked, I remember, merely surprised, or
perhaps the breath had been knocked out of him.
All five youths now produced short truncheons. I could not from my balcony discern whether they were rubber or wood or metal. Then they beat him about the head. His face was suddenly covered with blood as though somebody had thrown a can of red paint at it. He slid down to the ground. Then two of the youths kicked him until he rolled to the edge of the pavement. There he lay quite still on his back. His jaw fell open, his eyes rolled up until they showed the whites. Clearly he was dead A passerby saw him and crossed to the other side of the street. A woman coming from the other direction was held up by the white gloved hand of the commissionaire. She seemed to protest she was in a hurry.
The youths disappeared. The woman carried on. The commissionaire walked at a stately pace into the hotel and I imagine the receptionist made a telephone call. What happened then I do not know because I went to the bathroom and was sick. When I had recovered, the body was gone but the blood remained.
All five youths now produced short truncheons. I could not from my balcony discern whether they were rubber or wood or metal. Then they beat him about the head. His face was suddenly covered with blood as though somebody had thrown a can of red paint at it. He slid down to the ground. Then two of the youths kicked him until he rolled to the edge of the pavement. There he lay quite still on his back. His jaw fell open, his eyes rolled up until they showed the whites. Clearly he was dead A passerby saw him and crossed to the other side of the street. A woman coming from the other direction was held up by the white gloved hand of the commissionaire. She seemed to protest she was in a hurry.
The youths disappeared. The woman carried on. The commissionaire walked at a stately pace into the hotel and I imagine the receptionist made a telephone call. What happened then I do not know because I went to the bathroom and was sick. When I had recovered, the body was gone but the blood remained.
--Aubrey Menen
Space Within the the Heart Part II -- It is All Right.
Space Within the the Heart Part II -- It is All Right.
Dear Sajjeev,
ReplyDeleteI am posting this here as I'm not sure how best to contact you. But I am a writer and historian with a keen interest in Aubrey Menen and hoping to make his works more widely available. I have recently managed to look through his personal papers at the Howard Gottlieb Center in Boston, which raise as many questions about Menen as they answer. Is there a way in which I can write to you privately to seek your help with finding out who might have the legal right to his estate? If so, could you please e-mail me at n k 4 5 9 [at] c a m [dot] a c [dot] u k. Nakul.
Hi Sajjeev,
ReplyDeleteI have fallen in love with Aubrey Menen's writing. Had never heard of him. In fact, hardly anyone, even those who are into literature and may have studied it, seem to have heard of him. His books, of course, are almost all out of print. Penguin seems to have published four of them in one volume and I have ordered a copy of that.
It would be no exaggeration to say that he is the bets fiction writer I have come across. Right up my alley. So wickedly humorous and satirical, profound and observant.
I am especially keen to read The Space Within the Heart and Dead Men in a Silve Market. I have a keen interest in Advaita and other than Raja Rao I know of no other good author who has that theme in his works.
Would you, in any way possible, be able to help me obtain a copy of these two, or any other, books by him?
I am also planning to write to Penguin India and request them to get his works back in print. Would you happen to know anyone in particular that I can address the request to?
Why are his books out of print, I wonder. Raja Rao was out of print too for a long time but some of his books are in back in print now. I sincerely hope Aubrey Menen's works will be in print too.
Any help that you can extend will be deeply appreciated.
Please do get in touch with me on apurva dot varma at gmail dot com.
Warm regards,
Apurva