I won this book as a FirstRead.

Life Goes On tells the story of the Seldersen family in post-World War I Germany. Germany is in the midst of an economic depression, and Herr Seldersen is struggling to keep his store afloat.

I had previously not given much thought to the problems Germany must have had after losing the first world war, and this book was eye-opening to the problems the average Germans faced. It makes me sad that this book is based on what actually happened to the author and his family during this time.

The book was a slow read, partially because of the depressing material and possibly partly because it's the way books were written in 1930s Germany. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy historical books, but it is definitely not a light read for those looking to be entertained.

3.5 stars. Keilson's highly-autobiographical novel -- published when he was just 23-years-old in 1933 and burned by the Nazis a year later -- is the story of one small family of merchants being slowly squeezed into financial ruin by the economic downfall in Germany between the wars. Albrecht (a thinly-veiled version of Keilson) and his mother and father struggle under crippling debt to borrow enough money to keep their small store stocked. Since their customers are also strapped for cash and borrowing on credit, the family finds themselves in the same dark hole as everyone else: they borrow items from bigger shops, selling them at a loss, and buy items on credit that their customers in turn buy on credit, thus ensuring that no one can ever dig themselves out of the hole, not matter how hard they work. As this happens, those who already have the money to survive continue to prosper -- sometimes through shady means, such as burning their own businesses for insurance settlements -- which only makes it more and more difficult for the impoverished workers to find jobs. Everyone purchases on credit, including those who are relatively financially secure, and no one has the money to pay back the loans, much less the interest.

The novel is ultimately about Albrecht's transformation from naive schoolboy to college-educated man, working as a struggling musician as he comes to embrace the leftist politics that might unite the working class against this endless cycle of exploitation and labor strife. It is a sobering, melancholy read that presents a realistic depiction of economic hardship, offering no brazen solutions or false hope. Indeed, the novel ends with Albrecht and his father continuing to struggle in Berlin, but finally acknowledging the need for solidarity with workers, as opposed to going-it-alone in the spirit of independent entrepreneurship, which had only succeeded in isolating the family from their community as everyone's finances sink.

Even before the novel was banned and burned, the publishers required Keilson to change the ending to be more ambiguous so as not to stir the wrath of the burgeoning NAZI regime. Although not a classic, the novel stands as the quiet protest of a young writer who understands that literature has the capacity to document injustice and transform the attitudes not only of those who live through difficult times, but also those generations who follow. His novel is a living document that still speaks clearly to anyone struggling in the 21st century with employment, economic inequality, and social injustice. As Keilson wrote in his afterward in 1983: "Literature is the memory of humanity. Anyone who writes remembers, and anyone who reads takes part in those experiences. Books can be reprinted. The fact is, there are archival copies of books. Not of people."

Keilson shows us that books can only go so far in preserving memory. It's up to those of us who are living to carry on the lessons and traditions of the men and women whose memories and lives are preserved in literature. Their stories live not just in the printed word, but in how we share their experiences, burdens, and joys, and in how we take up their causes during our own lives.

How can you pass up a book that was banned by the Nazis? Hans Keilson's rediscovered debut novel, Life Goes On, was published in 1932 (the last title by a Jewish author until the end of World War II) and was banned in 1934. According to the author's note at the end of the 2012 paperback edition by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Life Goes On is partially autobiographical. The family at the center of the book, the Seldersens, are not identified as Jewish, but the son, Albrecht, goes to university and makes a sort-of living as a musician as Keilson did before he emigrated to Holland...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.

Not quite what I expected after reading the summaries, but it was all right. It gets a bit heavy in parts, both in terms of writing and mood. It reminded me of some of Hans Fallada's books, written around the same time.

Slow to start, slow all the way through, but it becomes increasingly gripping despite the stagnant pace to end up as a horrifying narrative of the miseries of life in Germany post-WWI. The suffering people claw their way up only to be hit with further setbacks, again and again. I just wanted Herr Seldersen to be put out of his misery far earlier. But the ultimately horrifying thing is that this is close to real life. Hans Kielson experienced this and more and fled Germany, although his parents weren't as lucky as the Seldersens and eventually died in a concentration camp.
I think the almost dull tone of the writing has something to do with translation, or translation from the hardly lively language of German. I didn't find all the characters to be well drawn, I didn't warm to Albrecht in particular although I feel I was meant to! But this was Hans Kielson's first novel after all.

A heavy read, but fantastically insightful into a particular time and place.