What do You think about Gertrude (2005)?
"A Fronteira entre a Juventude e a VelhiceCreio que se pode traçar uma fronteira muito precisa entre a juventude e a velhice. A juventude acaba quando termina o egoísmo, a velhice começa com a vida para os outros. Ou seja: os jovens têm muito prazer e muita dor com as suas vidas, porque eles a vivem só para eles. Por isso todos os desejos e quedas são importantes, todas as alegrias e dores são vividas plenamente, e alguns, quando não vêem os seus desejos cumpridos, desperdiçam toda uma vida. Isso é a juventude. Mas para a maior parte das pessoas vem o tempo em que tudo se modifica, em que vivem mais para os outros, não por virtude, mas porque é assim. A maior parte constitui família. Pensa-se menos em nós próprios e nos nossos desejos quando se tem filhos. Outros perdem o egoísmo num escritório, na política, na arte ou na ciência. A juventude quer brincar, os adultos trabalhar. Não há quem se case para ter filhos, mas quando chegam, modificamo-nos, e acabamos por perceber que tudo aconteceu por eles. Da mesma forma, a juventude gosta de falar na morte, mas nunca pensa nela; com os velhos acontece o contrário. Os jovens acreditam ser eternos e centram todos os desejos e pensamentos sobre si próprios. Os velhos já perceberam que o fim vai chegar e que tudo o que se tem e se faz para si próprio acaba por cair num buraco e de nada valeu. Para isso necessita de uma outra eternidade e de acreditar que não trabalhou apenas para os vermes. Por isso existe a mulher e os filhos, o negócio ou o escritório e a pátria, para que se tenha a noção de que o esforço diário e as calamidades têm um sentido. Assim, uma pessoa é mais feliz quando vive para mais alguém, e não para si só. Mas os velhos não devem fazer disso um heroísmo, que não é. Do mais irrequieto jovem resulta o melhor dos velhos, o que não é verdade para aqueles que já na escola agiam como velhos"...
—Rosa Ramôa
Hesse tells the story of the composer Kuhn which is both (unintentionally) humorous and (intentionally) beautiful. We are taken through Kuhn's childhood during which he suffered an injury which left him physically handicapped for life and into his music school years and his life as a composer. The book has its quirky parts good for a few laughs, such as Kuhn's run-in with a Rudolf Steiner-esque theosophist...or his **mild spoiler** pitiful friend-zoning which the reader sees coming a mile away but totally catches Kuhn by surprise. These are, however, bumps along a much more pleasant road. The flow and language are graceful as Hesse makes the courageous attempt to capture the inner life of a musical talent. He takes the reader along the creative process where works of art become "beings with a life of their own" and are therefore "familiar and yet strange at the same time." I found myself getting lost in this one quite deeply...so lost that I finished it by reading the last 110 pages in a single evening. My favorite Hesse book out of the five that I've read.
—David
Hesse is one of my favorite writers and my take on his works would carry a bit of bias. Gertrude might not be one of the famous books of Hesse in the league of a Siddartha, yet it is one of the most heart rendering narratives. Its a semi autobigraphical work, liberally feeding on the tumultous life of Hesse during his younger days. Its a soliloquy of the protaganist's solitude, lovelornness and his inability to deal with the upheavels of his life.Kuhn falls in love twice and both the times it goes unrequitted. His passionate ardour for Liddy when he was a teenager results in a series of events and trekking adventures which leaves him both emotionally and physically crippled. The exhubarance, dreams, goals and the youthful vogour take blow in a snap of a second and leave him a cripple for a life time sulking in selfpity. In his own words, his youth was exiled into a quiet land. Kuhn then gets focussed onto music to move away from the pathos of the broken heart and the broken limb. Music opens up Kuhn to a new world of friends, musicians and music lovers. Thus he meets Mr Imthor, father of Gertrude and a patron of Music. Kuhn rediscovers himself in the company of Gertrude and his desolate world is suddenly lit up with a thousand candles. The mutual feeling of gentle love and the unspoken undercurrents during their courtship is sheer poetry. Kuhn, the self pitying introvert is perenially at cross roads in dealing with his own emotions. In a minute he swings from a blithely cheer, with his heartful of love after assumingly positive vibes from Gertrude and the next moment he slips into a despair of fears emanating from his own presumptions. Presume, when one's existence hangs on to the slender thread of love, one is scared of his own thoughts snapping the thread. Kuhn has two good friends in Muoth and Teifer. Muoth a genius, rebel and an egoist; all in one both tests and inspires Kuhn. While Teifer and his sister anchor Kuhn during his troubles and travails. The lives of Kuhn, Gertrude and Muoth gets entangled and how they compromise, confront, win and fail is the rest of the story.The psychological and philosophical overtones of the narrative reflect the genius of Hesse. Love and its cousin pathos in the life of a creative person have been painted with masterly strokes. Love creates ripples in other wise a placid lake like life of an artist; from which he draws his inspiration. And the unrequitted love is like a tempest in an ocean which takes the artist to a higher level, riding on its tumultous waves. Kuhn thus enthralled world of music wading through his miseries, emerging to be a virtuso from an akward novice. Kuhn's painful journey bearing the cross of physical challenges and the mental agony which take him into the realms of cherished dreams proves once again that creative brilliance springs from the ramshackles of bruised egos, batterred souls and broken hearts.The last paragraph is recaptured here for sharing a glimpse of the beauty of this poetry.." Muoth was right. As a man grows older, he is more at peace than in his youth. But I will not on that account slander youth, for it sings to me in all my dreams like a master song, and rings clearer and purer than ever it did in truth."
—S Prakash
