Auto Da Fe by Elias Canetti

If you were to go blind would it not be logical to kill yourself because you could not read?  This is one of the many challenging questions Auto-Da-Fe by Elias Canetti poses to us and it’s a difficult one for bibliophiles to answer, certainly it gives me pause to think and there are many moments like that in this book.  There is a lot of action in it but it is also very meditate and intellectual about various issues, namely about being intellectual; it has meat as well as veg.

This is a big building of a book, multi-storied and multi-leveled.  It tackles big subjects with gusto and prowess.  It is about the problem of overspecialization, of being bookish in a world of physical violence and the need for outside influence.  Very influential on Iris Murdoch, there are those who may detect the similar presentation that is almost cartoonish or grotesque, Canetti uses symbols and images to convey his messages in this surreal story.

  
Peter Klein owns a large collection of books and they are his pride and joy.  He values learning and reading immensely and tries to pass on his knowledge to others when he can, as the first pages show.  During the course of the book he his forced out of his own home by his wife and has to live for himself outside his comfortable world of books.  He meets a chess playing hunchback dwarf who guides him and helps him plot out his revenge though even he is a dubious character.  Apparently this dwarf is a chess champion but he won’t ever let anyone play a game with him, leaving us to wonder is he as good as he says he is or is he only good because he says he is?

  
It’s a very timely novel that explores a situation where books are under threat from barbarism, where those who care for it not a jot and those who dedicate their time to study infiltrate the library are cast out to the streets.  In our time of library and university cutting a whole new swathe of people should be reading this book. 

  
There are faults with Klein as he is far too specialised to really cope with the outside world and has no street smarts whatsoever and it is only because he finds someone who can help him.  In the later part Klein’s brother, a psychiatrist comes to his aid and dangerously delves into his brother’s mind.  This book is a tragedy of modern intellectuals and gives fear and terror to the book loving people of his Germany, but it equally relates to our times of fanatics and book burning ideologues, both religious and secular.

  
It can be at times a dense book, often packed with ideas and complexities and yet it still has, in its style, simplicity akin to fable and it is, in a lot of ways, a fable.  Peter Klein is a knight errant, a cuckolded character that you might find in Chaucer, on a quest to re-gain his property.  You are with Peter and are one his side but even this does not make him immune to our wondering what exactly is he good for?

  
The ending is fantastical and is elevated to such heights and leaves a lasting impression.  Auto-Da-Fe has been a book that I have been found wanting to draw and paint pictures based on it as it provides many instances that could be captured by the visual medium.  I would love to direct an animated film adaptation of this book and I can see it clearly in my mind.   

This is one of my favourite books, possibly my favourite 500 pages one at least, and I urge you, who may be interested, to read this book and feast on the delights and disgusts that it offers.

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