88. Marie Krestowski: “The Son”

A story by the Russian writer Marie Krestowski entitled “The Son” was recently published in the “Romanwelt” series edited by Felix Heinemann. It is well worth reading. A man has lost his wife and, after her death, lives on the memory of the happiness she once brought him and the feelings he has for the son she left him. In a captivating way, with a rare gift for depicting the soul, the story describes how certain events gradually teach the man that the woman's son is not his son, that the woman has betrayed him. The adulterer is also a childhood friend of the deceived man, whom he himself invited into his house and in whom he had complete trust. This great trustfulness, however, becomes somewhat untrue; instead, the effect of the realization on the man's mind is told in a captivating way. The mind's eye wanders far beyond the individual case while reading. How many similar untruths may prevail in life that are not revealed by the power of facts like this marital bliss! It is the nature of real poets to shape the individual case so individually that we cannot find a second one that is the same, and at the same time to express a great truth that we feel is shown countless times in reality.