- The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H.
Infobox Book
name = The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H.
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption = First edition cover (Faber and Faber )
author =George Steiner
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country =United Kingdom
language = English
series =
subject =
genre =Literary fiction
publisher =Faber and Faber
pub_date = May 1981
media_type = print (paperback original)
pages = 128pp (first edition)
isbn = ISBN 0-571-11741-4"The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H." is a 1981 literary
novella written byliterary critic George Steiner , in which JewishNazi hunter s findAdolf Hitler (A.H.) alive in the Amazon jungle thirty years after the end ofWorld War II . [cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE2D91039F935A25757C0A964948260 |title=The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. |date=1982-04-16 |work=The New York Times |first=John |last=Leonard |accessdate=2008-02-28] The book generated considerable controversycite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,953439-1,00.html |title=Teaching the Grammar of Hell |date=1982-03-29 |work=Time |first=Otto |last=Friedrich |accessdate=2008-02-28] cite web |url=http://www.observer.com/node/45740 |title=Mirroring Evil? No, Mirroring Art Theory |date=2002-03-17 |work=The New York Observer |first=Ron |last=Rosenbaum |accessdate=2008-02-28] cite web |url=http://www.azure.org.il/download/magazine/1147az15_Sagiv.pdf |title=George Steiner’s Jewish Problem |work=Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation |first=Assaf |last=Sagiv |accessdate=2008-02-28] after its publication because in it, Steiner, who is Jewish, allows Hitler to defend himself when he is put on trial in the jungle by his captors. There Hitler maintains thatIsrael owes its existence to the Holocaust and that he is the "benefactor of the Jews".cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,953439-2,00.html |title=Teaching the Grammar of Hell (p.2) |date=1982-03-29 |work=Time |first=Otto |last=Friedrich |accessdate=2008-02-28]The 120-page work was written by Steiner in 1975 and 1976 in
Geneva ,Switzerland ,cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E3D61638F931A35756C0A964948260 |title=Talk With George Steiner |date=1982-05-02 |work=The New York Times |first=D. J. R. |last=Bruckner |accessdate=2008-02-28] and originally appeared in the Spring 1979 issue of theUnited States literary magazine , "The Kenyon Review ". [cite web |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/jewish_social_studies/v005/5.3cheyette.html |title=Between Repulsion and Attraction: George Steiner's Post-Holocaust Fiction |work=Jewish Social Studies |first=Bryan |last=Cheyette |accessdate=2008-02-28] Its first publication in book form, with minor revisions by Steiner, was as a paperback original in May 1981 byFaber and Faber in theUnited Kingdom . The first United States edition was published inhardcover in April 1982 bySimon & Schuster . "The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H." was a 1983 finalist in thePEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction . [cite web |url=http://www.penfaulkner.org/affWinners01.htm |title=PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Winners 1981–1995 |work=PEN/Faulkner Foundation |accessdate=2008-02-28]"
The New York Times " described the book as "an improbable cross between "The Boys From Brazil",Ira Levin 's fantasy about the cloning of Hitler, andJoseph Conrad 's "Heart of Darkness ", which portrays an inward journey toward a confrontation with evil."cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE3D61638F931A35756C0A964948260 |title=Alive and 90 in the Jungles of Brazil |date=1982-05-02 |work=The New York Times |first=Morris |last=Dickstein |accessdate=2008-02-28]Plot summary
From his base in
Tel Aviv , Holocaust survivor Emmanuel Lieber directs a group a JewishNazi hunter s in search of the ultimate prize,Adolf Hitler . Following rumours and hearsay, he tracks Hitler's movements throughSouth America until, after months of wading through swamps in the Amazon jungle, the search party finds the 90-year-old alive in a clearing. Lieber flies toSan Cristóbal where he awaits the search party's return with their captive. But getting the old man out of the swamp alive is more difficult than getting in, and their progress is further hampered by heavythunderstorm s.Meanwhile, broken and incoherent radio messages between Lieber and the search party are intercepted by intelligence agents tracking their progress, and rumours begin to spread across the world of Hitler's capture. Debates flare up over his impending trial, where it will be held and under whose
jurisdiction . Orosso is identified as the nearest airfield to the last known location of the search party, and aircraft begin arriving at the hitherto unknown town. But when the search party's radio fails and communication with Lieber is lost, the party must make a decision: do they sit out the storms and deliver their captive to Lieber later, or do they try Hitler here and now in the jungle before their prize is snatched from them andIsrael by the world at large who they know will be waiting for them? Their decision is the latter, and against Lieber's advice ("You must not let him speak ... his tongue is like no other" [wikiref |id=Steiner-1981 |text=Steiner 1981, p. 33] ) they prepare for a trial with a judge, prosecution and defence "attorneys" selected from the search party, and Teku, a local Indian tracker, who had earlier burst in on their camp, as an independent witness.The attention Hitler is receiving, however, renews his strength, and when the trial begins, he brushes aside his "defence attorney" and begins a long speech in four parts in his own defence:
#Firstly, Hitler claims he took his doctrines from the Jews and copied the notion of themaster race from theChosen people and their need to separate themselves from the "unclean". "My racism is a parody of yours, a hungry imitation." [wikiref |id=Steiner-1981 |text=Steiner 1981, p. 122]
#Hitler justifies theFinal Solution by maintaining that the Jews' God, purer than any other, enslaves its subjects, continually demanding more than they can give and "blackmailing" them with ideals that cannot be attained. The "virus of utopia" [wikiref |id=Steiner-1981 |text=Steiner 1981, p. 124] had to be stopped.
#Hitler states that he was not the originator of evil. "[ Stalin] had perfectedgenocide when I was still a nameless scribbler inMunich ." [wikiref |id=Steiner-1981 |text=Steiner 1981, p. 125]
#Lastly, Hitler maintains that theReich begat Israel and suggests that he is theMessiah , "... whose infamous deeds were allowed by God in order to bring His people home."wikiref |id=Steiner-1981 |text=Steiner 1981, p. 126] He closes by asking, "Should you not honour me who have made ...Zion a reality?"At the end of his speech, Teku is the first to react and jumps up shouting "Proven", only to be drowned out by the appearance of ahelicopter over the clearing.Main characters
*Emmanuel Lieber – Jewish Holocaust survivor and director of the search party
*Search party (all Jewish with family ties to the Holocaust, except John Asher)
**Simeon – search party leader and "presiding judge" at Hitler's trial
**Elie Barach – "prosecution attorney" at the trial
**John Asher – half-Jewish and reluctant "defence attorney" at the trial
**Gideon Benasseraf – succumbed to fever before the trial
**Isaac Amsel – an 18-year old boy and son of Isaac Amsel senior, killed in a skirmish earlier in the party's travels; witness at the trial
*Teku – local Indian tracker and witness at the trial
*Adolf Hitler – 90-year old former leader of the Third ReichAdaptations
"The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H." was adapted for the theatre in 1982 by British playwright
Christopher Hampton . It was staged in April 1982 atLondon 'sMermaid Theatre under the direction ofJohn Dexter withAlec McCowen playing the part of Adolf Hitler. [cite web |url=http://www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/books/3093.htm |title=The Theatre of the Holocaust, Volume 2 |work=University of Wisconsin |accessdate=2008-02-28] McCowen won the 1982 Evening Standard Theatre Award for best actor for this performance. [cite web |url=http://www.albemarle-london.com/awards/AwardWinners.php?Award_Type=Evening%20Standard%20Awards&Year=1982 |title=Evening Standard Theatre Awards for 1982 |work=Albemarle of London |accessdate=2008-02-28] In 1983 the production moved to theUnited States where it played at the Hartford Stage Company inHartford, Connecticut , directed byMark Lamos and starringJohn Cullum as Hitler. [cite web |url=http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:SBAAanYhqyIJ:theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html%3Fpagewanted%3Dprint%26res%3D9E03E0D91238F934A35752C0A965948260 |title=Theater: Hitler Trial in 'Portage to San Cristobal' |date=1983-01-07 |work=The New York Times |first=Mel |last=Gussow |accessdate=2008-02-28]This book is the only work of fiction by Steiner to have been adapted for the stage. [cite web |url=http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=179815 |title=The Ventriloquial Paradox: George Steiner's ‘The Portage to San Cristobal of A. H.’ |work=New Theatre Quarterly |first=Nick |last=White |accessdate=2008-02-28]
Reaction and controversy
Reaction to the book was mixed.
Anthony Burgess in "The Observer " called it "astonishing", Christopher Booker of "The Daily Telegraph " described it as a "powerful piece", [cite web |url=http://www.ety.com/HRP/jewishstudies/evilsincemoses.htm |title=The Roots of All Evil |date=1982-04-20 |work=Jewish Studies: Crimes against Humanity |first=Christopher |last=Booker |accessdate=2008-02-28] and English authorA. S. Byatt said it was a "masterpiece". On the other hand Morris Dickstein of the "The New York Times " called it "a misconceived and badly executed novel, a sideshow distraction from the serious business of thinking through the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi era."cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE3D61638F931A35756C0A964948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3 |title=Alive and 90 in the Jungles of Brazil (p.3) |date=1982-05-02 |work=The New York Times |first=Morris |last=Dickstein |accessdate=2008-02-28] The controversy grew further when the faithful stage adaptation ("too faithful" according to Steiner) was performed in theUnited Kingdom and theUnited States .Hitler's speech at the end of the book disturbed many readers and critics. Steiner not only lets Hitler justify his past, he allows him the (almost) last word before the outside world invades. John Leonard, also of "The New York Times" said that the passage in which Hitler claims that the Jews gave him his best ideas, and in return, Hitler gave them Israel, "is obscene". [cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE2D91039F935A25757C0A964948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 |title=The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. (p.2)|date=1982-04-16 |work=
The New York Times |first=John |last=Leonard |accessdate=2008-02-28] . The fact that Steiner is Jewish made this speech in particular even more contentious. One critic, while acknowledging that Steiner always saw Hitler as "the incarnation of unprecedented and unparalleled evil", felt that there was no clear distinction in the book between Steiner’s own views and those of his fictional Hitler, even going so far as to accuse Steiner, who rejects Jewish nationalism and is a critic ofIsrael 's treatment of the Palestinianscite web |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4153494,00.html |title=George and His Dragons |date= 2001-03-17 |work=Guardian Unlimited |first=Maya |last=Jaggi |accessdate=2008-02-28] , of anti-Semitism.In contrast, a Time magazine article at the time felt that Steiner's intention for the Hitler speech was to use it to explore his previously stated belief "that Hitler wielded language as an almost supernatural force", drawing attention to Nazi hunter Emmanuel Lieber's warning from the book regarding Hitler: "'There shall come a man who ... will know the grammar of hell and teach it to others. He will know the sounds of madness and loathing and make them seem music.'"
Steiner responded to criticism that Hitler's speech in this book is unchallenged by saying that it had been done before: for example
Satan 's speech in Milton's "Paradise Lost " (1667), andThe Grand Inquisitor 's speech in Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov " (1880). He also reminded the reader that Hitler's speech is balanced out earlier in the book by Lieber's long monologue on the horrors of the Holocaust. Finally, Steiner said that it is not Hitler who has the last word, but Teku, the Indian tracker, who shouts "Proven". Teku is also the Hebrew word used to indicate that "there are issues here beyond our wisdom to answer or decide."Background
George Steiner had written about the Holocaust in some of his previous books, including "Anno Domini" (1964), "Language and Silence" (1967) and "In Bluebeard's Castle" (1971),cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE3D61638F931A35756C0A964948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 |title=Alive and 90 in the Jungles of Brazil (p.2)|date=1982-05-02 |work=
The New York Times |first=Morris |last=Dickstein |accessdate=2008-02-28] and many of the ideas Steiner expresses in "The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H." were reworked from these earlier works.cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E3D61638F931A35756C0A964948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 |title=Talk With George Steiner (p.2) |date=1982-05-02 |work=The New York Times |first=D. J. R. |last=Bruckner |accessdate=2008-02-28] Steiner told "New York Times" editor D. J. R. Bruckner that this book arose out of his lifelong work on language. "Central to everything I am and believe and have written is my astonishment ... that you can use human speech both to bless, to love, to build, to forgive and also to torture, to hate, to destroy and to annihilate."References
*cite book | last = Steiner | first = George | authorlink = George Steiner | title = The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. | origyear = 1979 | year = 1981 | publisher =
Faber and Faber | location =London | isbn = 0-571-11741-4ee also
*
Adolf Hitler in popular culture External links
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,953439-1,00.html "Teaching the Grammar of Hell"] . "Time" book review,
29 May ,1982 .
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE2D91039F935A25757C0A964948260 "The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H."] . "The New York Times " book review,16 April 1982 .
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE3D61638F931A35756C0A964948260 "Alive and 90 in the Jungles of Brazil"] . "The New York Times " book review,2 May 1982 .
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E3D61638F931A35756C0A964948260 "Talk With George Steiner"] "The New York Times " interview,2 May 1982
* [http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/jewish_social_studies/v005/5.3cheyette.html "Between Repulsion and Attraction: George Steiner's Post-Holocaust Fiction"] . "Jewish Social Studies", 1999.
* [http://www.azure.org.il/download/magazine/1147az15_Sagiv.pdf "George Steiner’s Jewish Problem"] . "Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation".
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