Annetje - In this Harold Brodkey story, a dangerous woman, a destructive woman, a woman with alluring, magnetic attraction to drive men crazy.
An entire collection of unforgettable Harold Brodkey short stories. For me, one story in particular really struck home, a story haunting, tenderly rendered and so telling of the times (first published in 1968). Here it is:
Bookkeeping
Upper East Side Quartet: Our first-person narrator, Avram Olensky, is in his uptown Manhattan apartment on the phone with Annetje, a friend who has been suffering the aftereffects of LSD for the past week. She called Avram in desperation since she’s completely wiped out and urgently needs his help. Annetje’s request puts Avram in a quandary: at the moment, he has a man and woman sitting in his living room - long-time friend Louise and her new German husband, Ulrich von Kunnel. As in classical music with two violins, viola and cello forming a string quartet, these four well-to-do, well-educated, highly cultured men and women form the story’s quartet of characters - exactly the right number for tight dramatic complexity.
Femme Fatale: Annetje’s voice over the phone is fascinating, foreign and moving. “Annetje frightened him, her prettiness was so extreme – white-blonde hair, enormous seaside-gray eyes – her irrational, storm-tossed, passionate conversation so unnerving.” With her wild, irresistible, totally electric energy and alluring attractiveness, a dangerous woman, a destructive woman, a woman to drive men crazy. Recall how Raymond Carver noted a little menace in a short story is good for the circulation. Harold Brodkey knew his storytelling - Annetje moves the fictional circulation triple time.
Multiple Marriages: Annetje’s first husband from Chicago was terribly rich and addicted to flying tiny airplanes; her second husband a professional deep-sea diver and scuba expert, her third husband, current spouse John Herbert Thompson, a handsome six-foot-five-inch novelist and movie writer, a great F. Scott Fitzgerald-like drinker who makes an enormous salary, a husband who, after Annetje demanded he get the hell out, vacated the premises. Oh, Annetje, I love you honey – not only are you a dangerous woman attractive to adventurous men seeking the ultimate danger but also a woman quick to tell those foolish men all to go to hell.
Powerful Hallucinogenic: Having dropped LSD, Annetje declares how the walls of her apartment are behaving strangely, the windows have a very evil look and she should throw herself out of one. Alarmed, musing how “in New York to be without compassion was to become an outcast,” Avram resolves to dash to Annetje’s apartment and return with her to his. He also wishes to convince Louise and Ulrich to wait for his return. As Avram well knows, his request is a stretch - prime financier of his literary magazine and one-time lover, Louise is wealthy, Republican, a heavy drinker and accustomed to always getting her own way, which certainly means not having her host walk out on her only to return with another woman.
Rescue: Successful in persuading Louise and Ulrich to stay, Avram darts down his brownstone steps with quick boyishness. “The street was empty of walkers, lined with parked cars, each dotted with moisture from the half fog, half drizzle that filled the air with tiny drops of light-blurring water – the air had an acrid edge of pollution.” When reading Harold Brodkey, plot and character are only half the fun; the other half is taking our time to linger, even luxuriate, in the glow of the author’s well-honed, elegant, graceful prose.
Insults: Avram arrives at Annetje’s apartment; Ammeje is disheveled, confused, defensive, but after much discussion, Annetje finally agrees to leave and return to meet Louise and Ulrich. Along the way, Annetje asks Avram if his two friends will understand she is mad. Avram assures her they are both open-minded and she will be fine. (On some level Avram knows this is far from true; however, he wishes to help her but doesn’t want to be alone with dangerous, destructive Annetje). Upon entering his apartment arm in arm with Annetje, right off, Louise states flat out how she doesn’t like drugs. And this is only the beginning - Louise goes on the attack, zipping and zapping off insults, zip, zap, zip, zap, zip, zap. Ouch! That’s one sharp tongue you have there, lady!
Race and Politics: When Annetje reveals Avram is Jewish the conversation takes a decidedly racial and political turn, with comparisons of the American war in Vietnam to Ulrich’s Germany and the mindset of the Nazis. Not surprising since, with emotions aflame and insults having been exchanged, the first mention of race, politics, or religion usually turns a heated conversation into an extremely ugly, name-calling argument, an argument overflowing with emotional violence and the ever-present prospect of reaching an outbreak of physical violence.
Memory: At one point Annetje tells how one day when she was a little girl in Holland during the war she and her friends were walking by a road and the German planes came and shot at them. Why, she wonders. Then she answers her own question: it was because for the Germans we little girls didn’t matter. Later on, Ulrich, who likewise experienced horrors as a German child once the Russians invaded says, “I think we would all be happier without memories. I try to have no memories.” This exchange is vintage Harold Brodkey, a writer highly attuned to the profound influence of memories, particularly childhood memories.
Joint Departure: So much for the comfort of company. Annetje asks to leave and Avram is more than happy to escort her home. “Outside, the air was still hung with floating drops, visible beads of moisture, faintly pewter-colored with captured light, and very beautiful, Avram thought. The sidewalk was quite wet and held the dim, damp, shapeless reflections of lights in windows and over doorways and of streetlights." (Couldn’t resist another offering of Harold Brodkey language).
Survivor: Reaching her apartment, Avram apologizes to Annetje, about how both Louise and Ulrich were incredibly rude to her. Annetje replies that he is not to worry, that she can be left alone now, that she will finally be able to sleep. Avran asks if she will be careful and not use any more tranquilizers or do anything else to harm herself. Annetje assures him she will simply go to sleep for she is the kind who survives.
Resolve: Avram returns to his apartment. Does the story close with a bit of irony or even humor? I will leave for each reader to judge as we read: “He made up his mind; I will bawl out Louise and Ulrich, I will say, “A little kindness toward people we differ from will improve the world. We mustn’t shut all the doors.” Louise will have all the money in the room, and I will have all the heart and niceness. He smiled, he surrendered. He turned then and broke into an easy, boyish run up the avenue. He ran with resigned self-approval.”
Harold Brodkey - author of fiction where prose meets poetry
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