Wedding Bell Blues

Last time, we left off studying the fourth, unnamed story in David Szalay’s All That Man Is, a tale of a man in his early thirties, an English graduate student who is involved in a love affair with a woman named Waleria.

The protagonist (whose name is Karel—I forgot that he was named last time) is delivering an expensive, leased car to a man in Poland, a man who happens to be Valeria’s father, and plans to meet Valeria and spend a few days with her at a German resort.

We saw how Karel is shown as being caught up in his career as an academic and also relentlessly focused on the present with all its sensuous delights—including Waleria, who, however, warns him that he needs to settle down. (A nice touch of foreshadowing).

Karel parks at the airport where he plans to meet Valeria.

“He finds a space.

And then it happens.

There is a loud ugly metallic noise that for a moment he does not understand.

The he does and his heart stops.

When it starts again, he is sweating heavily.”

Of course, he has had what we Americans would call a “fender-bender,” but to him, supposedly delivering a car he does not own, it is a catastrophe. He dreads presenting the problem to Waleria’s father, who happens to be a policeman. He meets Waleria inside, and tells her about the accident, saying he hopes her father won’t be too angry.

She seems anxious but is supportive, then says, ‘There’s something I need to tell you, Karel.’

“… The number of things she might have to tell him shrinks, as the silence extends, until there are only one or two left.

…

She is either about to end their little affair…or

‘You’re pregnant,’ he says…

He hopes she will immediately negative this.

Instead, the silence just prolongs further.

…

‘Are you?’ he asks.

Those moments when everything changes. How many in a life? Not more than a few.

Here, now, the moment. On this rainswept German motorway. Here and now.”

So, we have a touch of dramatic irony in this plot twist. Karel mars the perfection of the luxury vehicle he’s been driving, just as the perfection of his care-free affair with Waleria is about to be damaged by the reality of her being pregnant. It is of interest that Karel has had it in the back of his mind that Waleria either might end their affair or be pregnant. It has occurred to him. In any case, his life changes.

“That’s shit.” is his unfortunate, initial response to Waleria’s confirmation of her pregnancy, and she begins crying.

We have fairly classic story structure here, folks. A protagonist, enjoying the heck out of his carefree, single life runs into a “scrape.” His girlfriend is pregnant. Next we would expect he would attempt to avoid responsibility but experience complications. Let’s see.

Waleria becomes quite upset at his pronouncement and demands that Karel let her out of the car. He does so and eventually finds her walking. She is angry and says she wants to get away from him.

“It has been his assumption, from the first moment, that there will be an abortion, that that is what she wants as well.

“Now he starts to see, as if it is something still far away, that that may not be so.”

“In a sense, this is the true moment of shock.

“He fights off a splurge of panic.”

They resume their journey to the resort, driving in silence.

“Then she said, ‘You don’t understand.’

“Sliding across a mysterious foggy junction, he said, ‘What don’t I understand?’

“That I love you,’ she said drily.”

“Well, she would say that, he thought. Wouldn’t she. Still his hands took a firmer hold on the wheel.”

Why are the above thoughts in italics when others are not? I don’t know, my friend. I don’t know.

This section is in past tense, because the scene occurs in the past and shows what occurred during their drive to the resort. At the resort, in present tense, “Sex happens, surprisingly…This time, however, he makes no effort to please her. He wants her to dislike him. if she decides she dislikes him, he thinks, she may decide that she does not want this pregnancy.”

“And when she is in tears afterwards, he sits on the toilet with his head in his hands.”

It is difficult to regard Karel’s character as positive here. Troubled, yes, but kind of a jerk.

Karel works to convince Waleria to get an abortion, rationalizing it as being good for her, as she has a successful career as a TV journalist that she wouldn’t want to interrupt. She agrees.

“It is like waking up from a nightmare, to find your life still there, as you left it…in fact, there is a trace of sadness now, somewhere inside him—a sort of vapour trail of sadness on the otherwise blue sky of his mind.”

This is an interesting comment, showing that Karel isn’t one-dimensional.

Of course, Waleria’s hesitant agreement to getting an abortion doesn’t last.

Karel desperately tries to re-convince her, repeating all the arguments he’d already presented, but she is adamant.

“‘It’s all true what you’re saying,’ she says… ‘And none of it makes any difference. I just can’t.’

“Do you understand?’ she wants to know, in a whisper.

“‘No,’ he says. It is not quite true. Not quite.

More humanity in Karel. Hurrah!

“The situation, anyway, is simpler than he thought. It was always very simple. The last two days have been a sort of illusion. There was always only one possible outcome. He sees that now.

“‘Now what?’ he says finally. What he means is: Where does this leave us? Where does this leave our two lives? … He finds it hard to imagine anything. The future, again, seems no longer to be there.

“‘Let’s go for a walk,’ she says.

“‘Where?’ Having lifted his head, he is looking at the elegantly minimalist room as if he does not know where he is.

“‘I don’t know,’ she says. ‘Wherever. Why don’t you put some trousers on?’

“Docilely, he does.

“They leave the hotel and start to walk…Traffic sometimes whizzes past. Sometimes there is silence. Sometimes there are trees, or from somewhere the smell of cut grass.

It is five kilometers to Konigstein, the sign says. They do not stop…The light will last for hours. They have time to walk it, if they want to.”

The text is pretty open, leaving room for other interpretations, however, in keeping with the theme of the book, I believe we have her a beautiful depiction of Karel accepting fatherhood. He struggles hard, pushing for a solution that will allow him to continue his “young man” lifestyle. But in the end “docilely” puts on his trousers, a sign perhaps of not only going along with what Waleria wants but also assuming manly garb. If you will allow me, he “girds his loins” for the next stage of his life as a father. Fathers frequently must wear clothing, best B. A father can’t go around in his knickers.

Karel looks around the hotel room longingly, knowing that everything will change. There is no more mention of the “fenderbender” because it’s not necessary to tie up a minor detail.

Let’s stop there. Next time, we’ll examine the final story in this collection, a story of a man near the end of his life.

Till then.

#AllThatManIs #DavidSzalay #AlanBray