One historical event, several point of views

E. L. Doctorow: The March (2005)

One historical event, several point of views. The March by E. L. Doctorow remind me sometimes of Sandor Marai’s novel about the hours after Caesar’s assassination. We can learn during reading that book what kind of thoughts had the residents of a spa town after Caesar death. Everybody has his own opinion, the patricians, the innkeepers, the bakers, the eunuchs, even Caesar’s doctor, or the people who are left out of the conspiracy. So, we can read several little personal stories about the great man and the big historical event.

And that is, why I think, Doctorow’s book is something like Marai’s one. We can read in the book The March several little personal stories about the American Civil War. About Sherman’s infamous march in 1864. This is the central plot of the book, the central story actually told by other stories. Doctorow mingles fictional characters with real ones. We can learn Sherman’s point of view about this March. But also the fate of many soldiers and civilians.

Many people take part of this march for this or that reason. Dr. Wrede Sartorius is a European doctor, interested only in his profession, in the healing, I would say, he hates war and army. He aims to help not only the Northern but the Southern soldiers and civilians too. Emily Thomson, a well-born Southerners joins to this march after her father’s death. She became a nurse working with Sartorius.

Pearl is young girl, a “white Negro” an illegitimate daughter of a plantation owner became a drummer of the army first, later a nurse, also in the “hospital” of Wrede Sartorius. I like her character. She is much more smart than she looks at the first time. And I think, her life, her chances to live a happy live represents the humanity in the story mostly.

And there are another characters in the book like Archie and Will escaped from the prison by the start of the march. Some reviewers say they are comic figures, but I have another opinion. They are such annoying characters. Especially Will. He is not a good man. He harms innocent people’s life. Like the photographer and his assistant. Well, I know, this is the brutality of the war.

At the end from the personal stories we can get a compact story, which is fuller and much more to say, as the narrator trough an only one point of view (from an outsider’s perspective) would have told the event.

(This review was written for the challenge: Fall into Reading 09)

A literary investigation assisted by the readers

A. S Byatt: Possession. A romance
(1990.)

This novel was a pleasant surprise. I have seen the movie based on it, so, the story wasn’t new for me. But the book! The different style of texts: poems, diaries, letters, etc. Reading this book was a really great adventure.

The story is about a “literary investigation”, about (re)discovering the life and work of two (fictional) Victorian poets, Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte. People living in the 20. century belive they know everything about both persons, they are very self-confident how to interpret the works of them, till one day a young scholar discovers handwritten drafts of a letter by Ash, and he starts to investigate. He wants to keep this secret for himself, he don’t like the working style of his colleagues, but he is forced to share this secret with Maud Bailey, a feminist Christabel LaMotte- scholar.

Sometimes it reminds me of The French Lieutenant’s Woman (of the movie and not the book), because of the parallel story of the two poets in the 19. Century and the story of the two scholars in the late 20. Century. Two love stories, actually.

The reader can follow the researching through the reading of the several letters the quotes from diaries and the quotes from studies of other scholars. (All these texts are of course written by A. S. Byatt).

Of course, the colleagues learn that some great discovery is being prepared, and they want to take part in the great success of the news: the two poets had actually a perfectly different life than it was known.

I really enjoyed the parodies of the different scholar types, my favourite was Beatrice Nest, who's thoughts no one takes seriously, even though the reader knows she's right in some things about Ash's wife.

The book has a double happy end. First the protagonists end their investigation with a great success. They may think they have solved all the secrets, but the reader can learn in the last chapter something, which the scholars never will. That’s why some reviewers say about the book it’s not fit for the label “historiogrphic metafiction”, because there is a classic omnipotent third person narrator, who share informations with the readers very self-confidently.

But on the other hand it’s still a typically postmodern fiction. Not only because the fictional poets and their fictional works, and the different interpretations, but through the option, we can form the own opinion about the important texts in the book, and compare with the interpretations by the characters. Which makes the reading more exciting.

(this post was written for The Decades Challenge '09)

Nice and easy story with happy end

Somerset Maugham: Theatre
1937


A nice and easy story about a famous actress middle 40 falling in love with a young man.
Julia Lambert is a celebrated actress in London in the late 1920's, early 1930's. She is even the most talented and the best actress in whole England. But she is 46 years old.

Old... old... old.

One day she meets a young man Tom Fennel, the new bookkeeper of Julia's and her husband's company. The boy is nice and sweet and very self-confident. It's a bit strange for Julia, that Tom doesn’t adore her like a goddess, she is just a new love (new girlfriend) for him. But she enjoys the affair. Tom also enjoys this relationship, he is a real snob, he loves the parties, the dinners, the picnics with important and famous people, with the members of the aristocracy. He loves all this, and not Julia.

So, Julia falls in love with Tom, but Tom falls in love with a young and ambitious actress, Avice Chrichton. The girl doesn't love Tom, he is for her like Julia for Tom, just a chance to get a great life, for a great career.

Meanwhile Julia and Tom broke up, Julia plays in the theatre terribly, she needs some time without acting, and she starts thinking about her life. She have to think about it, even her son criticizes her, she hasn’t a real own character, she is just from the characters she used to play.

In the new season Avice Chrichton gets a role in the new play in Julia's company. It's perfect for Julia to show she is still a great actress, she is even more better then ever, the plan is perfect, and she implements the plan perfectly. She ha a great success. So, it's a story with happy end.

Something familiar

Isabel Allende: The House of the Spirits
(1982)

First of all I had to admit, I don’t like the magic realism, or better to say, I never liked the maybe most famous novel with elements of magic realism, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But reading The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende it was an utterly other experience.

The House of the Spirits is a difficult story with many-many important characters, so I try to summarize the story, but I'm not sure, I'll manage it perfectly. Let's see:

The story is set in Chile and it includes almost the whole 20. century. This story is about the three generations of the family Trueba , more exactly about the three generations of women in the family Trueba.

Clara Trueba (née del Valle) has paranormal power, as a young girl she could predict a death in the family, and after her oldest sister Rose (an extraordinary beauty with green-hair) has died accidentally by poisoning, she stops to speak for nine years, and she starts again when she predicts Esteban Trueba (the former fiancé of Rose) will marry her.

Clara gives birth to three children, to a daughter, Blanca, and a twin boy Jaime and Nicolas.

Her husband, Esteban Trueba, the main male character of the novel is a hard man, he used to work very hard even as a child, and he is very proud he has become a rich man. The Truebas have the hacienda Las Tres Marias, he has changed it with hard work to a prosperous estate.

He has principles, the most important he has many respect to private property, and he hates socialists, but the son of his foreman, Pedro Tercero is a socialist and in love with Estebans daughter, Blanca. He hates Pedro Tercero too and wants to kill him, especially after it has became clear, Blanca is pregnant. Esteban forces his daughter to marry the French count Jean de Satigny, it's an unhappy marriage, not only because the husband is homosexual. (Blanca discovers it only just with months after their marriage.)Oh, and not to forget, Blanca was told, Pedro Tercero is dead, he is killed by her father. (But it's of course a lie.)

Meanwhile Esteban Trueba starts his political career, as one of the conservative members of the Parlaiment. But after many-many years, when Blanca's daughter Alba is already a student, the Conservative Party lost the votes, and the People Party, (the socialists) wins.

Esteban is fearing of a communist dictatorship (like in the Soviet union), he gives money and guns for a military coup of the socialist government. But it grows out of control, and it becomes really a dictatorship, (although the rich people can continue their life like before the socialist government.)

Jaime, the son of Esteban has killed during the military coup (the other son, Nicolas is sent by his father abroad, because of the scandals he ha made by his strange ideas).

Blanca (she has an affair with Pedro Tercero since some years again) is hiding his lover (he had an important role in the socialists government), Alba tries to help other people, but soon she is made the personal prisoner of Colonel Esteban Garcia (an illegitimate grandson of Esteban Trueba). In pure hatred of her privileged life and eventual inheritance García tortures Alba repeatedly.

But Esteban managed to free Alba with the help of Transito Soto an good old friend (a prostitute with influence) from his days as a young man.

Esteban and Alba lives in the big house of the Truebas alone. Clara has died some years ago, Blanca and Pedro Tercero managed to flee to Canada, Jaime is dead, Nicolas is far from his home, we know nothing about him...

So, Esteban and Alba start to write the memoirs of their family based mostly on Clara's diaries. Alba continues it alone after the dead of her grandfather.

And this memoir is basically the text of the novel we just finish to read.

I mentioned, I don't like the magic realism. It's too strange for me, but this novel The House of Spirits is something I like. I would say, it's more familiar to an European who likes family stories, than the other works by Latin -American authors.

The post was written for The Decade Challenge 09

It was funny, but....

E. M. Forster: A Room with a View, 1908

A little funny satire about Edwardian England, but unfortunately nothing more.

Lucy Honeychurch is a young woman, travels with her cousine Charlotte to Italy, to Florence. In the Pension Bertolini they meet with two men, the Emersons (father and son) on a quite unusually way, Lucy and Charlotte were promised to get a room with view in this pension, but they got another ones, so Mr. Emerson (the father) offers their rooms to the ladies. Charlotte worries about is it gentlemanlike or not, and even the other guests want standing figure out, are the Emersons gentlemen or not? Today it seems sometimes to ridiculous this standing worrying, but I can imagine those days it was for a woman like Charlotte the quintessence of the life. Later, during a little trip George (the son) kisses Lucy, but they are interrupted by Charlotte and the two women leave Florence immediately.

In the second part of the book, we met the two ladies again in Surrey, England, in Lucy’s family home Windy Corner. Cecil Vyse, a young gentleman propose to Lucy at the third time (twice in Rome after the ladies’ escape from Florence),and she accepts. But the Emersons move near to Windy Corner into a cottage, after meeting with George (and kissed by him again) Lucy break up her engagement with Cecil, not because she is sure in her feeling to George, but even she is very confused. After all, of course, there is a happy end....

….and the life is beautiful, amor vincit omnia, there are no any bigger problems in the world, than to get or not get a room with a view.

E. M. Forster's first novel is optimistic and romantic, there are quite interesting characters (like Cecil, or the vicar Mr. Beebe), and the scene Cecil reads exactly that story in a book inspired by the kiss between Lucy and George is very funny, but I think this novel is not for me, its funny and amusing. Nothing more just funny.

(This post was written for The Decade Challenge 09)

The importance of being a poet

The Meeting at Telgte [Das Treffen in Telgte] by Günter Grass

( 1979)

The reason why I’ve read this book was quite simply: I was curious, is there any connection between this novel and the other one, The True Story of Jacob Wunschwitz by Laszlo Marton, who is the Hungarian translator of Grass’ book.

As I mentioned already, the "Jacob Wunschwitz"(unfortunatelly, it isn't any English translation yet) is a starting point for my researching about historical novels, and Grass’ story is set (almost) in the same place and the same period: Germany in the 17. century.

I have to admit, I’ve read only one book by Grass before, The Call of the Toad, I think, it isn’t among his most famous works. Even not The Meeting at Telgte.

Unfortunately, when I wouldn’t have any special aim with this book (see above), probably I would have never finish it.

The story is about poets and other learned men are meeting in an inn in Telgte, near to Ostnabrück and Münster, where the Peace of Westfalia (1648) was signed. Because this story is played in the middle of the century (exactly in 1647), I think, it’s easy to find a connection with the 20. century, and the WW2, which was an another “good” time thinking about the role and importance of arts.

I think, it’s a bit like The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse, it’s an allegory about the European culture too. The poets are talking about poetics and linguistics problem (for example: we can read about the dispute why is better the “Hochdeutsch” dialect for being the official German language), but they also write a proclamation about the peace, and that is the point I think, it’s a bit ironic story: are those some poets so important personalities that the politicians will care about their opinion?

There is a Hungarian poem about the poet should lead the people to Canaan, it’s written in the middle of the 19. century, and shows the romantic ideology about the role of artists. As I know, it’s a typically Central-European attitude and connected with the revolutionary movements in this period. But hundred years later, when this book was written, it seems to be ridiculous (and 150 years later even more ridiculous), and I think, that is the theme of The Meeting at Telgte. The irony how Grass writes about this ideology.

And I think, that is also the weakness of this book. It’s more about a though, about an idea, and less about characters. I can remember the names of the protagonists (these poets existed in the real life) but hardly of their traits. Except only one, the innkeeper. This woman is called sometimes Courage, which is a quite interesting reference to Brecht’s famous work: Mother Courage and Her Children.

Summing up, The Meeting at Telgte has an interesting theme, but the way Grass writes about it, I think, it’s not for me.

(This review was written for the German Reading Challenge and The Decades Challenge)

Review: Therapy in historical context

It’s definitely an interesting question. Not even for us, here and now in the 21. century, when the ID card, the passport, or other important documents are part of the every day life, when we have photographs and videos about or all life, about most of the important moments, but for example for the people living in the 17. century.

The heroine of the novel A kigyo arnyeka [The shadow of the serpent] by Zsuzsa Rakovszky puts the question to herself, all the terrible occurrences about she writes in her memories (which is the content of the novel) have happened really, or it has been only a nightmare.

Ursula Lehmann is a daughter of a chemist in the rich North-Hungarian town Locse in the early 17. century. Locse is an important town in the history of Hungary and n the history of the Hungarian literature. The citizens of this town were mostly German settlers, like in many town in Hungary, and they lived a strictly organised life. The senate has brought under control the number of the guest of the wedding, christening, the kind of the clothes should wear the womans, etc. Maybe it’s just a legend, like the story of the one year mourning for the major of the town, when he was killed. But on the other hand it just remembers the strict controls of the morals in the story The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne.

The pregnancy of the heroine, this unmarried young girl plays a main role in this story too. But a bit different way. It’s the beginning of a series of lies, common and individual sins, an utterly new way turning to of a young woman’s life.

There are big sins is this story. Incest, murder, etc, but it’s so easy to say everybody is just the victim of the circumstances.

Ursula, the heroine and narrator of the story describes her dreams and nightmares fairly often. It's like a therapy, writing about anxieties, sometimes I feel, this whole book, the memories of an extraordinary old woman, teling her life is just like a therapy in historical context.

Review: In the shadow of a despotic father

Ondrok gödre by Imre Oravecz

(published:2007; Jelenkor)

Living in a village in the middle of the country at the end of the 19.century.

Living in the village Szajla and being a part of a wealthy peasant family, the Arvais. It’ s a small world about we can read, only some characters, mostly from this family, and the two opposite characters are father and son: Janos Arvai, and Istvan Arvai.

Janos is a strongand clever man, someone, who’s property is growing and growing, he is always tries out something new, and he works really-really hard… but he is also a despot, he wants his family member, his children be the same perfect someone as him.

Istvan is his eldest son, we can see how he grows up, how he starts working with age 4 or 5 (that was usual in the peasant life that time). He is a sensible but an intelligent someone. He has the chance to go to high school, but his father decides against it, he needs the boy at the estate, Istvan should be a peasant like his father and not a useless dandy. After his marriage he (and his own family) wants to live his own life and not the life in the shadow of his father. He can see only one solution: to work in the USA, became rich and return to home. The story ends with the scene, he, his wife and the little Imre are just leaving the village.

The story bases on the life of Oravecz’s grand-grandfather. It’s a realistic novel, but a bit different as the way of realistic storytelling in the early 20. century for example. The way how the classic writers show the peasant-life is either to idealistic or too dark, tragic. I think, Oravecz find an healthy middle-course. Obviously, the distance of more than 100 years between the life of the characters and the life of the writer helps him a lot.