Monthly Archives: September 2012

Richard Bausch: Peace (2008) Literature and War Readalong September 2012

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Richard Bausch’s Peace (2008) is set in Italy during WWII. An American  recon squad comes upon a group of people and a cart. A German officer and a German prostitute are hiding on the wagon. When they turn it around, the German officer opens fire and kills two of the young American soldiers. Corporal Marson shoots him, while Sergeant Glick shoots the woman in the head.

It’s the end of WWII and German troops are retreating but not without trying to take down anyone they can with them. The mountains are hostile territory, it’s cold and it rains constantly. The little troop of men is demoralized. The life of a recon squad is usually very dangerous, they have to find out where the German line is and might accidentally already be behind the lines. After the shooting of the officer and the whore, three of the men are sent on recon again. Sgt Marson, Ash and Joyner. On their way they meet Angelo, a frail and very old Italian man and force him to guide them.

Marson, Ash and Joyner are as different as three people can be. Marson is the oldest, he’s 26, married and has a child. Joyner and Ash are 20. Ash seems to be deeply traumatized by something he experienced in Africa and which wakes him every night. He seems to be a good sort but starts to annoy Marson because he wants to denounce Glick. The murder of the prostitute has shocked him and he thinks Glick should be brought to justice. While Marson agrees with him, he feels it’s not the right time and he has problems of his own. They are on a very dangerous recon mission, it’s very cold and raining. They don’t know where they are and have to rely on a man he doesn’t completely trust. Many of the Italians have surrendered, many never really participated but there are still a lot of fascists who would gladly kill them. Plus he fights a battle with his conscience. Before shooting the German officer he had never killed anyone up close and the memory of it makes him sick. Tensions between the four people would be high anyway but Joyner is an aggressive bigot, anti-Jews, anti-Communists, anti-drinking. But swearing and abusing people constantly which is a huge contradiction.

Matters get even worse when it starts snowing and they hear shots. They find a dead German and later hear more shots coming from a village where, as the old man explains, Jews are being executed.

The three men are really tested and have to go to their limits. They fight the cold, are in enemy territory, traumatized by what they have seen so far and by their conscience.

I must honestly say I was not too impressed with this book. It’s told in chapters alternating between the past of the three men, what they had experienced in Palermo and their actual recon mission. The central conflict or theme, drawing the line between justified killing and murder, is shown but it didn’t move me. The book exemplifies how much it meant for soldiers to kill, it underlines that in WWII shooting someone from up close was in no way common and could cause a huge problem, triggering moral conflicts. Unfortunetly I never felt that conflict.

It’s hard to say why this book did so not work from me. I felt Bausch wanted to tell a story that wasn’t his and I suspect he watched a few movies in order to get a feel for what it was like but ultimately I felt he couldn’t make this story his and tell it in a moving way. In this it reminded me of Coventry but looking back I’d say, I liked that much more.

I’m aware this is a bit of an uninspired review but I’m really unfazed by this book.

I hope others did read along. I’m very interested to hear their thoughts.

Other reviews

Danielle (A Work in Progress)

Victoria (creativeshadows)

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Peace was the ninth book in the Literature and War Readalong 2012. The next one will be Maria Angels Anglada The Auschwitz Violin – El violí d’Auschwitz. Discussion starts on Monday 29 October, 2012.

Wednesdays Are Wunderbar – German Literature Month Giveaway I

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Those who followed German Literature Month last year know that Wednesdays are wunderbar because they are giveaway days!

This year we are splitting the giveaways into two batches. The first, this one, is a goody bag designed to complement the first half of the month during which we’ll be reading novellas and literary novels. It’s hosted by Lizzy, so if you are interested in winning one of the following books, make sure to visit her blog soon.

The first two novellas are courtesy of Pushkin Press, the next two are offered by Haus Publishing. The only novel among the titles,  The Bridge of the Golden Horn, is my contribution.

Burning Secret – Stefan Zweig (1913)
Set in an Austrian spa where a lonely twelve-year-old is befriended by a charming and enigmatic baron. As the boy gradually becomes infatuated with him, the older man heartlessly brushes him aside to turn his seductive attention to the boy’s mother.

Fear – Stefan Zweig (1913)
Irene Wagner has been married for eight years and is tired of her bourgeois and predictable existence as wife and mother. She starts an affair with an up-and-coming young pianist but finds herself being blackmailed by her lover’s former mistress. Irene is soon in the grip of an astonishing fear.

A Minute’s Silence – Siegfried Lenz (2009)
The delicately paced structure of Lenz’s novella begins with the memorial ceremony for a popular young English mistress, Stella Petersen, seamlessly alternating between this scene and eighteen-year-old Christian’s memory of a summer love affair with his tutor. They keep their mutual attraction concealed at school and as the season goes on the lovers continue to meet discreetly. Tragedy strikes when Stella goes on holiday with friends, sailing around the Danish islands. As the yacht returns to Hirtshafen at the end of the trip, a storm breaks. Before Christian’s eyes his beloved is flung overboard and fatally wounded. Lenz was twenty or thirty pages into writing A Minute’s Silence when his wife of fifty-six years died. Grief-stricken, he suffered from a serious bout of writer’s block and it seemed he would never finish the novel. With the passage of time, Lenz found that he could write again and complete this tender love story. Despite the obvious distance and difference of Lenz’s own long marriage and the brief, youthful passion of Christian for Stella, Lenz has wrought a well-aimed response to Auden’s famous request: ‘Tell me the truth about love.’

On the Edge – Markus Werner (2004)
When the cynical divorce lawyer Thomas Clarin finds himself at a table on the terrace of the Bellavista Hotel beside Thomas Loos, an eccentric, ageing philologist, hey strike up an unlikely conversation. Soon Clarin’s questions tease out stories from Loos’ past, and as both men slowly reveal more of themselves they are forced to question their opinions on love and life. The men are opposites; they intrigue and repel each other. But as the mystery of Loos’ past deepens, we begin it wonder if all as it seems.

The Bridge of the Golden Horn – Emine Sevqi Ozdamar (2002)
The Bridge of the Golden Horn is a coming-of-age novel, a sentimental education that is also a political, cultural and intellectual one. In 1966, at the age of 16, the unnamed heroine lies about her age and signs up as a migrant worker in Germany. She leaves Istanbul, works on an assembly line in West Berlin making radios, and lives in a women’s factory hostel. But this novel is not about the problems of assembly line work – it’s a witty, picaresque account of a precocious teenager refusing to become wise, of a hectic four years lived between Berlin and Istanbul, of a young woman who is obsessed by theatre, film, poetry and left-wing politics. These are sometimes grim years, particularly in Turkey, but they also have a hope and optimism that seem almost unimaginable today.

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Now all you have to do is visit Lizzy’s blog.

The competition is open internationally.

Antonio Tabucchi Week – Wrap Up

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Tabucchi Week is already over and I wanted to thank all of you who joined, read along, wrote reviews, commented and read other’s posts. I’m really happy that it was quite interactive and people visited each other’s blogs. There were quite a few very interesting discussions. I’m also happy that those who joined who didn’t know Tabucchi found an author whose work they want to continue exploring and those who knew him felt like returning to an old friend. I enjoyed the two books I chose a great deal and I’m also glad that I have discovered a few new blogs.

What I also loved was that many of the posts showed how wide Tabucchi’s range is and that everyone can find something else in his books. Quite a few people have read Pereira Maintains but every single post was completely different and highlighted other things, something I’ve rarely noticed when many people read the same novel.

Once more – Thank you so much for participating.

Below are all the participant reviews again (they are also in the intro post). In a few days I’ll set up a page which will allow to find the posts more easily. I’m pretty sure this isn’t the last author week I’ve hosted and knowing that I like a bit of a theme the next week will most probably also be dedicated to an Italian writer. No worries, though, not before next year.

It’s Getting Later All the Time – Brian (Babbling Books)

On Dreams of Dreams – Tom (Wuthering Expectations)

Pereira Declares – Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)

Pereira Maintains – TBM (50 Year Project)

Pereira Maintains – Vishy (Vishy’s Blog)

Pereira Maintains – Bettina (Liburuak)

Pereira Maintains – Andrew Blackman

Piazza d’Italia – Scott (seraillon)

Requiem – Caroline (Beauty is a Sleeping Cat)

The Edge of the Horizon – Caroline (Beauty is a Sleeping Cat)

The Flying Creatures of Fra Angelico – Stu (Winstons Dad’s Blog)

The Last Three Days of Fernando Pessoa with Bonus Lobster Recipe – Tom (Wuthering Expectations)

The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro – Richard (Caravana de Recuerdos)

Vanishing Point -1streading

Pereira Maintains (Book and Movie) and Requiem – Scribacchina (Parole/Words)

Antonio Tabucchi: The Edge of the Horizon – Il filo dell’ orizzonte (1986)

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I liked Requiem so much but I loved The Edge of the Horizon even more. Once more it’s the story of a quest but this time the narrator is not on a trip to a foreign city but in his hometown. The place isn’t named but it’s a small and old Italian town located on the seaside. Tabucchi’s narrators don’t always have names but this one has, he is called Spino and according to the afterword, the name is a reference to Spinoza.

Spino is in his forties and works at the local morgue. He is a failed student who never finished his studies of medicine. His girlfriend of many years hasn’t really let go of the idea that there might still be time, that there is still something different to come, that he might still be a doctor one day. They have their rituals and one of them is to go to the Laterna Magica on Saturday evenings. It’s an old cinema in a picturesque back yard which shows mostly retrospectives and old movies. Later they go to a bar which does homemade drinks with ice and peppermint. The bar is located high up in the city and from there they have a beautiful view down rambling small alleys illuminated by the many lights in the darkness.

When a young man without identity is shot and his body brought to the morgue, everything changes. Spino is obsessed by the idea to find out the identity of the young man and his quest leads him from one person to the next.

It’s obvious that he identifies with the young man, that he is looking for himself as much as he is looking for that man’s identity.

The story is typical Tabucchi. I loved it for the descriptions, the mood, the atmosphere but I’m aware it isn’t one of his books which is universally liked. The ending is abrupt and mysterious and you really have to decide for yourself what happened.

I liked it because it’s a very melancholic story and the descriptions are wonderful. Instead of taking a trip to Lisbon it was like taking a trip to one of those typical old Italian towns with the narrow and steep alleys. The book has many descriptions of quiet moments like this one towards the end:

When the night began to fall, he turned on the radio without turning on the light. He was smoking in the dark while looking out of the window and observing the lights in the harbor. He let time slip away. He enjoyed listening to the radio in the dark, it gave him a feeling of distance.

The Edge of the Horizon is a short novella and it’s also contained in the book with the title Vanishing Point which has been reviewed for Tabucchi Week by 1streading here.

While there are a lot of similarities between Requiem and The Edge of the Horizon, reading them so close together showed how masterful Tabucchi is as the voices of the two narrators are distinct, the writing conveys a similar atmosphere but the style is very different. Despite the mysterious ending, this novella is much more accessible than Requiem. Like Pereira Maintains and Indian Nocturne, it would be a good starting point if you’ve never read Tabucchi.

Announcing German Literature Month II – November 2012

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I’m so pleased that I can finally announce that German Literature Month is returning. Mark November in your calendar and join Lizzy and me for the occasion.

While we focused on countries last year, this year we are structuring the month around genres and literary formats.

Week 1 (November 1-7) Novellas, plays and poems
Week 2 (November 8-14) Literary Novels
Week 3 (November 15-21) Genre Fiction – Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Romance
Week 4 (November 22-30) Read as you please

We chose that sequence so that Judith’s previously announced Bernhard Schlink Week (November 11-17) would span both literary novels and genre week. So if you read something by Schlink this month, you can partake in two blogging events for the price of one. Cunning, don’t you think?

2012 is also the bi-centennial of the birth of the Brothers Grimm. We can’t let it pass without a Brothers Grimm Readathon. So we’ve put that in the calendar from 22-26 November.

My Literature and War Readalong of Gert Ledig’s The Stalin Front will bring the month to a close on the 30th.

I’m looking forward to another wonderful month with lots to read, discuss and discover. Please join us.

Looking for inspiration? Why don’t you browse through last year’s discussion or the German Literature Month 2011 page. You never know what you’ll be inspired to pick up.

Like last year there will be giveaways. Additionally I’m planning on doing a series of introductory posts during October.

Antonio Tabucchi: Requiem. A Hallucination – Requiem. Uma alucinação (1991)

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A few years ago I was on a trip through Spain and stopped in Sevilla. It was the beginning of August and incredibly hot. Most Spanish cities have rivers but you wouldn’t know that if you visit in summer because they are dry. A very peculiar sight for someone from central Europe.  The heat was scorching and I was out sitting in a park, it was only 9 a.m. The park’s sprinklers were on and the moment the water hit the asphalt, it turned into mist. So not only was it hot but quite humid. I had not specific plans but just wandered the city and stopped in parks, bars, restaurants and spoke to people. I haven’t done a similar trip in two years but when I started reading Tabucchi’s Requiem. A Hallucination it was exactly like being on my own, without specific plans and just immersing myself in a new place. The place in this case wasn’t Sevilla or any other Spanish city but the capital of Portugal, Lisbon. It’s equally hot in the book as it was on my trip and this catapulted me back in time. I realize I’m writing a lot about myself instead of writing about Tabucchi but there is a reason. I’m trying to put into words why this author means so much to me, why I love his books although they often, like in this case, are rather descriptions of a quest than a real story. There is just something I can relate to on a deeper level than with most other authors.

Since I’ve just read more than one Tabucchi in a very short time, I was reminded of one of the major themes of his work – the quest. His characters,be it in Indian Nocturne or in Requiem, are always looking for someone. Sometimes the person is real, sometimes the person is just some sort of magnet which attracts the narrator but what he really is looking for is himself.

In Requiem the nameless narrator finds himself aimlessly wandering through the sweltering city of Lisbon. He thought he had an appointment with someone at midday but the person didn’t show up and so he’s left on his own for another twelve hours as the meeting will take place at midnight instead. The person the narrator will meet is the famous writer Fernando Pessoa.

The narrator seems to be dreaming with open eyes, no wonder, after all the book is subtitled “A Hallucination” and we follow him from the park to a bar, to the cemetery, to a restaurant, a hotel, an abandoned villa and finally to another restaurant where he will dine with Pessoa. On his meanderings through the hot summer city he will meet people who are dead already, people from his past, people who still exist and some who never existed.

While this may sound confusing, it isn’t because Tabucchi is a very descriptive writer and the book is more than anything else an homage to Lisbon and everything the city represents for Tabucchi. This includes the people, the food, the music, the atmosphere. As dreamlike as the story may be, it is on the other hand described in an amazingly realistic way and you have the feeling to be there and explore the city through the eyes and the other senses of the narrator. It is an atmospherical and sensual account at the same time.

It seems that one of the things Tabucchi must have liked the most about Portugal was the cuisine. He mentions numerous dishes and recipes in the book. It’s interesting because most of the dishes are poor people’s dishes. Things they cook with leftovers. A frequent ingredient is bread. I have never eaten Portuguese cuisine and to be entirely honest it’s not likely I will as they include a lot of ingredients which I do not eat but it’ still interesting and the way the food is described you can almost taste and smell it.

Requiem is a complex book and can be read in many different ways. To fully appreciate it, I would have to read it once more. There were a few things that struck me during a first reading. The love for Portugal and Lisbon, the quest-like search. The admiration for Pessoa. The mysteries and complexities of life. Memories, dreams, illusions.

What I liked best is that reading Requiem felt so much like exploring a city as a traveller not so much as a tourist. When I’m a tourist I might visit all the places you “have to see” but when I travel, I let the city guide me. The city and it’s people. There will always be someone in a foreign city who will show you something which is worth discovering. A hidden street, a secret corner, a bar to which only the natives go. It’s this type of exploration you will encounter in Requiem. It’s a book for those who do not mind getting lost, knowing very well that they find a world worth discovering on their way.

Tabucchi’s love of Portugal and Lisbon was so intense that he wrote this novel in Portuguese stating in the foreword that no other language, other than maybe Latin which he didn’t master, seemed appropriate.

Tabucchi mentions Portuguese music and this reminded me of the wonderful singer Misia and her fados. Her videos are all visually compelling. This one was directed by John Turturro.

While finishing the book I discovered that the book has been made into a movie by Swiss filmmaker Alain Tanner. The movie is in French/Portuguese. I’ve attached it. You can watch the whole of it on YouTube. I’m not sure it exists with English subtitles but it’s possible.

Antonio Tabucchi Week

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Antonio Tabucchi Week is finally approaching. It’s starting tomorrow and this is really just a very quick introduction to the week and some info for those who participate. I’m going to post two reviews, one on Tuesday and one either Friday or Saturday and will wrap up on Monday in a week.

I spent the last week reading Tabucchi and was quite captivated by my choices. I wanted to read Pereira Maintains but then I dipped into another two of his books and one of them hooked me right away.

Tabucchi has written quite a few very short books, so if you haven’t started yet, there is still time until Sunday.

If you are participating and have reviewed something, please, leave a link in the comment section of this post.  I’ll add it to this post. Once the week is over you can still access the links either via this post or via the page I will set up.

Participant reviews

It’s Getting Later All the Time – Brian (Babbling Books)

On Dreams of Dreams – Tom (Wuthering Expectations)

Pereira Declares – Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)

Pereira Maintains – TBM (50 Year Project)

Pereira Maintains – Vishy (Vishy’s Blog)

Pereira Maintains – Bettina (Liburuak)

Pereira Maintains – Andrew Blackman

Piazza d’Italia – Scott (seraillon)

Requiem – Caroline (Beauty is a Sleeping Cat)

The Edge of the Horizon – Caroline (Beauty is a Sleeping Cat)

The Flying Creatures of Fra Angelico – Stu (Winstons Dad’s Blog)

The Last Three Days of Fernando Pessoa with Bonus Lobster Recipe – Tom (Wuthering Expectations)

The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro – Richard (Caravana de Recuerdos)

Vanishing Point -1streading

Pereira Maintains (Book and Movie) and Requiem – Scribacchina (Parole/Words)