"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Ivan's War - Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945 (Catherine Merridale, 2006)

At the beginning of the book - highly reviewed - I was getting disappointed.  Much of the content was narrative about key WWII battles in which the Red Army participated - stuff that I've read about and wasn't looking for more detail at the moment -Kursk, Stalingrad, Stalingrad, Leningrad, Moscow, Berlin, etc.

The author also was trying to describe "how it felt", and I thought her effort paled in comparison to this one (though I see its author was recruited for a blurb on the back jacket).

But I liked this better as I went along.  Quick, easy read; interesting, all in all.

The Russian soldier must have had the most difficult experience of the WWII combatants (recognizing this is difficult, and probably just plain wrong, to try to rank).  But think about it.  The country came through the czarist upheavals, Bolshevik takeover, WWI failures, Red v. White civil war, Stalin's tightening grip, 1930s terror, collectivization, starvation in the Ukraine, intense army purges, hateful rhetoric toward Germany, then a non-aggression pact with Germany - this was before war broke out.

Stalin then froze up, the Germans almost took the country, millions were killed or taken prisoner.  Horrific fighting.  Utter disregard for loss of life among Soviet leaders.  Much of Russia overrun - with unbelievable brutality - by the Nazis.  Low level of professionalism in the army - too much influence of the political advisers.  One defeat after the next.  Can't overstate what the Nazis did to the Slavs - completely different behavior than in, for example, France.

Penal battalions.  Blocking units - to shoot down folks trying to run away from the front.

Yet they came together after Stalingrad - simply amazing.

As they pushed the Germans back through Russia and its territories - these areas were devastated a second time.

As the Russians advanced into Romania and beyond - shocked to see that capitalist countries lived so well.  (Yes, apparently even Romania looked pretty good in comparison to Russia in those days.)

Into Germany - pillaging, brutal rapes, constantly; fed by propaganda from the top.  This left a sour taste for many - not what they signed up for.  Difficult fighting all the way to Berlin.

Even though archives became available - very little in them, at least as discovered so far.  Censors controlled.  Similarly, surviving soldiers generally didn't want to talk much - part of the coping mechanism, I suppose, similar even for US vets.

After the war - some talk of heroes, and genuine gratitude.  But Stalin didn't want to share glory.  Moreso, these folks moved back into a wrecked country, that had been at war longer, that had been occupied and terrorized by worst behavior; back into a socialist system, collectives, famine, suspicion, transports, complete denial of any psychological problems, limited support.

Just amazing.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Between the Woods and the Water (Patrick Leigh Fermor, 1986)


I became aware of this book in a discussion of "travel" books.  It's that - and much more.  Relatively short.  Delightful.  (It's also a wonderful companion to this book about pre-WWI Austria - pure coincidence I read them so closely in time.)  

In the 1930s, the author (Fermor) - then youthful - set off on foot from Holland to Constantinople (as it was then known) after not thriving at school in England.  He took notes along the way, in varying degrees of detail depending on circumstances.  (Yes, it's quite a journey.)

In the 1940s, Fermor was in the British army - interestingly, using his knowledge of the area that included Greece and Crete (in part learned on the 1930s stroll-about) - and became a well-known war hero.  He parachuted into Crete, kidnapped a German general, smuggled him into Egypt.  Among other things.

In his 60s, Fermor started turning his 1930s adventures into book form.  So he was a very different Fermor than the wandering youth.  I'm guessing this is one of the two biggest reasons why the book works so well.  The book was intended to be released in three parts (though the third part didn't happen).  This book is number two in the sequence - when Fermor, 19 years old, travels from the Danube on the border between Hungary and Slovakia, to the "Iron Gates" at the border of Romania and (what was then called) Yugoslavia.  This book was written in the 1980s.

The other big reason the book is so wonderful - the timing of his walk - 1930s - much had already changed as a result of World War I, but Fermor saw, up-close, a world that was shattered in the 1940s and isolated behind the Iron Curtain for 40+ years thereafter.  The stories of his encounters seem scarcely possible in the 20th century.  Yet it was written less than 30 years ago - amazing.

Some things I liked:

1.  His use of the English language is delightful.

2.  As this book so interestingly explained - this part of the world was actually heavily integrated into Europe for centuries - after decades behind the Iron Curtain, we tend to think of its separate-ness, or other-ness.  This biography of Lizst made the same point in a different way.  Educated folks in this part of the world looked to the West prior to WWII, and were part of "Europe."

3.  As this book so interestingly explained - this part of the world also was heavily involved with the East - primarily the Ottoman Turks.  Extensive Muslim influence going back centuries.  Fermor wandered near many famous battlegrounds.  Hungary was dominated by Constantinople for many years.

4.  Fermor intended to live among the commoners while traveling on foot.  But he had introductions to nobility in Hungary, and was rather passed along from welcoming house to welcoming house (all the way into Romania).  He expressed some guilt about straying from plan, but clearly was massively enjoying these encounters.  Hungarian nobility wasn't necessarily all that wealthy, at least in a cash sense, in those days.  And there were lots of Hungarian counts floating around.  But they certainly retained the old traditions of hospitality.

5.  Interesting background on the Magyars, Habsburgs, etc.  And about rivalries with Romania, Serbia, etc.  He covers the Louis Kossuth events, which were interestingly explained in this book

6.  He wanders through Romania - which included areas of Hungarian population - explains Vlad the Impaler plus the Dracula origins (derived from dragon).  Explains the wandering tribes that, over the centuries, populated these areas.

7.  Carpathians, Wallachia, Moldova.  Now I have a better feel for this geography.  (Which is helping as I finish a book about the Red Army heading toward Berlin in 1944.)

8.  Fermor encounters numerous gypsy settlements.  And old-style shepherds.  In the 20th century!

9.  He runs into odd Christian and Jewish sects - fascinating histories - thoroughly isolated - reformation and counter-reformation reached here, but only about so much.

10.  Old-style forests - beautiful descriptions of nature - where wolves and bears still lived.

11.  Certainly didn't know or recall that the Romans were very active in campaigns against the Dacians.  Which does bring to mind "Romania" as a place-name.  High level of activity right near the "Iron Gates." 

This book was fascinating in its own right, but fit in so well with other things I find interesting.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

quote-source

Partly because I use his quotes atop both of my principal blogs, I found this article (riffing on a Daily Beast writer (an odd reference for me)) to be interesting:  Montaigne: The Father of Us All.   ("Sullivan is right to hail Montaigne as the literary father of the blog and the world of blogging continues to move along the lines Montaigne first laid out.")

OK, what I'm doing here isn't along those lines at all, but still.  Montaigne = unusually interesting.

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Night Train to Lisbon (Pascal Mercier, 2004)

Unusual read for me - a (relatively) current novel.  I liked this quite a bit.  Thoughtful, deliberate, meditative, unusual.

A teacher (Gregorius) of classics in a Bern (Switzerland) high school has an enigmatic (and brief) encounter with a Portuguese woman while heading to his school.  He's ready for change; runs into a book by a Portuguese author (Amadeu Prado) by happenstance in a local bookstore immediately after this encounter; the book speaks to him (let's say) and he ends up on the night train to Lisbon.  And just like that:  Gregorious is retired from a long-ish career at his high school and off to some developments in Portugal.

The book discovered by Gregorius included a collection of essays by Amadeu (a Portuguese doctor who wrote for his own understanding, not an author).  Amadeu had ended up in some very difficult situations under the Salazar dictatorship (of which this book gave me a good overview) some thirty years previous, and died of an aneurysm shortly after those events.  Gregorius searches for information to understand Amadeu and his writings (and, simultaneously, himself).

Characters were very well developed:

Adriana - Amadeu's older sister
Melodie - Amadeu's younger sister
Father Bartolomeu - Amadeu's high school teacher
Joao Eca - torture victim
Jorge O'Kelly - Amadeu's best friend growing up
Mariana Eca - eye doctor
Silveira - Portuguese businessman with whom Gregorius strikes up a friendship
Maria Joao - Amadeu's confidant (going back to high school)
Estafania Espinhosa - joined resistance, came between Amadeu and Jorge.

We learn about Amadeu's father (twisted by disease, a judge), mother, wife (Fatima); Gregorious's family ; etc.

They traveled to Finisterre - what a great place-name.

I don't know exactly what this was about.  The characters explore words, books, philosophers, knowledge, self-knowledge, limits of knowledge, religion, relationships, love, mortality, decisions when faced with power (torture), on and on.  They play chess and smoke.  They observe that heavy readers are different people.  Somehow in all this I actually cared about the characters (though sometimes the passages from Amadeu's book seemed long).  This is worth reading, and I think worth revisiting.