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Obedience Revisited: The Undertaking by Audrey Magee

14/10/2014

6 Comments

 
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One of the most popular posts on Annecdotal over the last six months was my review of The Good Children by Roopa Farooki. The theme of the novel, which evoked a lively discussion, is the downside of obedience to authority as exposed by Stanley Milgram’s research. In a series of psychological experiments, members of the public showed themselves willing to give painful and damaging electric shocks to another volunteer if asked to do so by an authority figure. This research arose from the attempt to understand the atrocities committed by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Second World War. In her Bailey’s prize shortlisted debut, The Undertaking, Audrey Magee further illuminates this theme through the marriage of Peter Faber, an ordinary German soldier, and an ambitious young woman, Katharina Spinell.

The traditional Pakistani arranged marriage which Natasha Ahmed flagged up in the comments on my post seems almost romantic relative to Peter and Katharina’s union, motivated by his desire for leave from the front and hers for the hope of leaving home and a secure pension should her husband die in service. Yet love blossoms against the odds and it’s only the thought of his wife that sustains Peter through the ill-conceived midwinter assault on Stalingrad. She, meanwhile, in conjunction with her acquisitive mother and excessively compliant father, is helping herself to the luxuries left behind in Berlin by the deported Jews.

One of the uncomfortable pleasures of this novel is how we are exposed to everyday acts of cruelty perpetrated by characters we care about. Katharina’s lack of compassion for the Jewish mother who must carry her hungry baby in her arms while Katharina pushes hers in a state-of-the-art pram mirrors Peter’s and his fellow soldiers’ eviction of families from their homes to their certain death in the bitter snow. Because we know about the concentration camps, the couple’s rationalisations of their behaviour seem especially delusional. Yet because we know they were on the losing side in the war, their dreams of a golden future have a particular poignancy. (The omnipotent fantasies and blind patriotism of the Japanese is portrayed in a similar way in The Narrow Road to the Deep North.) We’re also given an insight into how the humiliation experienced by their country during the First World War has secured their commitment to the Second, a cultural consequence of transgenerational trauma flagged up by Lori Schafer in relation to my post on that theme.

Stylistically, the novel unfolds through short scenic chapters with a preponderance of dialogue, almost as if it were a radio play. Chapter 25 consists entirely of a brief conversation between Katharina and her father after her severely traumatised brother becomes another casualty of war: 
 Mrs Spinell went to bed and remained there under blankets in her dressing gown.
‘Should we fetch Dr Weinart?’ asked Katharina.
‘She’ll come out of it,’ said Mr Spinell. ‘Just give her time. It is a terrible thing for a mother.’
‘And for a father?’
‘Of course.’
‘Do you feel guilty, Father?’
‘No, Katharina. Should I?’
‘I don’t know. I do.’
‘Why?’
‘That he went back.’
‘There was nothing to be done.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘We have to play our part, Katharina. To follow orders.’
‘No matter what the consequences?’
‘Otherwise it’s chaos.’
‘It’s chaos, anyway.’
‘It will be worth it.’
‘Worth Johannes?’
‘He would have understood.’
 
This is a society in which love is a liability, as Katharina discovers when she attempts to stay loyal to her husband after his “disgrace” in surrendering to the enemy. But when Berlin falls, and Katharina discovers both the limits of the Nazis’ generosity and the universal brutality of soldiers, the marriage contract undertaken by the couple is severely tested.

Thank you Atlantic Books for my review copy of The Undertaking. For more about this novel the author’s ideas behind it, see my Q&A with Audrey Magee. You can discover more about the obedience experiments by watching the video on my post The Tragedy of Obedience. My short story on this theme, The Experiment Requires, has now been published by Fiction on the Web. For other angles on the treatment of the Jews under the Nazi regime, see my reviews of In Paradise and By Blood. 
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
6 Comments
geoff link
16/10/2014 04:42:18 pm

It is interesting reading about Katharina and her ignorance deliberate or otherwise) of the plight of the Jews and compare it with my father's letters from Palestine. On the one hand he talks with the bravado of the soldier, itching to 'sort out the terrorists' to give them 'what for', dehumanising them I order to see them as enemies alone; yet when he has to board a refugee ship to send it to Cyprus he is horrified at the piteous sights he sees, and while he talks about wanting harsh sentences handed down to 'murdering terrorists', when he is part of the party at Dov Gruner's funeral and has to see the hanged body before it is shrouded he is sickened. The dilemma is stark and, given he was not then 21, almost unbelievable. Equally it is hardly surprising he sanitised his experiences as time passed. The more I read of his time there, the more I see the reality biting and the difficulty he finds in holding the two contradictory positions - it is touching and gratifying to see the humanity winning out (thought I have some still to read!).
I've spoken about this before in comments to your great reviews but somehow it seems these novels and your analysis bring the concepts back to the front.

Reply
Annecdotist
17/10/2014 10:32:59 am

Thanks, Geoff, it's so interesting that you are coming across these parallels. There's a general tendency to see the "other side" as all bad that's hard to resist – it certainly makes life easier, especially when you've been put in uniform and give a gun. Another one for your TBR list?

Reply
Norah Colvin link
19/10/2014 05:51:48 pm

Your short story 'The Experiment Requires' is brilliant Anne, but very scary too. What terrible things one human will do to another is portrayed on a variety of levels.

Reply
Annecdotist
20/10/2014 05:17:26 am

Thanks for reading, Norah. I liked that story but still not sure if I've got the ending right. Perhaps it could be even scarier?

Reply
Paula link
21/10/2014 09:48:10 am

Did you read The Book Thief, Anne? Folks are more familiar with the movie these days, which I haven't seen. It's a nice counterpoint to the pain of knowing the lowest things people can do. I do have to say I love the way you review. It really makes me want to read what you read. I suppose authors must love that too!

Reply
Annecdotist
22/10/2014 02:54:20 am

Thanks for the recommendation, Paula – another one I've heard of but haven't yet read.
Glad you like my reviews. I suppose I tend to write about what interests me in the novel which may not give a full and comprehensive account, so I very much appreciate feedback on when it works. The authors themselves very rarely comment – I think they need to keep a slight distance to stay impartial – but I'm often thanked on twitter, which is nice. Although I also fear offending others when I'm not so complimentary, but feel it is most important to be honest.

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