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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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The end of Empires: The Radetzky March & Like a Sword Wound

11/10/2018

6 Comments

 
Two translated historical novels set at the beginning of the twentieth century about empires in decline. Through them, I’ve slightly narrowed the gap in my ignorance of the Habsburg and Ottoman empires, and whetted my appetite to learn more. Although it’s refreshing to take the focus away from the British Empire in fiction, I’d prefer to take a female perspective next time or, failing that, to zoom in on a key character right from the start. See what you think!


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The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
translated by Michael Hofmann

Carl Joseph Trotta has been training for war since the age of seven. But war is a long time coming. An indifferent rider, he nevertheless joins a cavalry regiment from cadet school, where the social side of the military life in the officers’ mess proves a continual trial. When an act of chivalry forces his only friend to risk his life in a duel, Carl Joseph finds some small consolation in the opportunity for a transfer.
 
He’s only slightly more suited to his second posting in the (lower status) infantry in a swampy garrison town on the eastern border of the Habsburg Empire. He manages the boredom of leading the troops in regular drills with ninety percent proof alcohol and, later, gambling. Embarking on an affair with an older Viennese woman leads him heavily into debt.
 
Carl Joseph has attained the rank of lieutenant not on account of his own merits, but from the legacy of his grandfather, the “hero of Solferino”, whose act of gallantry saved the Emperor’s life. In contrast to his illustrious ancestor, known to him only through stories and the painting that hangs in his father’s house, Carl Joseph perceives himself as responsible for too many meaningless deaths.
 
It took me a good hundred pages to appreciate this novel, originally published in German in 1932. A contemporary writer might have placed the backstory of Carl Joseph’s father and grandfather as flashback rather than relating events chronologically, to introduce the reader more quickly to the plot. Perhaps the plot was present from the outset, but I was slow to empathise with the miserable lives of the elite (p190):
 
They all had had a miserable institutional boyhoods, tough adolescent years in the military academy, grim years on duty at the frontier.
 
Both growing up motherless and with emotionally distant fathers, Carl Joseph and his father have perhaps had more miserable childhoods than even the norms of the period. Personality is sacrificed for position, desire for duty; as a reader who appreciates character-driven novels, this left me initially adrift. But I’m also interested in characters, like Carl Joseph, who don’t feel free to live their own lives, and claim their own identities; there are a few stories in my forthcoming anthology,
Becoming Someone, about the confusion of self with role.
 
In The Radetzky March, this is beautifully illustrated in the putting on and taking off of the uniforms which, we discover when war finally comes, prove as unsuitable for the battlefield as they were for strutting around town (p351):
 
The mud smacked together over the boots of the soldiers, and spattered the spotless uniforms of the officers marching to their regulation deaths. Their long sabres got in their way; the magnificent, long-haired pompoms dangling from their black and yellow sashes were now tangled, wet and mired by thousands of little spots of mud.
 
Author and translator imbue the text with a deft balance of deadpan humour and compassion for characters embroiled in the death throes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Over a century on from these events, it might be comforting to look back on the ridiculous regime that prized honour above life, and accidents of birth above ability. Unfortunately, in the age of global warming, Trump and Brexit, we know first-hand how an entire civilisation can go crazy and sow the seeds of our own destruction in the things we treasure most of all.
 
I’m glad I persisted with this jewel of a novel. Thanks to Granta books for my review copy.



Like a Sword Wound by Ahmet Altan
translated by Yelda Türedi & Brendan Freely

At the turn of the twentieth century, life is good for the elite in the beautiful city of Istanbul, at least on the surface. But are their magnificent mansions sufficient compensation for the constant fear of offending the Sultan, or of being accused of doing so? Spies and informers are as abundant as beggars, and perhaps more noticeable, since the pashas are adept at turning a blind eye to the poor. But the world is changing, and perhaps change will be forced upon the Ottoman Empire too. The Bulgarian, Armenian and Macedonian peoples are looking for more autonomy, while students, exiles and low-ranking army officers are increasingly conscious of the greater freedoms available to citizens elsewhere.
 
Through a wide cast of characters, Ahmet Altan explores the politics of a dying Empire and the rise of the Turkish identity, while hinting at the parallels more than a century on. With themes of religion, nationalism, freedom of speech and the veiling of women, this historical novel is uncannily topical, especially as it seems that, even within a supposed democratic system, Turkey is returning to tyranny once more. Indeed, the author is one of several writers and journalists currently incarcerated on charges of sedition.
 
For this reason alone, I wish I’d enjoyed the novel more. But, despite touches of humour and some elegant turns of phrase, the writing felt flat, and I found myself switching off every time the author conveyed his characters from A to B (ie. the bits of continuity that emerging writers are taught to edit out). Unfortunately I wasn’t keen on the framing device either, in which Osman, a contemporary character, uncovers his family history through conversations with his deceased ancestors, partly because his personality seemed even more shadowy than theirs. I also found it a bit depressing that the female characters have agency only through their looks and lust.
 
First published in 1997, this English translation comes from Europa editions, who provided my review copy.

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On the theme of rewriting history, the new challenge on the Flash Fiction Rodeo is memoir. Not my favourite genre, as I might have mentioned before, but I’m drawn to this particular prompt. Not that I’ve had any inspiration for a true story incorporating “she did it”, but I’ve almost a week to consider it. How about you?

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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
Norah Colvin link
13/10/2018 12:38:07 pm

I don't think I'll rush to reading either of these novels, though I do like your summing up of the first, Anne. I was interested to see how long ago it was written. I'm currently listening to a story first published in 1939. It was Patrick White's first novel and one that has only recently been republished. He was concerned about attitudes that could have been deemed unsuitable (such as racism) and refused to allow it to be republished when he was alive.
Memoir is not your favourite genre, nor mine. I'm yet to come up with something to write about for this one. It must just be that 'she didn't do it'. There is a little more time, so we'll see. I can think of plenty of 'other' stories, but not memoir. Oh well. Perhaps had I achieved something, it might be easier.
Another enticing snippet from your forthcoming book - wonderful.

Reply
Annecdotist
13/10/2018 01:40:03 pm

Although I came to appreciate The Radetzky March, I don’t think you are missing much by giving it a miss. Sadly, Like a Sword Wound made me feel I’d prefer to learn about this through non-fiction – not that that’s likely.
You’re being unduly modest to say you don’t have any personal “she did it” stories – and of course the “she” in question could be someone else. But, having said that I’m in the same position, with lots of ideas about fictional tales sparked by a real person, but taking me a long way from the facts, and nothing else feeling worth the 99-words, at least so far.
I’ve got another six or seven teasers to share in the coming weeks, though I can’t take credit for the lovely way my publisher has put them together.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
21/10/2018 06:46:39 am

I look forward to the teasers. :)

Annecdotist
21/10/2018 07:13:48 am

;-)

Charli Mills
15/10/2018 09:32:30 pm

I never know what interesting books I'm going to find on your reviewers shelves, but I enjoy the diversity and your willingness to read translations across cultures and eras. You make points about craft in both. Given that you do read books from translation and from the past, it's further telling to better understand how each writer approaches the craft.

Reply
Annecdotist
16/10/2018 09:53:44 am

Indeed, it really makes me think that in addition to readers having different preferences different cultures – both historically and geographically – also do. There’s no one way to go about it but connecting the right readers to the right books seems to be an eternal challenge.

Reply



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