Itemize Books To The General of the Dead Army
| Original Title: | Gjenerali i ushtrisë së vdekur |
| ISBN: | 1566636841 (ISBN13: 9781566636841) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Ismail Kadare
Paperback | Pages: 256 pages Rating: 4.02 | 2573 Users | 156 Reviews
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As stated in the last page of the book, it took Ismail Kadaré five years to write this novel between 1962 and 1966 when he was in Tirana.One can wonder whether "The General od the Dead Army" was nail-biting business involving many stopovers for the Albanian author or if Kadaré himself was tied-up with other things in those days.
The idea behind the book is an excellent one: a general and a priest (both left nameless) from the Italian army going to Albania in the 1960s in order to dig out the bodies of the soldiers sent on the other shore of the Adriatic sea by Mussolini between 1938 and 1942. Men who found their death in a relatively unknown little country with their families claiming for their bones to return home.
The macabre but humanitarian task to find, collect, identify and ship back to Italy the mortal remains of the long dead soldiers is allowed by the Albanian communist authorities.
A political gesture which could be seen a sign of reconciliation between the two countries twenty-five years after the Italians invaded Albania looking at it as a mere stepping stone on their way to subjugate Greece.
Whereas it took barely three days to the Italian forces to "conquer" the tiny Balcanic country thus adding up the Albanian kingdom to the Italian crown, the following Greek expedition was an utter failure.
The fascist forces were soon driven back by the Greeks onto the Albanian mountains and plateaux finding themselves struggling for survival amid the coldest winters they could imagine and caught between the fires of local partisans and Hellenic soldiers.
The Italian domination of Tirana and surroundings lasted for approximately four years giving enough time to print stamps and banknotes, raise monuments and awfully grand buildings as well as affecting the local population with arrests, fusillades and rapes.
You wouldn't be surprised to know that when the Italians started retreating, with Germans taking their place in committing atrocities, Albanian partisans hit the former occupying forces back in reprisal.
Hence violence kept spreading with more killings and more mass graves.
In fact, Kadaré believes that the hatred of the recent past has not been forgotten.
The general and the priest may have Albanian experts and drivers within their expedition and hire gravediggers in the villages they stop by but are far from being welcomed by the local farmers and peasants.
There is never a clear hostility of the Albanians towards the general and the priest, but they both feel a sort of uneasiness around them and don't even try to mix up with the locals. At least that's what they do till the very last night of their Albanian year long travel, a night where the General insists to celebrate the end of their task going to a wedding. A decision which will make the very last hours of the Italian duo in Albania quite shocking, stirring up old rancours colliding with the sacred importance given to hospitality by the local population.
All in all, what we have here is a slow-placed novel dealing with a potentially very poignant topic but treated and developed in a somehow cold blooded way which could disappoint many readers.
But one must not forget that this same cold blooded view on the hard business of digging out corpses from the Albanian soil, guessing their height from the bones and matching it with a list of dead soldiers names is precisely the message Kadaré aimed to deliver.
This is a book about loneliness and a book about bitter memories. The loneliness of the Italian general reluctantly appointed to his grievous task who tries to wash it away with brandy and the bitter memories of the elderly Albanian woman who stares at his clumsy dizzy dancing during a wedding.
If I had to give a colour to "The General of the Dead Army", it would definitely be grey. The grey of consolidated mud, the grey of stones, the grey of gravel. The grey of dirty uniforms. The grey of bones.
Here we have a book which shows very little hope with Ismail Kadaré being well aware of its unpleasantness. A novel where the pace is set by the monotonous clash of spades against hard soil.
Spades which once buried bodies and spades which later dug the same corpses out. The dry words chosen by Kadaré here are just like spades: they can bring back dead soldiers to light, but cannot heal the wounds which killed them and those they inflicted.
Particularize Epithetical Books The General of the Dead Army
| Title | : | The General of the Dead Army |
| Author | : | Ismail Kadare |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 256 pages |
| Published | : | June 1st 2005 by New Amsterdam Books (first published 1963) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. European Literature. Albanian Literature. Novels. Literature. Classics |
Rating Epithetical Books The General of the Dead Army
Ratings: 4.02 From 2573 Users | 156 ReviewsWrite-Up Epithetical Books The General of the Dead Army
Looking at the author's picture on the inside back cover, I am reminded of what a cruel time the 1970s were. There are, in fact, a few pictures of me floating around the Internet which I wish would disappear. But enough about me. Call him Ismail. It is 20 years after World War II. Twenty years after Italian troops overran Albania. The Albanians flashed up pockets of resistance, leaving many Italian soldiers in makeshift graves. An Italian general (no name) returns after negotiations between theI thought this was a brilliant way to talk about Albania, their recent history, beliefs, the horror of war and the darkness of memories. An Italian General and a priest lead a small group to find and return the remains of Italian soldiers killed 20 years previously during WWII. The Albanian peasants meet this expedition with an eerie, unwanted tension - many feel they are being invaded again.Slowly the General's confidence in his mission wans but after two years it is completed. On the eve of
Q. Since when are debut novels so astoundingly gorgeous and assured?A. Since basically never, but when a writer has an overflowing heart, a generous and sensitive mind, an evident and immutable affinity for the writing of fiction, and works on said debut novel for five years, it's conceivable.Q. Are double-translations (like this one, passing from Albanian via French to English) ever worth reading?A. If Kadare's the writer -- Kadare who even when so young conjures scenes and arranges details in
Albania is an often forgotten country. The paranoia of the Enver Hoxha era led them to fall out with the major players on both sides of the Iron Curtain and since the fall of Communism, only the disastrous pyramid selling scheme and events in neighbouring Kosovo have attracted headlines.Yet it's that very sense of the mysterious that makes it such a fascinating country. Ismail Kadare is the country's most celebrated novelist and winner of the first man Booker International Prize. he seems nailed
This is one of the best books I have read by Ismail Kadare so far. I loved the symbolism.
4.5 amazing stars. I loved the first 200 pages, but the ending wasn't the best I could imagine. I love Ismail Kadare, he really represents the best part of Albania. What really surprises me, is that even though I'm Albanian, when I read Kadare's books I feel like I'm foreigner. He always sees what the others don't bother to pay attention, that makes him a great writer. I think he totally deserves to win a NOBEL.
Q. Since when are debut novels so astoundingly gorgeous and assured?A. Since basically never, but when a writer has an overflowing heart, a generous and sensitive mind, an evident and immutable affinity for the writing of fiction, and works on said debut novel for five years, it's conceivable.Q. Are double-translations (like this one, passing from Albanian via French to English) ever worth reading?A. If Kadare's the writer -- Kadare who even when so young conjures scenes and arranges details in
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