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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
Vahvaa ja kaunista, dialogivetoista proosaa. Berliiniläinen Katherina astuu järjestettyyn avioliittoon Venäjän rintamalla sotivan Peterin kanssa, Molemmat elävät tahoillaan sotaa, jonka vakuutetaan loppuvan pian, mutta joka ei tunnu koskaan loppuvan. Katherina on niitä harvoja, joiden elintaso sodan ansiosta nousee - mutta millä hinnalla?
Tykkäsin paljon saksalaisesta näkökulmasta toiseen maailmansotaan. Dialogipainotteisen kerronnan takia henkilöt jäivät vähän vesiväriluonnostelmien tasolle, mutta koin tietäväni heistä juuri riittävästi nauttiakseni tarinasta. Pidin myös henkilögallerian monipuolisuudesta. Välillä olisin halunnut päästä syvemmälle erityisesti Katherinan ajatuksiin ja tunteisiin, mutta toisaalta kaikessa marionettimaisuudessaan ja läpinäkymättömyydessään hän tuntui jotenkin aivan mahdolliselta, olemassa olevalta henkilöltä. Peter hämmensi minua ajoittain, sillä hän ei koko kirjan aikana tuntunut oikein ehjältä, kokonaiselta persoonalta.
Tykkäsin paljon saksalaisesta näkökulmasta toiseen maailmansotaan. Dialogipainotteisen kerronnan takia henkilöt jäivät vähän vesiväriluonnostelmien tasolle, mutta koin tietäväni heistä juuri riittävästi nauttiakseni tarinasta. Pidin myös henkilögallerian monipuolisuudesta. Välillä olisin halunnut päästä syvemmälle erityisesti Katherinan ajatuksiin ja tunteisiin, mutta toisaalta kaikessa marionettimaisuudessaan ja läpinäkymättömyydessään hän tuntui jotenkin aivan mahdolliselta, olemassa olevalta henkilöltä. Peter hämmensi minua ajoittain, sillä hän ei koko kirjan aikana tuntunut oikein ehjältä, kokonaiselta persoonalta.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
In some respects this is a standard war love story. The war bride and the solider spend a short period together, only to be parted for many years and hardships. However unlike most war love stories it is set in Germany, rather than in one of the allied nations, usually England. We get to see the war from the perspective of ordinary Germans, swept along by the power and propaganda of the Third Reich, caught up in events beyond their control.
Faber is a man searching to understand why he and his friends have been sent to war. He marries for no greater reason than to get honeymoon leave. Katharina wishes to be free from her family, and to be accepted. She marries for no greater reason than a desire to have her own house, and if her husband dies well she'll have a widows pension.
After he marries Faber proclaims to believe in all the Nazi propaganda, he tells himself he is doing it for his wife and child, but it is clear he is just trying to understand how he and his friends ended up at war, on the eastern front, at Stalingrad. If you've even a basic knowledge of WW2 history you'll know how that is going to end. Katharina and her family put on the face of being staunch Nazis. The reality is quite different. Katharina's parents are lower middle class social aspirants. Her father is like the weak kid on the schoolyard who sidles up to the school bully in exchange for protection and benefits, though he can't protect his own family. As the war turns against Germany, while her father keeps up the pretence, out of fear or some disillusioned belief it will all come good, Katharina though begins to wonder if the sacrifices are worth it.
It's hard to say much more about this book without spoilers. We see the characters beliefs change and shift as the war moves towards the close. There are some disturbing scenes. When Katharina and her family move to a new apartment, clearly once belonging to Jews, all their belongings still there. When Faber and his friends throw Russian families out in the snow and eat their food. They are hard to read and you wonder how these perfectly decent people can go along with such things. However these are the realities of the war, of that time. Despite events like this we care deeply for the characters. And such harsh events are contrasted by touching moments. The way Faber and his friends look out for each other. Katharina looking after her shell shocked brother or the lengths she will go to to take care of her son. None of them asked for this. They are pawns in a much bigger game.
At the beginning while I enjoyed it, and it was an easy read I didn't feel it was anything special, but by the end I couldn't put it down and was practically screaming at the book. It certainly brings something new to the war love story genre.
Faber is a man searching to understand why he and his friends have been sent to war. He marries for no greater reason than to get honeymoon leave. Katharina wishes to be free from her family, and to be accepted. She marries for no greater reason than a desire to have her own house, and if her husband dies well she'll have a widows pension.
After he marries Faber proclaims to believe in all the Nazi propaganda, he tells himself he is doing it for his wife and child, but it is clear he is just trying to understand how he and his friends ended up at war, on the eastern front, at Stalingrad. If you've even a basic knowledge of WW2 history you'll know how that is going to end. Katharina and her family put on the face of being staunch Nazis. The reality is quite different. Katharina's parents are lower middle class social aspirants. Her father is like the weak kid on the schoolyard who sidles up to the school bully in exchange for protection and benefits, though he can't protect his own family. As the war turns against Germany, while her father keeps up the pretence, out of fear or some disillusioned belief it will all come good, Katharina though begins to wonder if the sacrifices are worth it.
It's hard to say much more about this book without spoilers. We see the characters beliefs change and shift as the war moves towards the close. There are some disturbing scenes. When Katharina and her family move to a new apartment, clearly once belonging to Jews, all their belongings still there. When Faber and his friends throw Russian families out in the snow and eat their food. They are hard to read and you wonder how these perfectly decent people can go along with such things. However these are the realities of the war, of that time. Despite events like this we care deeply for the characters. And such harsh events are contrasted by touching moments. The way Faber and his friends look out for each other. Katharina looking after her shell shocked brother or the lengths she will go to to take care of her son. None of them asked for this. They are pawns in a much bigger game.
At the beginning while I enjoyed it, and it was an easy read I didn't feel it was anything special, but by the end I couldn't put it down and was practically screaming at the book. It certainly brings something new to the war love story genre.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Unique lens of WWII
A stark, taut account of war and its physical and moral challenges from the point of view of civilian and fighter.
I came to The Undertaking by way of the author's recent book, The Colony, which inspired me to read more from this exceptional writer. Although The Undertaking is Magee's first novel, it is written with the assurance of a master (somehow mistress does not convey the same impression of power).
It is a novel of the second world war but, contrary to the majority of such novels written in English, it is set in Berlin and on the eastern front of Germany's battles against Russia. The novel opens with an unusual remote marriage of convenience between a soldier and a woman in Berlin, organized by the man, Peter Faber, to secure leave from the brutal conditions at the Russian front and by the woman, Katharina Spinell, to be assured of support either from the man or his military pension in case of death. There is little romance at their initial meeting when Faber arrives at the house where Katharina lives with her parents:
He picked up his kit and stepped into the dark, windowless hall. She put her hand over her nose and mouth. He stank. She moved away from him and set off up the stairs.
However, Faber is surprised to find her prettier than he imagined from her photograph and she welcomes him as an opportunity to escape from her parents. They fall in love. Katherina's father works closely with the sinister Dr. Weinart, a close associate of the Fuhrer, and takes Faber with him on night-time assignments. The fact that these involve viciously routing out Jews from their homes does nothing to disturb Faber's conscience:
The following nights, he smashed soup tureens and china clocks, irritated that he had to leave Katharina to drag snivelling children from attics and cellars. He shouted and screamed at them, struck their legs and backs with the butt of his gun, slapped them across the face when they took too long moving down the stairs, more comfortable with howls of hatred than pleas for mercy.
The advantage is that Dr. Weinart secures an extra 10 days leave for him, but then he has to go back to the front. The story then alternates between Faber at the front and Katharina in Berlin. We get our fill of the filth, hunger and brutality of conditions at the front exacerbated when winter sets in, but also a feeling for the rough companionship between the men. Katharina's brother returns home from service nearer to Moscow, a victim of trauma, almost completely unrecognizable to his family. He is just beginning to show signs of return to some semblance of normality when he has to go back. Mrs Spinell pleads with her husband to intercede with Dr. Weinart but nothing can be done to put off her son's departure and the family knows that the sight of him on the train north is the last time they will see him. Mrs Spinell never forgives her husband and goes into a decline.
Katherina is pregnant and a son, called Johannes after her brother, is born. Then the Spinells, through their connection with Dr. Weinart, are allocated another luxurious apartment, obviously, although it is never stated explicitly, one of those belonging to evicted Jews. Belonging to a family close to the Nazi leadership, Katherina eats well while being ostracized by others less well-connected. This contrasts vividly with the hunger experienced by Faber and his colleagues at the front.
Then comes the siege of Stalingrad, where the attacking Germans, including Faber and what is left of his troupe, are surrounded and subsequently abandoned. Starving he surrenders and is imprisoned and then taken to a labour camp by the Russians. The descriptions of the appalling conditions are blood-curdling.
Things deteriorate in Berlin as well with continual bombing. Eventually the Spinell's new apartment is destroyed and they return to the old one. Then Johannes gets meningitis and Dr Weinart refuses Katherina the antibiotics needed to save him as they are being kept for senior party members. Finally the Russians arrive and Katherina is viciously raped. The novel closes with the return of Faber eight years later. When Katherina tells him that the young boy he sees is not his son but the result of rape he leaves:
'Goodbye, Katharina.'
'Goodbye, Peter.'
She closed her eyes, shutting him out.
'I'm sorry, Katharina. I thought it would have been different. I imagined it differently.'
'We all did, Peter.'
This is perhaps one of the most damning indictments of war that I have read. My reaction is perhaps more acute because of the current circumstances of another war being fought with the Russians in similar territory. Magee succeeds in revealing the personal motivations and their consequences in what is essentially an environment beyond the control of those involved. What they do, from the initial remote marriage, to Mr Spinell's close association with Nazi leadership and Faber's cooperation in acts of brutality, his eventual survival, and Katherina's care for her sons are all attempts by individuals to do something for themselves in circumstances that are imposed externally.
It is a novel of the second world war but, contrary to the majority of such novels written in English, it is set in Berlin and on the eastern front of Germany's battles against Russia. The novel opens with an unusual remote marriage of convenience between a soldier and a woman in Berlin, organized by the man, Peter Faber, to secure leave from the brutal conditions at the Russian front and by the woman, Katharina Spinell, to be assured of support either from the man or his military pension in case of death. There is little romance at their initial meeting when Faber arrives at the house where Katharina lives with her parents:
He picked up his kit and stepped into the dark, windowless hall. She put her hand over her nose and mouth. He stank. She moved away from him and set off up the stairs.
However, Faber is surprised to find her prettier than he imagined from her photograph and she welcomes him as an opportunity to escape from her parents. They fall in love. Katherina's father works closely with the sinister Dr. Weinart, a close associate of the Fuhrer, and takes Faber with him on night-time assignments. The fact that these involve viciously routing out Jews from their homes does nothing to disturb Faber's conscience:
The following nights, he smashed soup tureens and china clocks, irritated that he had to leave Katharina to drag snivelling children from attics and cellars. He shouted and screamed at them, struck their legs and backs with the butt of his gun, slapped them across the face when they took too long moving down the stairs, more comfortable with howls of hatred than pleas for mercy.
The advantage is that Dr. Weinart secures an extra 10 days leave for him, but then he has to go back to the front. The story then alternates between Faber at the front and Katharina in Berlin. We get our fill of the filth, hunger and brutality of conditions at the front exacerbated when winter sets in, but also a feeling for the rough companionship between the men. Katharina's brother returns home from service nearer to Moscow, a victim of trauma, almost completely unrecognizable to his family. He is just beginning to show signs of return to some semblance of normality when he has to go back. Mrs Spinell pleads with her husband to intercede with Dr. Weinart but nothing can be done to put off her son's departure and the family knows that the sight of him on the train north is the last time they will see him. Mrs Spinell never forgives her husband and goes into a decline.
Katherina is pregnant and a son, called Johannes after her brother, is born. Then the Spinells, through their connection with Dr. Weinart, are allocated another luxurious apartment, obviously, although it is never stated explicitly, one of those belonging to evicted Jews. Belonging to a family close to the Nazi leadership, Katherina eats well while being ostracized by others less well-connected. This contrasts vividly with the hunger experienced by Faber and his colleagues at the front.
Then comes the siege of Stalingrad, where the attacking Germans, including Faber and what is left of his troupe, are surrounded and subsequently abandoned. Starving he surrenders and is imprisoned and then taken to a labour camp by the Russians. The descriptions of the appalling conditions are blood-curdling.
Things deteriorate in Berlin as well with continual bombing. Eventually the Spinell's new apartment is destroyed and they return to the old one. Then Johannes gets meningitis and Dr Weinart refuses Katherina the antibiotics needed to save him as they are being kept for senior party members. Finally the Russians arrive and Katherina is viciously raped. The novel closes with the return of Faber eight years later. When Katherina tells him that the young boy he sees is not his son but the result of rape he leaves:
'Goodbye, Katharina.'
'Goodbye, Peter.'
She closed her eyes, shutting him out.
'I'm sorry, Katharina. I thought it would have been different. I imagined it differently.'
'We all did, Peter.'
This is perhaps one of the most damning indictments of war that I have read. My reaction is perhaps more acute because of the current circumstances of another war being fought with the Russians in similar territory. Magee succeeds in revealing the personal motivations and their consequences in what is essentially an environment beyond the control of those involved. What they do, from the initial remote marriage, to Mr Spinell's close association with Nazi leadership and Faber's cooperation in acts of brutality, his eventual survival, and Katherina's care for her sons are all attempts by individuals to do something for themselves in circumstances that are imposed externally.