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A review by gorecki
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières
4.0
Birds Without Wings is a kaleidoscope of stories, characters, and history, that wins the reader's heart quite easily, no matter what their preferred type of literature is. If you like historical fiction - you will like this book in its whole. If you like love stories, then you will find something for yourself in the story of Philothei and Ibrahim, probably even Rustem Bey and Tamara or Rustem Bey and Leyla. If you like war, then you will like the parts about the falling apart of the Ottoman empire, the Balkan wars and the rise of Mustafa Kemal. And if you're just interested in other cultures and people, you will find a lot of them here - Turkish, Greek, Armenian, you name it.
This book follows a period in the history of the Ottoman empire, particularly its fall and the rebirth of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal, through the stories of the people living in a small town called Eskibahce not far from Smyrna (Izmir). It is rich in characters with own personal stories, problems, hopes and fears. It tells us how Christians and Muslims lived side by side, in friendship and understanding, and how they ask each other to pray to their gods in case something bad is happening to one of them. Philothei is a very beautiful Greek girl, who makes everyone dizzy with her beauty and is engaged to be married to Ibrahim, a Turkish goat herder and a friend of hers since childhood. Ayse, the wife of the town's imam is best friends with Polyxeni, Philothei's mother. Karatavuk (his real name Abdul) is a boy taken to fight in a war because he's Turkish, while his best friend Mehmetcik (his real name Nicos) is not allowed to join the army and his friend because he's Greek. Levon the Armenian pharmacists is attacked by one Turk, only to be saved by another and taken away int he end. In this novel we get acquainted with all of these people's worlds in peaceful times, and then see how their lives and they themselves change as the circumstances around them start to crumble and the world goes mad. We see how people who have been Ottomans one day suddenly become divided into Greeks, Armenians, Circassians the next, and are being marched over to places they have never seen in their lives.
I really enjoyed the style and language of the book. The characters are very vivid, the narration keeps you interested all the time. The story flows very naturally and lightly, the pace of the book is just right. I really admired some of the writer's techniques and how there was not a single chapter that looked or sounded as if it were hurried or forced. The pages are full of cultural references, descriptions of traditions and beliefs that make it very colorful and interesting. And while being beautiful and poetic in some chapters, the story is also quite heartbreaking when showing how cruel and vicious people can be with each other, and the amount of pain and destruction they are able to cause in the name of power and territory.
However, I did find some parts dealing with the historical background on the Balkans (Balkan war, situation in Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, etc.) and Mustafa Kemal's rise a bit lengthy and detailed. While Mustafa Kemal's story fits perfectly in setting the background for the rest of the narration and what is happening in Eskibahce, the complete overview of his life, the places he's been to and how he felt, as well as the detailed description or army actions and war makes some chapters sound a bit more like taken our from a history book. I do agree that setting the right historical background is of great importance to this story, but having in mind the length of the book, I believe that giving this background in a bit more compact and shorter form, would have been sufficient. Even like this, though, it was still a great read!
This book follows a period in the history of the Ottoman empire, particularly its fall and the rebirth of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal, through the stories of the people living in a small town called Eskibahce not far from Smyrna (Izmir). It is rich in characters with own personal stories, problems, hopes and fears. It tells us how Christians and Muslims lived side by side, in friendship and understanding, and how they ask each other to pray to their gods in case something bad is happening to one of them. Philothei is a very beautiful Greek girl, who makes everyone dizzy with her beauty and is engaged to be married to Ibrahim, a Turkish goat herder and a friend of hers since childhood. Ayse, the wife of the town's imam is best friends with Polyxeni, Philothei's mother. Karatavuk (his real name Abdul) is a boy taken to fight in a war because he's Turkish, while his best friend Mehmetcik (his real name Nicos) is not allowed to join the army and his friend because he's Greek. Levon the Armenian pharmacists is attacked by one Turk, only to be saved by another and taken away int he end. In this novel we get acquainted with all of these people's worlds in peaceful times, and then see how their lives and they themselves change as the circumstances around them start to crumble and the world goes mad. We see how people who have been Ottomans one day suddenly become divided into Greeks, Armenians, Circassians the next, and are being marched over to places they have never seen in their lives.
I really enjoyed the style and language of the book. The characters are very vivid, the narration keeps you interested all the time. The story flows very naturally and lightly, the pace of the book is just right. I really admired some of the writer's techniques and how there was not a single chapter that looked or sounded as if it were hurried or forced. The pages are full of cultural references, descriptions of traditions and beliefs that make it very colorful and interesting. And while being beautiful and poetic in some chapters, the story is also quite heartbreaking when showing how cruel and vicious people can be with each other, and the amount of pain and destruction they are able to cause in the name of power and territory.
However, I did find some parts dealing with the historical background on the Balkans (Balkan war, situation in Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, etc.) and Mustafa Kemal's rise a bit lengthy and detailed. While Mustafa Kemal's story fits perfectly in setting the background for the rest of the narration and what is happening in Eskibahce, the complete overview of his life, the places he's been to and how he felt, as well as the detailed description or army actions and war makes some chapters sound a bit more like taken our from a history book. I do agree that setting the right historical background is of great importance to this story, but having in mind the length of the book, I believe that giving this background in a bit more compact and shorter form, would have been sufficient. Even like this, though, it was still a great read!