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A review by sharonb
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
What a brilliant book! I have read Captain Correllis mandolin by the same author before and enjoyed it, but this is so much better. Early 20th century Anatolia, in a small town called eskibahce (based on a real deserted village of Karakoy), Turks, Greeks, Armenians, muslims, christians, jews all live together amicably and their common language is Turkish. They are all Ottomans. They intermarry and even hedge their bets with God by asking their neighbours of the other religions to say a prayer to their Gods for them.
But then we have a rise in religious fervour, nationalism, ideas of superiority and nation building and intolerance of others which starts to drive divisions. It shows the demise of the ottoman empire and birth of the modern day Turkey through the Balkan wars, WW1 and the war between Greeks and Turks. Countries nowhere near the area such as Britain, France, Germany etc all getting involved and making the rules. It clearly shows how the wishes and views of the few adversely affects the average person who is only trying to get on with their lives but have no self determination as other powers will always dictate history. With reference to the proposition by Venizelos to have an exchange of Turkish and Greek populations - "the idea seems terribly sensible, as if it is a perfectly acceptable idea that the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent individuals should be arbitrarily disrupted in the interests of nation building"
On one occasion Iskander says "the thing about stories is that they are all like bindweeds that have to wind round and round and creep all over the place before they get to the top of the pole". This is so true and this story does go round and round. It is non linear and is told by several different characters which is great because you get the different pov's. The 3rd person chapters on mustafa kemal were highly informative on what was going on politically.
I loved the writing and the characters will stay with me for a long time. Some I really loved include karatavuk, mehmetchik, polyxeni, Drosoula, Ayse, abdulhamid hodja and Iskander the Potter.
There were a lot of bird references, I believe to highlight the theme of freedom. Early on Iskander the Potter (who liked to talk in proverbs) says "Man is a bird without wings and a bird is a man without sorrows" which is the main crux of the story but to end with the words of one of my favourite characters (karatavuk, muslim) in his letter to his childhood friend (mehmetchik, Christian)
"you and I fancied ourselves as birds and we were very happy when we flapped our wings and fell down and bruised ourselves, but the truth is we were birds without wings. For birds with wings nothing changes; they fly where they will, they know nothing of boundaries and their quarrels are very small"
It's very said though to think that although all this happened over a hundred years ago old bad feelings and distrust may never be healed as is pointed out in the post script that these days, in Fethiya and surrounding Lycia, you will find people of all religions from all over the world "the truly anomolous and remarkable thing...is there are no Greeks"
But then we have a rise in religious fervour, nationalism, ideas of superiority and nation building and intolerance of others which starts to drive divisions. It shows the demise of the ottoman empire and birth of the modern day Turkey through the Balkan wars, WW1 and the war between Greeks and Turks. Countries nowhere near the area such as Britain, France, Germany etc all getting involved and making the rules. It clearly shows how the wishes and views of the few adversely affects the average person who is only trying to get on with their lives but have no self determination as other powers will always dictate history. With reference to the proposition by Venizelos to have an exchange of Turkish and Greek populations - "the idea seems terribly sensible, as if it is a perfectly acceptable idea that the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent individuals should be arbitrarily disrupted in the interests of nation building"
On one occasion Iskander says "the thing about stories is that they are all like bindweeds that have to wind round and round and creep all over the place before they get to the top of the pole". This is so true and this story does go round and round. It is non linear and is told by several different characters which is great because you get the different pov's. The 3rd person chapters on mustafa kemal were highly informative on what was going on politically.
I loved the writing and the characters will stay with me for a long time. Some I really loved include karatavuk, mehmetchik, polyxeni, Drosoula, Ayse, abdulhamid hodja and Iskander the Potter.
There were a lot of bird references, I believe to highlight the theme of freedom. Early on Iskander the Potter (who liked to talk in proverbs) says "Man is a bird without wings and a bird is a man without sorrows" which is the main crux of the story but to end with the words of one of my favourite characters (karatavuk, muslim) in his letter to his childhood friend (mehmetchik, Christian)
"you and I fancied ourselves as birds and we were very happy when we flapped our wings and fell down and bruised ourselves, but the truth is we were birds without wings. For birds with wings nothing changes; they fly where they will, they know nothing of boundaries and their quarrels are very small"
It's very said though to think that although all this happened over a hundred years ago old bad feelings and distrust may never be healed as is pointed out in the post script that these days, in Fethiya and surrounding Lycia, you will find people of all religions from all over the world "the truly anomolous and remarkable thing...is there are no Greeks"