"The Fall of the Stone City"
Ismail Kadare's work of historical fiction, Albanian folklore, mythology, allegory, highly ironic satire and human behavior that is both bleak and communal was a challenging little read here. It was well worth the effort.
The Stone City is an ancient stone fortress built on the top of a hill in southern Albania, and the town itself, Gjirokaster, is Kadare's place of birth and formative years. Kadare was born in 1936 at a time when Albania was more of an area of competing fiefdoms and towns than any type unified country, and the current border between Albania and Kosovo and parts of Montenegro was more or less immaterial. The historical backdrop for this creative novel is the takeover of greater Albania by the Italians(Mussolini) in 1939, then by the Germans in 1943, and finally by the Russian communists in 1945. It is a period of chaos and brutal uncertainty that takes place while all of the somewhat curious habits, beliefs, bitter rivalries, rumors, myths, and enduring hospitality of Albanian life still continued unabated.
As he was the inaugural winner of the Man Booker International Prize in 2005, I first tried to read one Kadare's novels, "The Accident", two years ago. It was some sort of love story turned mystery that was impenetrable here and halfway through it was closed, bookmark removed. Since then that book has been clearly defined as not one of Kadare's finest moments, which led me to try again with "Stone City". Now I get it, although few could read this book without finding some strange moments of uncertainty and unpredictable fantasy even if ultimately compelling. Perhaps that is why his work falls under the category of "postmodern fiction"in some quarters.
This saga of an unusual country stumbling through a series of totalitarian rulers and being stuck with perhaps the worst of the lot from their point of view is not one with an ending or explicit conclusion. It is a series of observations that left this reader with more subtle insight than any true understanding, or is it more understanding with little real insight. I liked it. Reality does not always end neatly, even in a novel.
In that sense, this book is far from a message of hope, but a testament to the immutable life of cultures even through significant changes in circumstances.
The Stone City is an ancient stone fortress built on the top of a hill in southern Albania, and the town itself, Gjirokaster, is Kadare's place of birth and formative years. Kadare was born in 1936 at a time when Albania was more of an area of competing fiefdoms and towns than any type unified country, and the current border between Albania and Kosovo and parts of Montenegro was more or less immaterial. The historical backdrop for this creative novel is the takeover of greater Albania by the Italians(Mussolini) in 1939, then by the Germans in 1943, and finally by the Russian communists in 1945. It is a period of chaos and brutal uncertainty that takes place while all of the somewhat curious habits, beliefs, bitter rivalries, rumors, myths, and enduring hospitality of Albanian life still continued unabated.
As he was the inaugural winner of the Man Booker International Prize in 2005, I first tried to read one Kadare's novels, "The Accident", two years ago. It was some sort of love story turned mystery that was impenetrable here and halfway through it was closed, bookmark removed. Since then that book has been clearly defined as not one of Kadare's finest moments, which led me to try again with "Stone City". Now I get it, although few could read this book without finding some strange moments of uncertainty and unpredictable fantasy even if ultimately compelling. Perhaps that is why his work falls under the category of "postmodern fiction"in some quarters.
This saga of an unusual country stumbling through a series of totalitarian rulers and being stuck with perhaps the worst of the lot from their point of view is not one with an ending or explicit conclusion. It is a series of observations that left this reader with more subtle insight than any true understanding, or is it more understanding with little real insight. I liked it. Reality does not always end neatly, even in a novel.
In that sense, this book is far from a message of hope, but a testament to the immutable life of cultures even through significant changes in circumstances.
posted by John Borden at 4:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home