I don’t know if I am doing some kind of sub-conscious self-selecting here, but once again I stumbled upon a book that is very relevant for today. The story is set in the ‘60s when an Italian General is sent to Albania to recover the remains of the dead Italian army from WWII. He is accompanied by a Priest and he also chances upon a German General tasked to do the same.
The novel is written completely from the point of view of the General. He makes no attempt to understand the local culture, and mostly dismisses off Albanians as barbaric, crude, violence seeking group and tries to keep his distance from them until the very end of his bleak task. Kadare makes no attempt to correct any prejudices through any of the characters and goes along portraying the bleak nature of the task, the weather and the environment.
The glory of war when commanding a real army Vs the morbidity of “commanding a dead army” is beautifully portrayed. Even after 20 years the pain of losing a dear one in a foreign land remains deep within families who view the General as the last hope. In the process of digging up the remains he opens up unhealed wounds on either side and this leads him to question the value and meaning of his thankless task.
Spoiler alert:
I especially liked the last wedding scene in the book where the General goes uninvited to a wedding feast, where he is not the least welcome, but is tolerated by the Albanians, and when he overstays his welcome he leaves in disgrace – I thought it was a clever allegory to how the Italian forces under Mussolini would’ve felt when they invaded Albania during the WW and by extension applies to similar war time invasions.
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