The Devastation of Silence - the third novel by Portuguese author João Reis to be translated in English (The Translator's Bride was the first and Bedraggling Grandma with Russian Snow the second. I posted reviews for both these fine works).
In the spirit of Guy de Maupassant and Honoré de Balzac, with Devastation
we're give a good old-fashioned frame tale where the narrator sits at a
café and speaks to his friend of his time back when he was a prisoner
in a German POW camp during WWI.
João Reis shares an affinity
with Austrian author Thomas Bernhard in his way of constructing and
fashioning longer sentences. So as to share a taste for the author's
writing style and zero in on several of the novel's themes and
highlights, I'll link my comments with author snips -
"I found
this encounter to be deeply unpleasant, equal parts boredom and
discomfort, although, if I'm being honest, I consider all social
engagements to be, speaking is a lamentable act and pointless, I find
social interactions deeply taxing..."
Here the narrator
anticipates speaking with his friend at the café. There's little
question, judging by the narrator's words, he's deeply skeptical about
the value of language and all attempts to communicate. We are well to
keep this in mind as we listen to his relaying various experiences back
when he was a WWI POW.
"...my greatest fault is that I'm a good
listener, others speak and I listen, they open their mouths and a steady
stream of babble washes over me, I'm a receptacle, attentive, a victim,
they talk talk talk and only require my ears..."
There's a good
bit of possible irony here. What to do if words and language contain
minimal value? Perhaps the narrator understands the best thing is simply
to remain silent, to turn himself into a receptacle, an ear, for other
people's chatter. After all, what people think and feel can be expressed
via the way they hold their body, their movements and gestures, their
body's vibe. And the more we listen to the narrator's tale of being a
Portuguese army captain captured by Germans and, as he's without any
official document stating his rank, reduced to just another POW with
prisoners from England, France and Russia, the more we can appreciate
the depth of his insights regarding language (and silence) in relation
to truth.
Like all novelists, João Reis uses his characters'
spoken language as dialogue within the context of his unfolding plot.
Words might be devoid of depth and meaning in everyday conversation but
when they are used in a novel, those same words can be elevated to the
level of art by a creative author. Thus we are well to be attentive to
the various levels of language, the dynamics of life and literature, as
we read about the narrator's recounting conversations and interactions
when in the POW camp.
"At the end of the day one expects a bit
more from a captain, from a military officer of rank, yet I turned my
back and abstained from speaking because it is my belief that silence is
invariably the best option, I have found that there is no better
response to any and all problems that not speaking."
So the
narrator concluded while a prisoner dealing with near starvation,
bedbugs, lice, the sickness and death of his fellow inmates along with
the nightmare of wartime bureaucracy but when with his friend at the
café, over coffee, his skepticism notwithstanding, he's more than happy
to speak at length, which is a good thing. For as psychologist Rollo May
states, "Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding,
intimacy and mutual valuing."
"I concluded it was in our nature,
that men are men because they can kill with pleasure or indifference,
that man is nothing more than a violent monkey whenever he finds himself
free from the binds of society, which is why crowds are so dangerous
they'll string you up without batting an eye, those soldiers were the
masses, war is waged by the masses that desire our elimination, each
face in the crowd belongs to an assassin..."
Again, these are the
reflection of the narrator in his role as captain and then as prisoner
during a World War. However, his current life offers a different, even a
transformed, perspective. And we as readers can follow the narrator's
thinking and feeling as we turn the pages. How does the nature of life
and our judgements of the past change as we grow older? By asking this
and a number of other philosophic questions, The Devastation of Silence
addresses the major themes of literature - Love and Death, Eros and
Thanatos - in various forms and stages, all contained within a splendid
work of literature. I highly recommend João Reis' book. And a special
thanks to Open Letter for making this work available to English readers and Adrian Minckley for his clear, fluid translation.
Portuguese author and literary translator João Reis, born 1985
Comments
Post a Comment