herfst's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
chubs's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
2.5
fenna_kwakernaak's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
hjfritz27's review against another edition
3.0
So well-written but just nostalgic to a fault. So much time wasted on reflection that leads no where and this perfect ideal of the world before WWI, as if all humanity was innocent and childish and sexless and all the world at peace until 1915.
sensitive_boy's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mds's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.5
mkesten's review against another edition
5.0
Stefan Hertmans' War and Turpentine is a painful if beautiful work of war guilt, as he himself explains late in the book. It mixes together real or imagined diary entries of his grandfather with personal reflection on the past, WWI, and his immediate ancestors.
Both his grandfather and his father before him were painters, the older father being a restorer of church paintings and frescoes in Belgium and England.
The son, Hertmans' grandfather, was more of a hobbiest artist after an excruciating if heroic time as a foot soldier in WWI. The first person storytelling of the trenches, of life as a squad commander, and the experience of being wounded in the conflict are as affecting as any I've read. It ranks up there with some of my favourites on WWI, including Birdsong and Three Day Road.
But the story is as much about love and longing for beauty as war and this is where it departs from much of the fiction I read these days.
The fathers in this this tale succumb to the love passion as deeply as the experience in war. If anything, I wonder if the story isn't more about the author missing that connection with passion and pain in the way his forebears experienced it. The smells and the terror of war. The agony of the flu carrying off the most beautiful woman before that love is consummated. And the loss of the husband so beautiful and pure in his art that a woman can't even look at other men (even the man she subsequently married) 30 years after consumption took him to the grave.
There is something else of of nationalism in the book where the young Flemish soldier is demeaned by his French-speaking officers. "Here is my blood, where is my freedom" engraved in a war monument.
Pretty much what people feel today.
Both his grandfather and his father before him were painters, the older father being a restorer of church paintings and frescoes in Belgium and England.
The son, Hertmans' grandfather, was more of a hobbiest artist after an excruciating if heroic time as a foot soldier in WWI. The first person storytelling of the trenches, of life as a squad commander, and the experience of being wounded in the conflict are as affecting as any I've read. It ranks up there with some of my favourites on WWI, including Birdsong and Three Day Road.
But the story is as much about love and longing for beauty as war and this is where it departs from much of the fiction I read these days.
The fathers in this this tale succumb to the love passion as deeply as the experience in war. If anything, I wonder if the story isn't more about the author missing that connection with passion and pain in the way his forebears experienced it. The smells and the terror of war. The agony of the flu carrying off the most beautiful woman before that love is consummated. And the loss of the husband so beautiful and pure in his art that a woman can't even look at other men (even the man she subsequently married) 30 years after consumption took him to the grave.
There is something else of of nationalism in the book where the young Flemish soldier is demeaned by his French-speaking officers. "Here is my blood, where is my freedom" engraved in a war monument.
Pretty much what people feel today.
textpublishing's review against another edition
5.0
‘His publisher announced that War and Turpentine was to be a great novel about the First World War. Stefan Hertmans has lived up to that promise…A gem of a novel, full of history, full of life, full of wisdom.’
Nederlands Dagblad
‘War and Turpentine is a masterfully written account of a dramatic life, a piece of Ghent family history and a beautiful tribute to Hertmans’ grandfather, who remained mysterious for so long. It’s also probably the best of the books that will be published over the coming five years about the generation of the Great War.’
De Tijd
‘With War and Turpentine Stefan Hertmans has written one of the most moving books of the year.’
De Standaard
‘Intuitive guesswork, personal recognition and artistic associations complete a portrait that grows steadily in intensity and coherence…War and Turpentine is a clever, compelling and touching book.’
Cobra.be
‘It’s a masterpiece.’
Humo
‘Hertmans follows in his grandfather’s footsteps in this brilliant and moving imagined reconstruction, his imagination beautifully filling the gaps as he describes “the battle between the transcendent, which he yearned for, and the memory of death and destruction, which held him in its clutches.’
Sunday Express S Magazine
‘A mesmerising portrait of an artist as a young man, a significant contribution to First World War literature and a brilliant evocation of a vanished world.’
Herald
‘A masterly treatise on the interconnections of life, art, memory, and heartbreaking love…Hertmans’s prose, with a deft translation from McKay, works with the same full palette as Urbain Martien’s paintings: vivid, passionate—and in the end, life-affirming.’
Publishers Weekly
‘Wonderful, full of astonishingly vivid moments of powerful imagery…[Hertmans] brilliantly captures the intractable reality of a complex man…I thought I’d had enough of books about the First World War; I couldn’t have been more wrong.’
Sunday Times
‘Every detail has the heightened luminosity of poetry…The book has such convincing density of detail, with the quiddities of a particular life so truthfully rendered, that I was reminded of a phrase from Middlemarch: “an idea wrought back to the directness of sense, like the solidity of objects”. Hertmans’ achievement is exactly that…War and Turpentine has all the markings of a future classic.’
Guardian
‘A gritty yet melancholy account of war and memory and art that may remind some readers of the work of the German writer W. G. Sebald…Urbain Martien was a man of another time. This serious and dignified book is old-fashioned, too, in the pleasant sense that it seems built to last.’
New York Times
‘[Hertmans] recreates the lives and losses of the deceased with enormous empathy and skill… Like many family dramas, this is a work that veers between sense and sentimentality. It is in many ways an old-fashioned book, and pleasingly so… It is sympathetic remembrance, shaped into lasting elegy.’
Australian
‘A gorgeous novel…War and Turpentine is an enthralling portrait of life, war and family.’
Canberra Weekly
‘This novelised memoir does not flinch from the brutality of the subject matter…War and Turpentine is not a war book as such, it is about a man who represents a generation and while it is intensely personal in tone, it has universal significance.’
ANZ Lit Lovers
‘A sophisticated and almost painterly rendering of words and images…[War and Turpentine] is dense with sensitive observation of the entanglement in life of peace and war, beauty and ugliness, simplicity and complexity.’
Otago Daily Times
‘A lovingly reimagined life of an ordinary man whose life was forever marked by the first world war. Fine prose from a Flemish-Belgian poet and essayist.’
Best Books of 2016, Australian Financial Review
‘Reminiscent of WG Sebald, this intoxicating hybrid of a book combines memoir with fiction…This beautiful and cunning book is the result of that transformation.’
Dominic Smith, Best Books of 2016, Australian
‘At once intimate and cosmic…The individual testimony is sometimes harrowing—enough to make me drop the book into my lap, tilt my head back and close my eyes — but upon reflection the voices come together to become a kind of untamed fugue about love: love of family, love of home, love of country, love of the natural world.’
Melinda Harvey, Best Books of 2016, Australian
‘Scenes from Svetlana Alexievich’s majestic Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets have lingered with me like fever dreams.’
Mireille Juchau, Best Books of 2016, Australian
‘An utterly authentic and often harrowing history of extraordinary times.’
Listener
‘A thought-provoking novel…He comes at the subject in ways that acknowledge the difficulties of remembering.’
NZ Listener
Nederlands Dagblad
‘War and Turpentine is a masterfully written account of a dramatic life, a piece of Ghent family history and a beautiful tribute to Hertmans’ grandfather, who remained mysterious for so long. It’s also probably the best of the books that will be published over the coming five years about the generation of the Great War.’
De Tijd
‘With War and Turpentine Stefan Hertmans has written one of the most moving books of the year.’
De Standaard
‘Intuitive guesswork, personal recognition and artistic associations complete a portrait that grows steadily in intensity and coherence…War and Turpentine is a clever, compelling and touching book.’
Cobra.be
‘It’s a masterpiece.’
Humo
‘Hertmans follows in his grandfather’s footsteps in this brilliant and moving imagined reconstruction, his imagination beautifully filling the gaps as he describes “the battle between the transcendent, which he yearned for, and the memory of death and destruction, which held him in its clutches.’
Sunday Express S Magazine
‘A mesmerising portrait of an artist as a young man, a significant contribution to First World War literature and a brilliant evocation of a vanished world.’
Herald
‘A masterly treatise on the interconnections of life, art, memory, and heartbreaking love…Hertmans’s prose, with a deft translation from McKay, works with the same full palette as Urbain Martien’s paintings: vivid, passionate—and in the end, life-affirming.’
Publishers Weekly
‘Wonderful, full of astonishingly vivid moments of powerful imagery…[Hertmans] brilliantly captures the intractable reality of a complex man…I thought I’d had enough of books about the First World War; I couldn’t have been more wrong.’
Sunday Times
‘Every detail has the heightened luminosity of poetry…The book has such convincing density of detail, with the quiddities of a particular life so truthfully rendered, that I was reminded of a phrase from Middlemarch: “an idea wrought back to the directness of sense, like the solidity of objects”. Hertmans’ achievement is exactly that…War and Turpentine has all the markings of a future classic.’
Guardian
‘A gritty yet melancholy account of war and memory and art that may remind some readers of the work of the German writer W. G. Sebald…Urbain Martien was a man of another time. This serious and dignified book is old-fashioned, too, in the pleasant sense that it seems built to last.’
New York Times
‘[Hertmans] recreates the lives and losses of the deceased with enormous empathy and skill… Like many family dramas, this is a work that veers between sense and sentimentality. It is in many ways an old-fashioned book, and pleasingly so… It is sympathetic remembrance, shaped into lasting elegy.’
Australian
‘A gorgeous novel…War and Turpentine is an enthralling portrait of life, war and family.’
Canberra Weekly
‘This novelised memoir does not flinch from the brutality of the subject matter…War and Turpentine is not a war book as such, it is about a man who represents a generation and while it is intensely personal in tone, it has universal significance.’
ANZ Lit Lovers
‘A sophisticated and almost painterly rendering of words and images…[War and Turpentine] is dense with sensitive observation of the entanglement in life of peace and war, beauty and ugliness, simplicity and complexity.’
Otago Daily Times
‘A lovingly reimagined life of an ordinary man whose life was forever marked by the first world war. Fine prose from a Flemish-Belgian poet and essayist.’
Best Books of 2016, Australian Financial Review
‘Reminiscent of WG Sebald, this intoxicating hybrid of a book combines memoir with fiction…This beautiful and cunning book is the result of that transformation.’
Dominic Smith, Best Books of 2016, Australian
‘At once intimate and cosmic…The individual testimony is sometimes harrowing—enough to make me drop the book into my lap, tilt my head back and close my eyes — but upon reflection the voices come together to become a kind of untamed fugue about love: love of family, love of home, love of country, love of the natural world.’
Melinda Harvey, Best Books of 2016, Australian
‘Scenes from Svetlana Alexievich’s majestic Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets have lingered with me like fever dreams.’
Mireille Juchau, Best Books of 2016, Australian
‘An utterly authentic and often harrowing history of extraordinary times.’
Listener
‘A thought-provoking novel…He comes at the subject in ways that acknowledge the difficulties of remembering.’
NZ Listener
xtina005's review against another edition
3.0
I don't think I was in the right mood for this book, but there were parts that I greatly enjoyed
misterv82's review against another edition
3.0
Dit boek is wel oké, maar zeker niet het meesterwerk waarvoor het versleten wordt. Hertmans draait veel weinig gebruikte, vergeten woorden in zijn tekst maar dat maakt het nog geen stilistisch meesterwerk. Het eerste deel, over de jeugd van zijn grootvader, is vaak rommelig. Er wordt van de hak op de tak gesprongen tussen het standpunt van de overgrootvader, de grootvader en de schrijver, ook de chronologie zit soms fout. Ik kon maar moeilijk meeleven met de personages.
In het tweede deel maakt het boek de verwachtingen wel waar. Maar toch, te kort, te weinig. Het derde deel wordt naar het einde toe langdradig en saai. Alsof er nog snel wat schilderijen afgeraffeld moeten worden om tot het laatste doek te kunnen komen. Misschien vindt een kunstkenner dit interessant, ik vond er niks aan.
Ik wist dat dit geen pure oorlogsroman ging zijn maar eerder een levensverhaal met een deel eerste wereldoorlog, maar toch. Een overroepen boek, vind ik, niet slecht, maar overroepen.
In het tweede deel maakt het boek de verwachtingen wel waar. Maar toch, te kort, te weinig. Het derde deel wordt naar het einde toe langdradig en saai. Alsof er nog snel wat schilderijen afgeraffeld moeten worden om tot het laatste doek te kunnen komen. Misschien vindt een kunstkenner dit interessant, ik vond er niks aan.
Ik wist dat dit geen pure oorlogsroman ging zijn maar eerder een levensverhaal met een deel eerste wereldoorlog, maar toch. Een overroepen boek, vind ik, niet slecht, maar overroepen.