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karinlib's review against another edition
3.0
War and Turpentine was long listed for the Man Booker international Prize in 2017. It was also a book considered by an ambassador to read before traveling to Belgium. I gave this 3 stars because I found the last part of the book to be confusing, and not as well written as the first two parts.
This is a work of historical fiction, so there is some debate as to how much is fiction, and how much is memoir. From what I know of historical fiction, an author will do a great deal of research on the topic chosen.
A grandson has been given his grandfather's diary in two notebooks, but doesn't read them for 30 years. The grandfather is a veteran of WWI, and his diary describes his experience growing up in Ghent as a poor artist's son. He himself longs to be a painter, but he ends up being called up for the Belgian army during WWI. He is sent to Flanders, and the battle there are told in great detail. In my opinion this is the best part of the book.
This is a work of historical fiction, so there is some debate as to how much is fiction, and how much is memoir. From what I know of historical fiction, an author will do a great deal of research on the topic chosen.
A grandson has been given his grandfather's diary in two notebooks, but doesn't read them for 30 years. The grandfather is a veteran of WWI, and his diary describes his experience growing up in Ghent as a poor artist's son. He himself longs to be a painter, but he ends up being called up for the Belgian army during WWI. He is sent to Flanders, and the battle there are told in great detail. In my opinion this is the best part of the book.
ansl's review against another edition
Niet uitgelezen in 2014, niet veel zin gehad in het onderwerp en aangezien het een bibboek is kan ik het niet blijven bijhouden :). Anyway, wel heel erg mooie zinnen.
mariawjw's review against another edition
3.0
This book took me a really long time as I didn't have a lot of time because of school. But the fact that it was written in a way that made reading it so slow, made it even a longer experience.
The story starts up slowly, very slowly. You read and read and at some point you just wonder, 'How many pages was this?' And barely five minutes later, you look at the page number you're on and ask yourself again, how many pages does this book have?
The moment where the book really started for me was when the Great War began. It was told in first person and it was told in a way which made it alive. It was like I was actually reading someone's diary or as if someone was actually telling me the story about what happened. It felt for the first time in the entire book that the story was finally more than just ink on paper.
The rest of the book was, again, very slow which makes me sad because the main story, the life of the grandfather of the writer, is really interesting and could have been a really nice reading experience. But because of the way it's told, you just shut down at some point. Saddening but true.
Better luck next time, I hope.
The story starts up slowly, very slowly. You read and read and at some point you just wonder, 'How many pages was this?' And barely five minutes later, you look at the page number you're on and ask yourself again, how many pages does this book have?
The moment where the book really started for me was when the Great War began. It was told in first person and it was told in a way which made it alive. It was like I was actually reading someone's diary or as if someone was actually telling me the story about what happened. It felt for the first time in the entire book that the story was finally more than just ink on paper.
The rest of the book was, again, very slow which makes me sad because the main story, the life of the grandfather of the writer, is really interesting and could have been a really nice reading experience. But because of the way it's told, you just shut down at some point. Saddening but true.
Better luck next time, I hope.
shirlee2024's review against another edition
4.0
Although I've read many novels set in the Great War, this was the first for me from the perspective of a Flemish participant.
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
4.0
Belgian poet Stefan Hertmans was given his grandfather's diaries but it took him several years to get around to reading them. With War and Turpentine he has taken his memories, his family's memories and the diaries and written a novel about his grandfathers' life. The book is divided into two themes, that of painting (turpentine) and WWI (war). His grandfather, Urbain, was a keen amateur painter, carefully copying various classical paintings. His own father had been a church painter, restoring paintings and frescos in religious buildings around Ghent and further afield. A love of art in general and of classical painting in particular bookended his life.
Urbain was a young man when WWI started and Belgium was a battlefield. This part of the book is taken directly from Urbain's diaries, which he wrote some years after the war had ended. This part of the book has a very different feel than the rest. Urbain was either a brilliant and prescient soldier, surrounded by less able men, or he thought he was a brilliant soldier surrounded by idiots. In any case, he was injured numerous times and spent one convalescence in England, before returning to the battlefield.
War and Turpentine is a picture of Belgium that no longer exists, and is a character study of a man who was both ordinary and unique. I found the parts about his childhood and what being poor meant at a time before government assistance and social safety nets to be both fascinating and sobering.
Urbain was a young man when WWI started and Belgium was a battlefield. This part of the book is taken directly from Urbain's diaries, which he wrote some years after the war had ended. This part of the book has a very different feel than the rest. Urbain was either a brilliant and prescient soldier, surrounded by less able men, or he thought he was a brilliant soldier surrounded by idiots. In any case, he was injured numerous times and spent one convalescence in England, before returning to the battlefield.
War and Turpentine is a picture of Belgium that no longer exists, and is a character study of a man who was both ordinary and unique. I found the parts about his childhood and what being poor meant at a time before government assistance and social safety nets to be both fascinating and sobering.
christel_mussche's review against another edition
4.0
mooi boek; het voelt alsof je tussen de soldaten in de loopgraven zit; mooi beschreven; de schrijver laat de rauwheid van de oorlog zien; de stank, de honger, het creperen, doodbloeden van makkers naast je; voor mij bijzonder speciaal vanwege de locatie; ik woon in een zijstraat van de Lossystraat, vlak bij de Adolf Baeyensstraat (vriend van Urbain Martien), gentbruggestraat, aannemersstraat.
jdintr's review against another edition
4.0
When I think of turpentine, I think of a substance that is stinky, thick, and hard to wash away--in other word, a metaphor that is a little like unrequited love, and a lot like war. In Hertmans's War and Turpentine, two indelible things unite together into a vivid portrait of a man, a family, and an age that is quickly receding from human memory.
I picked up this book because of its inclusion in so many year-end "Best of" lists. I expected to find a new perspective, but there were pleasant surprises that I didn't expect, and I'll make those the focus of my review.
First, this is a book about art, and those who will love it most will be those who love art museums--the type that don't just look at paintings, but those who find time and space warped as they take in a painting. Urbain Martien "plays" at painting his whole life, in thrall to a father who had been a fresco painter up to his untimely death. When Urbain's father is called away to a job in Liverpool, Hertmans describes the way that Urbain devotes himself to drawing--step by step, mistake by corrected mistake, painting by copied painting. During the war, a pilgrimage to one of his father's paintings, reveals details of a closely personal past hidden therein, and Urbain will go on to hide details of his past life in the journals discovered by the narrator as well as in a collection of paintings he left behind.
Second, while I have read many books about the Great War, this was the first I had read that came from a Belgian perspective. The first victims of the German advance in the Western Front, the Belgian experience was soon overshadowed by that of British, Canadian, French and--eventually--American roles in the conflict. Yet Hertmans here brings to life battles from the earliest days of the war, and the Yser Front, on which the Belgian Army fought.
Within the war against the Germans, a civil war was fought among the Belgians between the French bourgeoisie and the Flemish underclass. In subtle ways, Hertmans shows the prejudice his grandfather faced--the intentional mispronunciation of his last name, the promotion of soldiers less brave than he, and a final erasure of a monument to his sacrifices.
War and Turpentine is a lovely, compelling elegy for a lost man and a lost time. I really enjoyed it.
I picked up this book because of its inclusion in so many year-end "Best of" lists. I expected to find a new perspective, but there were pleasant surprises that I didn't expect, and I'll make those the focus of my review.
First, this is a book about art, and those who will love it most will be those who love art museums--the type that don't just look at paintings, but those who find time and space warped as they take in a painting. Urbain Martien "plays" at painting his whole life, in thrall to a father who had been a fresco painter up to his untimely death. When Urbain's father is called away to a job in Liverpool, Hertmans describes the way that Urbain devotes himself to drawing--step by step, mistake by corrected mistake, painting by copied painting. During the war, a pilgrimage to one of his father's paintings, reveals details of a closely personal past hidden therein, and Urbain will go on to hide details of his past life in the journals discovered by the narrator as well as in a collection of paintings he left behind.
Second, while I have read many books about the Great War, this was the first I had read that came from a Belgian perspective. The first victims of the German advance in the Western Front, the Belgian experience was soon overshadowed by that of British, Canadian, French and--eventually--American roles in the conflict. Yet Hertmans here brings to life battles from the earliest days of the war, and the Yser Front, on which the Belgian Army fought.
Within the war against the Germans, a civil war was fought among the Belgians between the French bourgeoisie and the Flemish underclass. In subtle ways, Hertmans shows the prejudice his grandfather faced--the intentional mispronunciation of his last name, the promotion of soldiers less brave than he, and a final erasure of a monument to his sacrifices.
War and Turpentine is a lovely, compelling elegy for a lost man and a lost time. I really enjoyed it.
mikael_'s review against another edition
3.0
Knap werk om een dagboek om te zetten naar een roman. Voor mij was de verhaallijn van net vóór en tijdens de oorlog de beste. De rest kwam me te anekdotisch over. Dit maakt dat het boek tussen fictie en non-fictie begint te zweven. Het kon nóg sterker.