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A review by jdintr
War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans
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.