Okay, so everyone knows that when I take up residence in a place like this for some hard-core R&R, I usually bring along half a suitcase full of books. Well, this time, with my stay here at Las Siete Cabañas set for only eight days (today is my last day), I only brought along a couple of titles, so the suitcase is lighter. But I´ve still been able to while away plenty of hours reading, and I would like to tell you a little bit about this trip´s chosen books.
It is not by coincidence that both books relate to the exploits of cavalrymen in battle, because a few weeks before my departure I had been investigating the war poetry of the late, great British poet Wilfred Owen, who wrote some really incredible verse describing his experiences in the trenches during World War One. Unfortunately, Owen was killed in battle shortly before that war concluded, but not before he had written his war poems. Anyway, I purchased a copy of the Collected Works of Wilfred Owen, but that is not one of the books I will be writing about today. You see, my investigation on Owen brought to my attention the work of another writer, one who wrote prose instead of poetry, but whose literary efforts were superbly poetic in their own way. That author happens to be a Jewish Russian war correspondent (like Vasily Grossman, whose sprawling epic Life and Fate had captured my imagination when I was here on the beach last January) who is now considered to be a giant of 20th Century Russian Literature, Isaac Babel. Babel´s place in the pantheon of great Russian authors grew out of a vast body of work, and particularly out of his early masterpiece, the Red Cavalry cycle. Now I will get deeper into Babel shortly, but first I want to discuss another book, El Húsar (The Hussar), by the noted Spanish author, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, which I was inspired to bring along with me as a cavalry "companion" to the Babel book, specifically to read here on the beach.
El Húsar. by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. (Written in Spanish)
I originally bought this book in October 2005, at the FeriaChilena Del Libro in Santiago Centro. This book was Pérez-Reverte´s first attempt at authorship, written in1983. It is set in Andalucia, Spain in the year 1808, in the midst of the Peninsular War, also known as the Spanish War of Independence, in which France fought against Spain, Great Britain and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The novel follows the exploits of Fredric Glüntz, a young, 19 year-old sub-lieutenant in Napoleon´s vaunted light cavalry, specifically, in the 4th Regimento de Húsares, at the time posted to Spain and about ready to engage the forces of both the Spanish army as well as the much-feared partisans known as guerrilleros (the English word for partisan fighters, or guerillas came from these very fighters).
Before I left on this current trip I could recall having been fairly blown away by how this book unfolded when I first read it back in 2005, and decided that I´d like to perhaps read it again with an eye towards perhaps someday translating it into English, so I tucked it away in my suitcase along with Babel´s Red Cavalry, to be read again, here in El Tabo.
Actually, I did a bit of fact checking on the works of Pérez-Reverte to see if in fact an English translation of El Húsar indeed exists, and my preliminary search came up fairly inconclusive. I did learn that the 2005 Spanish edition I was reading had gone out of print, but also learned that the author had originally refused to let any of his works be translated into English, although he had later allowed several of his works to be translated, including his famous The Fencing Master and Flanders Panel (which won France´s Grand Prize for Dectective Literature). Apparently his most popular book to date, Captain Alartriste, has not been translated, but I found mention of an English translation of El Húsar, but no availability whatsoever.
Anyway, the story follows sub-lieutenant Glüntz, an idealistic new hussar in the ranks, as he and his companios prepare for a major battle on the fields of Andalucia. The author applies painstaking detail in his descriptions of the cavalrymen, their uniforms and equipment, and while he concentrates on Glüntz, he also spends significant time developing his companions, especially his best friend, another sub-lieutenant, Michel de Bourmont. The story evolves through the course of one day, starting at before daybreak and moving forward towards the enivatible climactic cavalry charge folowing early skirmishes and concluding with the grim reconciliation of the story in which young Glüntz´s wide-eyed idealism and dreams of the glory to be gained in this war in service to the Emperor is utterly crushed beneath the sheer horror of the actual combat. I cannot begin to replicate the power of Pérez-Reverte´s narrative but will say that it comes at you like a sledge hammer, hitting with full force as the story unfolds. The reviews I read regarding this extraordinary first effort by Pérez-Reverte state that this is far from his best work, but the seeds of the greatness that came to flower in The Fencing Master and in Captain Alartriste are fully contained within the pages of El Húsar. If I do not go forward to attempt to translate this work, I will certainly want to follow up this second read by obtaining at least the above two novels for future reading.
Red Cavalry. by Isaac Babel (Original Russian translated into English by Peter Constantine)
Isaac Babel was born in Odessa in 1894. He started writing in 1916, although his primary output came in the years 1923-1924. His basic genre in all of his writings appears to have been the short story, which is where his "Red Cavalry" stories all fit. This series of stories was based on Babel´s impressions of the 1920 Soviet military campaign against Poland by the Red army led by GeneralBudyonny (later to become a Marshall of the Soviet Union). Babel participated in this campaign, which was largely fought on the plains of Volhynia (now straddling the present Polish-Ukranian border). In late May of 1920, the First Cavalry of the Red Army rode into that province as part of the Soviet Government´s first foreign offensive, aimed at spreading the doctrine of World Revolution to Poland first, then to Europe and finally to the entire world.
Babel´s stories are loosely linked together cobble together a number of stories which follow the initial successes of this offensive in the summer of 1920 on through the increasingly bitter defeats which led to the Soviet retreat that autumn. The stories were originally published in various magazines and newspapers between 1923 and 1926, and according to the introduction to the present edition, the reading public "was torn between delight at Babel´s potent new literary voice and the horror at the brutality portrayed in the stories," which were actually a blend of fiction and fact.
The grim quality of Babel´s literary genius is evident in story after story. Consider the line, "The orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head," which comes from the first story, entitled "Crossing the River Zbrucz"; or this, from "Dolgushov´s Death": "The POles had advanced to the forest about three versts away from us, and set up their machine gunssomewhere nearby. Flying bullets whimper and yelp; their lament has reached an unbearable pitch. The bullets plunge into the earth and writhe, quaking with impatience."
Actually, the stories tell a lot more than about that ugly little war. They also paint a valuable picture of what must have been a dynamic mix of cultures - Jewish, Ukranian, Polish and Russian in that part of Eastern Europe in 1920. And sometimes the stories are laced with a rather engaging form of gallows humor which is hard to resist appreciating. I would dearly like to insert one story called "Konkin" in its entirety here, but I think I might run into copyright problems. So in that regard, I will simply post a quick excerpt:
"Me and Sprika Zabuty ended up riding off a ways from the forest. We look - and yes, two and two does make four! - no less than a hundred and fifty paces away, we see a dust cloud which is either the staff or the cavalry transport. If it´s the staff - that´s great, if it´s the cavalry transport - thats even better! The boy´s tattered clothes hung in rags, their shirts barely covering their manhood.
"Zabuty!" I yell over toSprika, telling him he´s a son of a whore, that his mother is a you-know-what, or whatever (I leave this part up to you, as you´re the official orator here). Isn´t that their staff that´s riding off there?"
"You can bet your life it´s their staff!" Sprika yells back. "The only thing is, we´re two and they´re eight!"
"Let´s go for it, Sprika!" I shout. "Either way, I´m going to hurl some mud at their chasubles! Let´s go die for a pickle and World Revolution!"
Anyway, as the book´s notes remind us, the Soviet Union wanted to forget this disastrous campaign. Babel´s Red Cavalry stories, however kept the fiasco in the public eye in both the Soviet Union and abroad, ever since. Sadly for Babel, his work eventually came to be deemed politically incorrect at a time when Stalin´s purges were ravaging Russian culture. On May 15, 1939, agents of the Soviet secret police burst into Babel´s house and arrested him. In the process, they also gathered up many stacks of unpublished documents in his posession. Immediately he was to become a non-person, his name blotted out and removed from official publications. They nexecuted him in 1940. It took until 1954 for his name to finally become officially exonerated, but for a long time thereafter, his books were only published in censored form for many more years. Now his reputation has recovered significantly, and his writings are again being praised, both inside and outside of Russia. The small picture, above is a photograph of Isaac Babel.
So there you have it, for this trip. Today is my last day here in El Tabo. MY friends Diego and Luisa have invited me to enjoy a final dinner together with them and two of thier workers, Orlando (the guitar player) and Carlos. The food´s on them, while I am obliged to provide the wine...
Strolling a bit further down along the Alameda one eventually comes to El Palacio La Moneda, which is the Chilean Presidential Palace, shown in this next photo:
La Moneda is the seat of Chile´s government, the place where current President Michelle Bachelet has her offices. It is also the scene where the martyred former President Salvador Allende lost his life during the Pinochet golpe de estado which happened on September 11, 1973, a date which marks Chilean history like no other. The next picture is of the memorial statue of Salvador Allende, which is in front of the Justice Ministry and faces La Moneda:
This next picture shows some of the striking buildings in Santiago´s financial district. The streets are fairly quiet because it was Saturday. Otherwise, they would be humming with activity:
Now we come to the famous Plaza de Armas, and this next picture shows the grand Iglesia Catedral, which fairly dominates the view to the noorthwest from the heart of the plaza:
Finally, here is a picture of the statue of the Conquistador of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia, located in the northeast corner of the plaza:
Well, there you have it. I quickie glimpse of some of the landmarks of the city of Santiago. Now, my flight back to the USA leaves here tomorrow night at 10:30 local time. The flight is non-stop overnight to Atlanta, GA, where I will be changing planes for a flight to Salt Lake City, UT, where my car is parked. My scheduled arrival in Salt Lake will be 10:30 a.m. on the morning of the 14th, and I will plan to go from there driving westward to my home in Wells, Nevada.
