War and Turpentine
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Shortly before his death in 1981, Stefan Hertmans' grandfather gave him a couple of filled exercise books. Stories he'd heard as a child had led Hertmans to suspect that their contents might be disturbing, and for years he didn’t dare to open them.
When he finally did, he discovered unexpected secrets. His grandfather’s life was marked by years of childhood poverty in late-nineteenth-century Belgium, by horrific experiences on the frontlines during the First World War and by the loss of the young love of his life. He sublimated his grief in the silence of painting.
Drawing on these diary entries, his childhood memories and the stories told within Urbain's paintings, Hertmans has produced a poetic novelisation of his grandfather's story, brought to life with great imaginative power and vivid detail.
War and Turpentine is an enthralling search for a life that coincided with the tragedy of a century, and a posthumous, almost mythical attempt to give that life a voice at last.
Stefan Hertmans has published novels, short-story collections, essays and poetry. In 1995 he was awarded the three-yearly Flemish poetry prize. He has also received two nominations for the VSB Poetry Prize. His most recent novel, The Hidden Tissue, received unanimous praise.
‘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
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this autobiographical novel, Flemish essayist, novelist, poet, and playwright Hertmans draws on his extensive fine arts background in a stirring remembrance of his grandfather Urbain Martien World War I hero and devoted painter to create a masterly treatise on the interconnections of life, art, memory, and heartbreaking love. Shortly before his grandfather's death in 1981, the narrator inherits the notebooks that Martien wrote in the last two decades of his life. "I wasted precious years diligently working on countless other projects and keeping a safe distance from his notebooks: those silent, patient witnesses that enclosed his painstaking, graceful pre-war handwriting like a humble shrine," Hertmans writes of his reticence to retell his grandfather's extraordinary life. But the notebooks provide insight into Martien's many facets, not least his childhood as the son of Franciscus, a talented but poor church painter, his heroism, and a lifetime paying obeisance to the capricious gods of art. In the two bookend sections, Hertmans demonstrates a painter's eye for the smallest detail, gracefully melding art criticism and philosophy. The book's middle section focuses on the war. Variously chaotic, horrifying, and hauntingly beautiful, Martien's war experience ends with his declaration of love for Maria Emilia, a woman from the neighborhood he watched from his bedroom while he convalesced, physically and mentally, from the war that shattered his life. 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.
Customer Reviews
On the turps
3.5 stars
Author
Flemish poet and essayist.
Conceit
In 1981, shortly before his death, the author’s grandfather gave him some filled exercise books. The author did not look at them for many years, fearing the contents. Eventually, he had a bo peep and decided to write a novel.
Precis
Fictionalised version of how the author’s grandfather coped with childhood poverty in Belgium then the horrors of World War I. Basically, he took solace in painting (pictures not walls), which is where the turpentine fits in.
Writing
Reads like a novel written by a poet.
Bottom line
A tad on the arty-farty side. Michael Chabon recently published a novelised version of his grandparents’ memories. It’s better.