As you may know,
I've been reading a LOT of WWII fiction lately, and not on purpose.
It's just that all of these writers/books I've been meaning to read
have fallen into my lap at once, and it's pretty fascinating to
compare them.
Like
Suite Francaise,
Last Train
is one of those novels that speeds up your heart rate and
unapologetically raises your blood pressure. Most likely, this is
because both are about events that took place during
the war (a frantic exodus from the cities as the Germans invaded, the
rounding-up of Jews and anybody else the Nazis didn't like the look
of). Another thing these two books have in common is that they were
recently translated, thus giving English-speakers a window onto how
the war affected Europeans from their own perspective.
What makes Last Train so different from Suite Francaise, however, is its structure- Kulin drives the plot forward like the speeding train that ultimately takes the main characters out of France and into the safe haven that was Turkey. I must admit here that I knew absolutely nothing about Turkey's role in the war, but apparently it struggled to remain neutral, fending off Germany as well as England and Russia, all in an attempt to protect its own sovereignty and its people, including its Jews. Several Turkish diplomats from that time risked much by defying Nazi Germany, but they saved many people.
While
the novel begins in Istanbul with the family of a highly-placed
Turkish diplomat, it quickly moves over to France, where the
sister-in-law of this diplomat has moved with her Jewish husband to
escape the condemnation of their marriage by family and friends
(Muslim-Jewish marriages were not allowed at that time). Thing is,
it's the early 1940s and France is now occupied by Nazi Germany.
Another Turkish diplomat and friend of the family is posted to Paris,
where he organizes a trip back to Turkey through the heart of Europe
for a handful of Turkish citizens and Jews (some of whom are not
Turkish at all).
The
preparations for the trip itself, along with Kulin's description of
the ever-shifting relationships among the characters, takes up most
of the novel. Families divided by resentment and disappointment,
friends bound together by a shared sense of duty, Turkish officials
walking a delicate diplomatic tightrope- all of these situations make
up the rich tapestry that is Last
Train.
And
its because of this richness that some of the novel's loose ends
stand out so strikingly. As the train speeds across Europe, the
action becomes so compressed that some of it seems disconnected from
the rest of the plot. Characters appear suddenly and are somewhat
shoehorned into scenes. Some events left me wondering "what was
the point of telling us about that?"
Despite the bumpy ride, though, Last
Train
is definitely worth reading. You know, if you like history and a good
story and reading literature from other countries. Enjoy!
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