Reading Recluse📘 "The Deserters" by Mathias Énard, translated from French into English by Charlotte Mandell
From all of my IBP longlist reading, this book is my second favorite so far (right behind "The Remembered Soldier").
Its story is almost impossible to recap. There are two narratives. In one we follow a man who's trying to desert from a war, fleeing, when he meets two unexpected individuals on his journey. The point of view warps between him, his thoughts, the other, their thoughts. In the other storyline we learn about Paul Heudeber, a communist who survived the Buchenwald concentration camp, and who became a famous East-German mathematician and public supporter of socialism. All this we learn through the eyes of Paul's daughter, through letters and files she's reading, a memorial event she's thinking back on and youth memories she's recollecting.
At first this is overwhelming, like listening to music made with ten instruments all doing their own thing. But the more you listen, the more you realize it's harmonious and it all clicks, it starts making perfect sense. It's the same with this book. The chapters, the anecdotes, the moral dilemmas, they all slide into place and subtly connect. The reveal at the end surprised me, but looking back with hindsight, it was so obvious! I love it when that happens.
For a short novel I felt surprisingly involved with all characters. Paul is not some big Soviet evil or poor propaganda victim, he's a complex human. Certain but also unsure, passionate but also disillusioned. The same depth is given to all other characters in the novel. And the same goes for the research. I don't know much about the mathematics in here, but I think the integration of history and politics was done very well. I was often moved.
The deserters, plural -but in my recap I mentioned only one. I think that is a perfect conversation starter for anyone who's read the book. Who's deserting? When does something count as deserting? Can we desert from family, from beliefs, from reality itself?
Lots to chew on with this book, it'll be digesting in my mind for a while.
