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Poušť, vítr a prach. Nezkušení nováčci, ostřílení mazáci, cynický lékař. Předsunutá operační základna v Gulistanu, provincie Faráh, jihozápadní část Afghánistánu. A daleko v zázemí hlavní štáb, který vede válku, v níž životy jednotlivců nehrají roli. Paola Giordana ale právě zajímají osudy jednotlivců, které svede dohromady válka. Moderní novodobá válka, kterou známe ze zpravodajství, ale nevíme o ní vlastně nic. Dílo uvozené citátem z knihy Na západní frontě klid se otevřeně hlásí k linii protiválečných literárních děl.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published October 12, 2012
101 people are currently reading
2502 people want to read
About the author
Paolo Giordano
37 books1,431 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Paolo Giordano is a professional physicist and is currently working on a doctorate in particle physics. The Solitude of Prime Numbers, his first novel, took Italy by storm where it has sold over a million copies. It is being translated into twenty languages and has sold all over the world.
Paolo Giordano is a professional physicist and is currently working on a doctorate in particle physics. The Solitude of Prime Numbers, his first novel, took Italy by storm where it has sold over a million copies. It is being translated into twenty languages and has sold all over the world.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 349 reviews
June 12, 2014
Well, the problem with new/young authors is always a second novel, specially if the first one was so good and such a huge bestseller (Usamljenost prostih brojeva, Dereta)... We always expect that the second one will be as good, but that rarely happen actually... I fell in love with his first novel after few pages... And fought hard to find him publisher in Serbia... And succeeded (and that is not easy with Italian books), and secured him a great translator... And I was looking forward to his second novel... He changed the publisher in Serbia (Ljudsko telo, Evro Giunti) but kept the same translator (very good one, Gordana Subotić)... but... it is nothing like the first one... It left me cold and indifferent... As if the book is not written by the same author... Author being so young, I expect in future he will write a book that I will love as much as the first one...
March 8, 2016
Paolo Giordano is one of my favorite authors. He’s written only three novels, and I found each to be beautifully written and introspective.
In this novel, Giordano explores the impact of war on the basic military men. This novel’s war is in Afghanistan where Italian soldiers are ordered to provide a security bubble around an area that the American soldiers have “cleansed” of the Taliban. The reader follows the Third Platoon of the Sixty-sixth company of the seventh Alpine Regiment aka Charlie Company. Giordano provides a Cast of Characters as a prefix to help the reader, which I found helpful.
Giordano develops each soldier’s character so well that the reader can see, feel, and experience each event. War can be boring and horrifying. Soldiers are mean to each other, and they protect each other. The first half of the novel gets the reader into the groove of being a soldier in a dangerous and uncomfortable area. The reader gets to know the characters and the rhythms of the Charlie Company.
In the second half of the novel, a controversial mission results in a catastrophic incident, which impacts the lives of all. Coping mechanisms come to play. The military dogma comes through in that there must be a fall guy, while those responsible hide and politic. This is a character driven novel about the emotional aspects of war. There is no military strategy and little war action. It’s about the emotional toll one event can do to permanently change lives. It’s about the nature of the experience, not the specifics of war.
Giordano is a literary genius in my book. He upped his game here because prior to writing this he spent time as a journalist with an Italian Alpine unit thereby authenticating the military experience. I highly recommend this novel as a beautiful piece of literature along with illuminating the impact of war on our veterans.
In this novel, Giordano explores the impact of war on the basic military men. This novel’s war is in Afghanistan where Italian soldiers are ordered to provide a security bubble around an area that the American soldiers have “cleansed” of the Taliban. The reader follows the Third Platoon of the Sixty-sixth company of the seventh Alpine Regiment aka Charlie Company. Giordano provides a Cast of Characters as a prefix to help the reader, which I found helpful.
Giordano develops each soldier’s character so well that the reader can see, feel, and experience each event. War can be boring and horrifying. Soldiers are mean to each other, and they protect each other. The first half of the novel gets the reader into the groove of being a soldier in a dangerous and uncomfortable area. The reader gets to know the characters and the rhythms of the Charlie Company.
In the second half of the novel, a controversial mission results in a catastrophic incident, which impacts the lives of all. Coping mechanisms come to play. The military dogma comes through in that there must be a fall guy, while those responsible hide and politic. This is a character driven novel about the emotional aspects of war. There is no military strategy and little war action. It’s about the emotional toll one event can do to permanently change lives. It’s about the nature of the experience, not the specifics of war.
Giordano is a literary genius in my book. He upped his game here because prior to writing this he spent time as a journalist with an Italian Alpine unit thereby authenticating the military experience. I highly recommend this novel as a beautiful piece of literature along with illuminating the impact of war on our veterans.
October 21, 2014
A soldier will never cease being a soldier.
A platoon of Italian soldiers is stationed at the Forward Operating Base, not far from Helmand Province, in Afghanistan. They suffer days and nights of boredom, loneliness and food poisoning. When violence does occur, it comes suddenly and with little warning. No one will leave the country untouched by what they've experienced.
Giodano's story is fairly involving and I particularly enjoyed the first half of the book. For some reason, I have a strange fascination with the way soldiers entertain themselves during wartime lulls - the kidding, name-calling and practical jokes. The HUGE problem I had was with the characters and their lack of differentiation. One had a girlfriend, one had an online flirtation, one had mommy issues and one was a woman, yet they all seemed to think alike and speak in the same voice.
The turning point of the novel happens about half way through. There is a life-changing incident, and after this, the author's interest in the story and the characters seems to drift away, almost as if he wrote the whole thing just so he could write about After that, things wrap up in a hurry. Characters return home and exhibit all sorts of bad behavior,, using their time in Afghanistan as an excuse.
While the book is certainly not dreadful, it's unlikely to become a horrors-of-war classic.
A platoon of Italian soldiers is stationed at the Forward Operating Base, not far from Helmand Province, in Afghanistan. They suffer days and nights of boredom, loneliness and food poisoning. When violence does occur, it comes suddenly and with little warning. No one will leave the country untouched by what they've experienced.
Giodano's story is fairly involving and I particularly enjoyed the first half of the book. For some reason, I have a strange fascination with the way soldiers entertain themselves during wartime lulls - the kidding, name-calling and practical jokes. The HUGE problem I had was with the characters and their lack of differentiation. One had a girlfriend, one had an online flirtation, one had mommy issues and one was a woman, yet they all seemed to think alike and speak in the same voice.
The turning point of the novel happens about half way through. There is a life-changing incident, and after this, the author's interest in the story and the characters seems to drift away, almost as if he wrote the whole thing just so he could write about After that, things wrap up in a hurry. Characters return home and exhibit all sorts of bad behavior,, using their time in Afghanistan as an excuse.
While the book is certainly not dreadful, it's unlikely to become a horrors-of-war classic.
April 27, 2020
*** 4.25 ***
October 23, 2014
Praticamente siamo io e la madre di Paolo Giordano le uniche persone in questo mondo a cui piacciono i suoi libri.
Come al solito ho letto una buona parte di recensioni negative ma, sapendo che La Solitudine dei Numeri Primi mi era piaciuto, non mi sono lasciata scoraggiare. Sarà che nei suoi libri c'è gente abbastanza depressa, alla costante ricerca di qualcosa e che non sa ancora qual è il suo posto nel mondo, ma io mi ci ritrovo.
Stavolta siamo in Afghanistan, alla prima missione del plotone del maresciallo Renè. Sono tutti ragazzi che non sanno ancora a cosa vanno incontro. D'altronde come fai a saperlo, fino a quando non ti ritrovi in mezzo a un deserto, con la possibilità di saltare in aria al minimo movimento sbagliato?
Ci sono quelli timidi, quelli che vengono costantemente presi in giro dai compagni, quelli che vogliono dimostrare il loro valore. Nessuno di loro sa bene perché si trova lì. Forse per fuggire da qualcosa o da se stessi. Perché quando sei lì, con una buona probabilità di morire al primo passo falso (in senso letterale), ci sono solo il tuo corpo e la tua mente.
Paolo Giordano mi fa venire voglia di conoscerli meglio, di scavare a fondo nelle loro vite così come lui scava a fondo nelle emozioni umane. Non sono perfetti, non c'è l'eroe di turno che magari ci si aspetta quando si parla di guerra. Devono affrontare la morte, l'egoismo, il senso di colpa.
Molti dicono che i suoi personaggi non hanno una crescita perché continuano a sbagliare. Semplicemente alcuni continuano a sopravvivere invece di vivere, come succede a tanti di noi.
Non è il libro che leggerei per avere un lieto fine, abbiamo capito che Paolo Giordano e gli happy endings non vanno molto d'accordo. È il libro che leggo quando ho voglia di qualcosa di vero. Crudo, forse, ma preferisco che non faccia sconti.
Come al solito ho letto una buona parte di recensioni negative ma, sapendo che La Solitudine dei Numeri Primi mi era piaciuto, non mi sono lasciata scoraggiare. Sarà che nei suoi libri c'è gente abbastanza depressa, alla costante ricerca di qualcosa e che non sa ancora qual è il suo posto nel mondo, ma io mi ci ritrovo.
Stavolta siamo in Afghanistan, alla prima missione del plotone del maresciallo Renè. Sono tutti ragazzi che non sanno ancora a cosa vanno incontro. D'altronde come fai a saperlo, fino a quando non ti ritrovi in mezzo a un deserto, con la possibilità di saltare in aria al minimo movimento sbagliato?
Ci sono quelli timidi, quelli che vengono costantemente presi in giro dai compagni, quelli che vogliono dimostrare il loro valore. Nessuno di loro sa bene perché si trova lì. Forse per fuggire da qualcosa o da se stessi. Perché quando sei lì, con una buona probabilità di morire al primo passo falso (in senso letterale), ci sono solo il tuo corpo e la tua mente.
Paolo Giordano mi fa venire voglia di conoscerli meglio, di scavare a fondo nelle loro vite così come lui scava a fondo nelle emozioni umane. Non sono perfetti, non c'è l'eroe di turno che magari ci si aspetta quando si parla di guerra. Devono affrontare la morte, l'egoismo, il senso di colpa.
Molti dicono che i suoi personaggi non hanno una crescita perché continuano a sbagliare. Semplicemente alcuni continuano a sopravvivere invece di vivere, come succede a tanti di noi.
Non è il libro che leggerei per avere un lieto fine, abbiamo capito che Paolo Giordano e gli happy endings non vanno molto d'accordo. È il libro che leggo quando ho voglia di qualcosa di vero. Crudo, forse, ma preferisco che non faccia sconti.
December 28, 2014
This tale of Italian soldiers on a remote base in the Afghan War worked some subtle magic on me. It felt like peering at an ant farm and seeing organized but apparently meaningless activity. Then we get to know some of the individual organisms, ordinary representatives of our human species. They try but largely fail to feel connected to their interrupted lives back home. The enemy is faceless, a source of periodic mortar strikes and perpetual risks of IEDs. Toxic boredom alternates with struggles to deal with fear.
There is nothing challenging about the reading of the narrative—that comes from making personal meaning out of the tale. There is little action in terms of war, just one major tragic event (if you want action, seek out Junger’s journalistic account in “War”). There are no politics or delving into the roots of this particular war. Instead, it’s like a stage play focusing on the lives of three main characters, rendered with compassion and periodic humor. Lieutenant Egitto is the medical officer who dwells on the health of the bodies and minds of his charges. He is glad to escape from his family troubles, which concern his inability to forge a stable love relationship and futilities in reconciling his sister with their dying father. Corporal Cederna is a misogynist and a bully, but he has the courage and skills consistent with an ambition to join the Special Forces elite. One of the main targets of is bullying is Corporal Ietti, a true mama’s boy who is worried about his competency as a man and his status as a virgin. Surprisingly, these two become friends. The crescendo of their stories comes when the whole platoon is called on to leave the safety of their base to escort to a more protected sector a set of civilian Afghan truckers who are under threat of attack for serving their supply needs.
War often figures in literature as a crucible for a perspective on the meaning of life—from the absurdist “Catch 22” to the moral quagmire of “All Quiet on the Western Front.” This book appears to be reaching for some kind of analogies between the unreal “Twilight Zone” of war and ordinary life. I don’t quite get it, but the pull has me like invisible gravity behind the tides. For example, at one point, Egitto remembers how his sister’s marriage and his collusion in it without parental approval sets a path for permanent estrangement for both of them, leading to this reflection:
There hadn’t even been a real battle; everyone remained motionless in his trench watching. On the other hand, I must have learned at least one lesson from the study of bones: the worst fractures are the kind that occur while standing still, when the body decides to go to pieces and does so in a fraction of a second, splintering in so many fragments that reassembling it afterward is unthinkable.
Egitto sustains himself on antidepressants, and like many people in ordinary life he wonders about the morality and wisdom of stifling the life of real feelings. The following insight he has on this issue baffles and intrigues me and at the same time epitomizes my ambivalence over strongly recommending this book to others:
He’s experiencing something he already knew: that all grief, suffering, compassion toward other human beings can be reduced to pure biochemistry—hormones and neurotransmitters, inhibited or released. When he realizes this, what he finds himself feeling, unexpectedly, is indignation.
This book was provided through the Goodreads Giveaway program. The translation from the 2012 Italian edition was published in October 2014. Giordano is a young physicist whose first novel “The Solitude of Prime Numbers” was quite successful. That is a book I plan to pursue with higher hopes.
There is nothing challenging about the reading of the narrative—that comes from making personal meaning out of the tale. There is little action in terms of war, just one major tragic event (if you want action, seek out Junger’s journalistic account in “War”). There are no politics or delving into the roots of this particular war. Instead, it’s like a stage play focusing on the lives of three main characters, rendered with compassion and periodic humor. Lieutenant Egitto is the medical officer who dwells on the health of the bodies and minds of his charges. He is glad to escape from his family troubles, which concern his inability to forge a stable love relationship and futilities in reconciling his sister with their dying father. Corporal Cederna is a misogynist and a bully, but he has the courage and skills consistent with an ambition to join the Special Forces elite. One of the main targets of is bullying is Corporal Ietti, a true mama’s boy who is worried about his competency as a man and his status as a virgin. Surprisingly, these two become friends. The crescendo of their stories comes when the whole platoon is called on to leave the safety of their base to escort to a more protected sector a set of civilian Afghan truckers who are under threat of attack for serving their supply needs.
War often figures in literature as a crucible for a perspective on the meaning of life—from the absurdist “Catch 22” to the moral quagmire of “All Quiet on the Western Front.” This book appears to be reaching for some kind of analogies between the unreal “Twilight Zone” of war and ordinary life. I don’t quite get it, but the pull has me like invisible gravity behind the tides. For example, at one point, Egitto remembers how his sister’s marriage and his collusion in it without parental approval sets a path for permanent estrangement for both of them, leading to this reflection:
There hadn’t even been a real battle; everyone remained motionless in his trench watching. On the other hand, I must have learned at least one lesson from the study of bones: the worst fractures are the kind that occur while standing still, when the body decides to go to pieces and does so in a fraction of a second, splintering in so many fragments that reassembling it afterward is unthinkable.
Egitto sustains himself on antidepressants, and like many people in ordinary life he wonders about the morality and wisdom of stifling the life of real feelings. The following insight he has on this issue baffles and intrigues me and at the same time epitomizes my ambivalence over strongly recommending this book to others:
He’s experiencing something he already knew: that all grief, suffering, compassion toward other human beings can be reduced to pure biochemistry—hormones and neurotransmitters, inhibited or released. When he realizes this, what he finds himself feeling, unexpectedly, is indignation.
This book was provided through the Goodreads Giveaway program. The translation from the 2012 Italian edition was published in October 2014. Giordano is a young physicist whose first novel “The Solitude of Prime Numbers” was quite successful. That is a book I plan to pursue with higher hopes.
February 14, 2022
Câțiva tineri soldați italieni în munții Afganistanului devin dureros de consimți conștienți de fragilitatea vieții și a corpului uman.
E un roman greu de povestit sau explicat, pentru că nu are un început și un sfârșit bine conturate, nici acțiune prea multă, avem o scriitura simplă, fără descrieri detaliate, metafore sau înflorituri.
Se citește rapid, dar este o poveste intensă despre viață și moarte, trecut și prezent, aici și acolo.
E un roman greu de povestit sau explicat, pentru că nu are un început și un sfârșit bine conturate, nici acțiune prea multă, avem o scriitura simplă, fără descrieri detaliate, metafore sau înflorituri.
Se citește rapid, dar este o poveste intensă despre viață și moarte, trecut și prezent, aici și acolo.
June 19, 2022
Me ha costado un poco este libro, al contrario que todos los demás del autor. Me han gustado los retratos de personajes que hace, pero he echado en falta una línea argumental más clara. Interesante, pero no tengo claro si lo recomendaría.
December 15, 2023
Šiaip įdomiai parašytas romanas apie karą, ir gana greitai skaitėsi
Įspūdžiai - hmmm, jaučiu kad po poros metų vėl jį paimsiu į rankas, nupūsiu dulkes nuo viršelio ir vėl skaitysiu kaip naują knygą
Įspūdžiai - hmmm, jaučiu kad po poros metų vėl jį paimsiu į rankas, nupūsiu dulkes nuo viršelio ir vėl skaitysiu kaip naują knygą
October 4, 2014
I received my copy from the publisher's First To Read program.
We were walking through Rome a few years ago, and came upon a protest camp. As we continued on our way we passed a group of men we guessed to be some element of authority, dressed in black uniforms that hinted at Special Forces or maybe some kind of SWAT team. They stood next to their vehicles, preening in clothes that were well fitted, down to the bulletproof vests. They were not in the least bit intimidating, and I could not help but recall them when I read THE HUMAN BODY.
Author Paolo Giordano takes the reader into the world of the Italian Army in Afghanistan, populating his novel with a cast of characters that covers the spectrum. There is the innocent boy of twenty with a clinging mother, the bully, the doctor and his fellow officers struggling to understand what they are doing and why. There is a single woman in the company to provide sexual tension. This being Italian, there is an element of tribalism. Northerners and southerners don't much like each other, which adds to the disunity of this particular group of soldiers.
Like any combat operation, there is a great deal of boredom followed by intense action, and the novel follows the pattern. The first part of the story is a series of character studies that are as boring to read as the wait for something to happen in war. They squabble. They joke. They are unlikable, pathetic, trying to be emotionally torn but coming across as self-important. They are, unfortunately, uninteresting.
The author head-hops through the group but for some reason he selected the unit's doctor for brief spurts of first-person narrative that added nothing to the story. A good editor would have sliced the sections out for being the parts of a novel that readers skip over. Maybe the vignettes were there to reveal something about the character, but why this character and not some of the others?
I read through even though I wanted very much to give up on the book. Like the Italian authorities in Rome, there was a lack of substance under the handsome veneer.
We were walking through Rome a few years ago, and came upon a protest camp. As we continued on our way we passed a group of men we guessed to be some element of authority, dressed in black uniforms that hinted at Special Forces or maybe some kind of SWAT team. They stood next to their vehicles, preening in clothes that were well fitted, down to the bulletproof vests. They were not in the least bit intimidating, and I could not help but recall them when I read THE HUMAN BODY.
Author Paolo Giordano takes the reader into the world of the Italian Army in Afghanistan, populating his novel with a cast of characters that covers the spectrum. There is the innocent boy of twenty with a clinging mother, the bully, the doctor and his fellow officers struggling to understand what they are doing and why. There is a single woman in the company to provide sexual tension. This being Italian, there is an element of tribalism. Northerners and southerners don't much like each other, which adds to the disunity of this particular group of soldiers.
Like any combat operation, there is a great deal of boredom followed by intense action, and the novel follows the pattern. The first part of the story is a series of character studies that are as boring to read as the wait for something to happen in war. They squabble. They joke. They are unlikable, pathetic, trying to be emotionally torn but coming across as self-important. They are, unfortunately, uninteresting.
The author head-hops through the group but for some reason he selected the unit's doctor for brief spurts of first-person narrative that added nothing to the story. A good editor would have sliced the sections out for being the parts of a novel that readers skip over. Maybe the vignettes were there to reveal something about the character, but why this character and not some of the others?
I read through even though I wanted very much to give up on the book. Like the Italian authorities in Rome, there was a lack of substance under the handsome veneer.
June 5, 2015
”Sometimes he wonders where he’d be now, if what actually happened hadn’t happened there in the valley, if on a night like any other an Afghan driver, a man he didn’t know hadn’t decided to drive off in a diesel truck, if Angelo Torsu hadn’t been pitched out of a blown-up jeep, and Irene Sammartino hadn’t considered him responsible for that. But they’re idle questions, and he quickly decides to put them to rest.”
Senior officer Lieutenant Alessandro Egitto ponders these questions after a tumultuous, violent battle ensues after he, an orthopedic specialist assigned to the Alpine Brigade, is sent off with the Third Platoon of the 66th company of the Seventh Alpine Regiment (aka Charlie Company) for Operation Mama Bear, after an Afghan truck driver decides to set off at night towards the American Base in Delaram and is violently murdered by the Taliban; the only part of him left is his sand-covered head being brought back to Forward Operating Base Ice, for other truck drivers and soldiers to see.
As they creep up the mountainous slopes, coming across the town of Lartay, a random herd of sheep crossing the road brings up an intriguing, yet ominous question. Where is the shepherd?
Being blocked in at all angles, IED blasts are to blame for four fatalities while another is killed trying to help out an injured compagno.
As the politics of the matter unfold, Egitto becomes the scapegoat for the failure of the mission and subsequently takes the fall even though it is not his fault; advising that this mission was doomed for failure from square one.
With a cast of characters that are somewhat stereotypical, but relevant and thoughtfully drawn out by their actions, construct of personality and the inevitable post-traumatic stress that comes with being a soldier and at war, Giordano’s ’The Human Body’ not only tells a brilliant story of brotherhood, but tells one of the fear, the apprehension, and the bloodlust that surmise the questions, Why do wars break out? How does one become a soldier?
This was an ARC giveaway worth reading.
Senior officer Lieutenant Alessandro Egitto ponders these questions after a tumultuous, violent battle ensues after he, an orthopedic specialist assigned to the Alpine Brigade, is sent off with the Third Platoon of the 66th company of the Seventh Alpine Regiment (aka Charlie Company) for Operation Mama Bear, after an Afghan truck driver decides to set off at night towards the American Base in Delaram and is violently murdered by the Taliban; the only part of him left is his sand-covered head being brought back to Forward Operating Base Ice, for other truck drivers and soldiers to see.
As they creep up the mountainous slopes, coming across the town of Lartay, a random herd of sheep crossing the road brings up an intriguing, yet ominous question. Where is the shepherd?
Being blocked in at all angles, IED blasts are to blame for four fatalities while another is killed trying to help out an injured compagno.
As the politics of the matter unfold, Egitto becomes the scapegoat for the failure of the mission and subsequently takes the fall even though it is not his fault; advising that this mission was doomed for failure from square one.
With a cast of characters that are somewhat stereotypical, but relevant and thoughtfully drawn out by their actions, construct of personality and the inevitable post-traumatic stress that comes with being a soldier and at war, Giordano’s ’The Human Body’ not only tells a brilliant story of brotherhood, but tells one of the fear, the apprehension, and the bloodlust that surmise the questions, Why do wars break out? How does one become a soldier?
This was an ARC giveaway worth reading.
September 29, 2020
Izvrsno!!
November 18, 2014
Right before the prologue, Paolo Giordano provides a helpful list of characters from the seventh alpine regiment and the third platoon. He needn’t have taken the trouble. The characters in The Human Body are so intricately rendered that each of them is impossible to forget.
There’s medical officer Egirto who has willfully exchanged the war zone at home for the war zone overseas. Marshal and troup leader Antonio Rene, a male prostitute who has just learned that he is to become a father. Corporate Marshal Roberto Ietri, a wet-behind-the-ears 20 year old virgin, for whom everything is new and interesting. Senior corporation Major Francesco Caderna, a brusque bully who singles out one unfortunate soldier for his cruel pranks. And there’s First Corporal Major Angelo Torsu, who falls seriously ill after food poisoning and spends his spare time online, trying to connect to a virtual “sweetheart.”
These are just some of the characters that populate The Human Body, and if they sound one-dimensional or stereotypical, that is far from the truth. Each is fleshed out with subtle brushstrokes and yet given his (or in a few cases, her) own individuality.
For readers looking for a “war book”, with details of battle and wins and losses, they won’t find it here. Although the background is Afghanistan, there is very little action depicted. As readers, we know from the prologue that there will be one ill-fated mission and that some will live and some will die. But even that engagement is narrated from the internal lives of the characters more than the action outside.
Ultimately, we begin to care greatly about these imperfect characters, placed in a heinous pattern of waiting, and the struggles they embody: what they’ve left behind, what they’re experiencing, and what they are destined to endure. The war zone itself serves as a catalyst for helping each of these men – and women – realize who they are and the necessity of eventual transformation and connection.
Beautifully translated from Italian by Anne Milano Appel, the book is particularly strong in its details: for example, right before disaster, a teeming herd of red sheep overcomes the convoy. These images are powerful and disturbing. Heartrending, insightful and brimming with pathos, The Human Body is an outstanding character study.
There’s medical officer Egirto who has willfully exchanged the war zone at home for the war zone overseas. Marshal and troup leader Antonio Rene, a male prostitute who has just learned that he is to become a father. Corporate Marshal Roberto Ietri, a wet-behind-the-ears 20 year old virgin, for whom everything is new and interesting. Senior corporation Major Francesco Caderna, a brusque bully who singles out one unfortunate soldier for his cruel pranks. And there’s First Corporal Major Angelo Torsu, who falls seriously ill after food poisoning and spends his spare time online, trying to connect to a virtual “sweetheart.”
These are just some of the characters that populate The Human Body, and if they sound one-dimensional or stereotypical, that is far from the truth. Each is fleshed out with subtle brushstrokes and yet given his (or in a few cases, her) own individuality.
For readers looking for a “war book”, with details of battle and wins and losses, they won’t find it here. Although the background is Afghanistan, there is very little action depicted. As readers, we know from the prologue that there will be one ill-fated mission and that some will live and some will die. But even that engagement is narrated from the internal lives of the characters more than the action outside.
Ultimately, we begin to care greatly about these imperfect characters, placed in a heinous pattern of waiting, and the struggles they embody: what they’ve left behind, what they’re experiencing, and what they are destined to endure. The war zone itself serves as a catalyst for helping each of these men – and women – realize who they are and the necessity of eventual transformation and connection.
Beautifully translated from Italian by Anne Milano Appel, the book is particularly strong in its details: for example, right before disaster, a teeming herd of red sheep overcomes the convoy. These images are powerful and disturbing. Heartrending, insightful and brimming with pathos, The Human Body is an outstanding character study.
August 8, 2015
Битката за човешкото тяло
Цялото ревю тук: http://knijenpetar.blogspot.com/2015/...
„Дори да ни върнеха този пейзаж от нашата младост,
нямаше да знаем какво да правим с него.“
Ерих Мария Ремарк, „На Западния фронт нищо ново“
Доста особена и разкрепостена книга е тази. Докато четях, си мислех за онези отдавна изтекли години на невинната младост, през които човешкото тяло е едва ли не символ на неразрушимото, а умът витае в него като искра от някакъв вечен огън. Всяко малко нараняване беше нелогична засечка, момент за кратко и дразнещо прекъсване за устремения към по-висши цели разум. В „Човешкото тяло“ („Колибри“, 2015, с превод на Юдит Филипова) нараняването идва от войната, от „мръсната война“, в която са въвлечени младите мъже и жени от поколението на високите технологии. Те тръгват на „мирна мисия“ в Афганистан, но се озовават в един друг свят, където човешкото тяло е подложено на невероятно натоварване. Джордано едва ли би написал такава книга, ако самият той не беше видял с очите си мрачната истина за живота на войниците. През 2010 година Джордано се отправя в размирната държава с отряди от млади италианци и посещава една малко известна база в Гулистан, описана в настоящия му роман.
Всъщност това не е точно роман за войната. Героите са съвсем обикновени човешки същества, живеещи в своя собствена вселена, щрихована от личния им опит и отношенията с роднини и приятели. Всички те са избягали от една съдба, в която радостта често е маскирана зад тревоги и изпитания. Но бягството им не е опит да загърбят проблемите си, а начин да останат поне малко изолирани от тях, за да си направят необходимите изводи. (Продължава в блога: http://knijenpetar.blogspot.com/2015/...)
Цялото ревю тук: http://knijenpetar.blogspot.com/2015/...
„Дори да ни върнеха този пейзаж от нашата младост,
нямаше да знаем какво да правим с него.“
Ерих Мария Ремарк, „На Западния фронт нищо ново“
Доста особена и разкрепостена книга е тази. Докато четях, си мислех за онези отдавна изтекли години на невинната младост, през които човешкото тяло е едва ли не символ на неразрушимото, а умът витае в него като искра от някакъв вечен огън. Всяко малко нараняване беше нелогична засечка, момент за кратко и дразнещо прекъсване за устремения към по-висши цели разум. В „Човешкото тяло“ („Колибри“, 2015, с превод на Юдит Филипова) нараняването идва от войната, от „мръсната война“, в която са въвлечени младите мъже и жени от поколението на високите технологии. Те тръгват на „мирна мисия“ в Афганистан, но се озовават в един друг свят, където човешкото тяло е подложено на невероятно натоварване. Джордано едва ли би написал такава книга, ако самият той не беше видял с очите си мрачната истина за живота на войниците. През 2010 година Джордано се отправя в размирната държава с отряди от млади италианци и посещава една малко известна база в Гулистан, описана в настоящия му роман.
Всъщност това не е точно роман за войната. Героите са съвсем обикновени човешки същества, живеещи в своя собствена вселена, щрихована от личния им опит и отношенията с роднини и приятели. Всички те са избягали от една съдба, в която радостта често е маскирана зад тревоги и изпитания. Но бягството им не е опит да загърбят проблемите си, а начин да останат поне малко изолирани от тях, за да си направят необходимите изводи. (Продължава в блога: http://knijenpetar.blogspot.com/2015/...)
October 24, 2020
Un libro molto interessante: nonostante l'ambientazione in una base militare in Afghanistan, la guerra è solo un pretesto per mettere a nudo l'animo umano. Non è un romanzo d'azione ma introspettivo, ci mostra le contraddizioni, le debolezze e la maturazione (o regressione per alcuni) di un gruppo di giovani soldati: ognuno solo coi suoi demoni interiori, ma tutti insieme alle prese con una realtà difficile e pericolosa, ben diversa da qualunque cosa potessero aspettarsi. I personaggi sono tratteggiati con molta cura, ognuno ha una personalità coerente e definita.
Forse in alcuni punti il libro risulta un po' didascalico, soprattutto con le riflessioni del tenente Egitto (principale voce narrante e "coscienza" dell'opera) che sembrano dilungarsi troppo in spiegazioni a beneficio del lettore e rendono difficile empatizzare, come invece accade con altri personaggi più semplici come Ietri o Torsu. Nel complesso comunque una lettura stimolante e avvincente.
Forse in alcuni punti il libro risulta un po' didascalico, soprattutto con le riflessioni del tenente Egitto (principale voce narrante e "coscienza" dell'opera) che sembrano dilungarsi troppo in spiegazioni a beneficio del lettore e rendono difficile empatizzare, come invece accade con altri personaggi più semplici come Ietri o Torsu. Nel complesso comunque una lettura stimolante e avvincente.
April 17, 2015
Corpul uman e, din partea mea, o metaforă strălucită. Războiul e despre corpuri, despre ce se vede; soldații se luptă cu arme reale și păstrează urme reale, palpabile. Dar asta vedem toți, în știrile de maximă audiență. Ceea ce nu se vede e umanul. Paolo Giordano face, deci, o radiografie superbă, deși groaznic de tristă, a umanității „jucăriilor” de luptă. Toate nimicurile pe care se ceartă soldații în avanpost, toate farsele prostești și supărările sunt pretexte pentru a nu simți frica și singurătatea de a fi departe de casă, în mijlocul războiului.
de la sursă: Corpul uman, de Paolo Giordano, pe Raftul Denisei – SemneBune http://semnebune.ro/2015/corpul-uman/...
de la sursă: Corpul uman, de Paolo Giordano, pe Raftul Denisei – SemneBune http://semnebune.ro/2015/corpul-uman/...
August 25, 2015
For me it was worth it even just for the subtle clues for how our body relates to our minds. Modern soldiers were a perfect scene for such thoughts – there are rarely places in the Western societies where our animalistic roots and blind obedience are as welcome as rational thought.
June 20, 2018
Sotakirjallisuus ei ole an sich mitään mielikirjallisuuttani, mutta aiheena sota kiinnostaa. Giordanon Ihmisruumis on moderni sotaromaani, joka vie italialaissotilaat Afganistaniin. Se on kuvaus ihmisruumiin ja -mielen herkkyydestä ja niistä monista näkökulmista, joista niitä voi tarkastella.
October 19, 2020
Giordano kirjoittaa kiinnostavan tutkielman niin mielestä kuin ruumiista modernissa sodassa.
June 11, 2016
Superb War Novel that Happens to be Italian
Although set in Afghanistan in the past decade or so, this magnificent war novel has the distinct advantage of being Italian, dealing with Italian troops serving with NATO. So one can read it without dragging in the political and patriotic factors that affect Americans reading of their own military. But on another level, being Italian makes no difference, for men (and one woman) at war are much the same, regardless of uniform and nationality; this is a novel about human beings under stress, their relationships with one another, and how they handle physical and psychological trauma. However, I do recommend turning straight to the explanatory endnote by the superb translator, Anne Milano Appel; the Italian ranks can be very confusing to our ears ("marshal," for instance, for master sergeant), as can the names of some of the equipment ("Lince" for something like a Humveee). Clear up a few points like this, and there will be little foreign about the book at all, and little contentious either: simply soldiers, their loved ones, their bodies, and their feelings.
I would put this down as the best novel about the recent Middle East wars that I have read, among which are Phil Klay's Redeployment and Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds. Other comparisons cited on the cover include Tim O'Brien's Vietnam novel The Things They Carried and Joseph Heller's Catch-22. These comparisons are more distant, however. There is certainly a little of the anarchic spirit of the Heller, but one imagines that this is a common reaction to the necessary discipline of war. And while this is more conventionally structured, Giordano shares O'Brien's insight that war writing is more true broken up into almost random fragments; one only distorts by looking for the long heroic line.
Not that there are no heroes, but they come in flawed packages. The twenty-year-old virgin Ietri, for example, who after so long being the butt of his companions' cruel jokes, suddenly decides that he is after all a soldier and a man. The aforesaid master sergeant René, who works as a male escort back home, but takes the utmost responsibility for his men. The company doctor, and arguably the book's principal character, Lieutenant Egitto, who isolates himself from excessive feeling with daily doses of drugs, but who finds himself time and again standing up for what is right, what is humane. Giordano also gets right (or at least convinces me) the long days of debilitating waiting in a Forward Operating Base, with skeletal amenities and only the illusion of security, as against the one devastating action that makes all the rest seem irrelevant. But Giordano's skill is to show that nothing is irrelevant, and he has the remarkable ability to carry it through from glimpses of the characters' private lives back in Italy to how their experience changed them after their return. And so to loop back to his first paragraph, which really says it all:
Although set in Afghanistan in the past decade or so, this magnificent war novel has the distinct advantage of being Italian, dealing with Italian troops serving with NATO. So one can read it without dragging in the political and patriotic factors that affect Americans reading of their own military. But on another level, being Italian makes no difference, for men (and one woman) at war are much the same, regardless of uniform and nationality; this is a novel about human beings under stress, their relationships with one another, and how they handle physical and psychological trauma. However, I do recommend turning straight to the explanatory endnote by the superb translator, Anne Milano Appel; the Italian ranks can be very confusing to our ears ("marshal," for instance, for master sergeant), as can the names of some of the equipment ("Lince" for something like a Humveee). Clear up a few points like this, and there will be little foreign about the book at all, and little contentious either: simply soldiers, their loved ones, their bodies, and their feelings.
I would put this down as the best novel about the recent Middle East wars that I have read, among which are Phil Klay's Redeployment and Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds. Other comparisons cited on the cover include Tim O'Brien's Vietnam novel The Things They Carried and Joseph Heller's Catch-22. These comparisons are more distant, however. There is certainly a little of the anarchic spirit of the Heller, but one imagines that this is a common reaction to the necessary discipline of war. And while this is more conventionally structured, Giordano shares O'Brien's insight that war writing is more true broken up into almost random fragments; one only distorts by looking for the long heroic line.
Not that there are no heroes, but they come in flawed packages. The twenty-year-old virgin Ietri, for example, who after so long being the butt of his companions' cruel jokes, suddenly decides that he is after all a soldier and a man. The aforesaid master sergeant René, who works as a male escort back home, but takes the utmost responsibility for his men. The company doctor, and arguably the book's principal character, Lieutenant Egitto, who isolates himself from excessive feeling with daily doses of drugs, but who finds himself time and again standing up for what is right, what is humane. Giordano also gets right (or at least convinces me) the long days of debilitating waiting in a Forward Operating Base, with skeletal amenities and only the illusion of security, as against the one devastating action that makes all the rest seem irrelevant. But Giordano's skill is to show that nothing is irrelevant, and he has the remarkable ability to carry it through from glimpses of the characters' private lives back in Italy to how their experience changed them after their return. And so to loop back to his first paragraph, which really says it all:
In the years following the mission, each of the guys set out to make his life unrecognizable, until the memories of that other life, that earlier existence, were bathed in a false, artificial light and they themselves become convinced that none of what took place had actually happened, or at least not to them.
Read
October 16, 2014The Human Body is not a war novel. It neither glorifies nor disparages the Afghanistan conflict. Rather, it is a novel about people – people who just so happen to be in Afghanistan trained as soldiers and prepared to combat insurgents. It is about their lives before, during, and after their tour of duty. It is about the ways they combat the boredom, the danger, and the scars left by what they face. Mostly, it is about the ongoing battle of being human and surviving not just a war zone but also family, friends, and oneself.
It must be said that The Human Body is extremely well-written. Its sentences are crisp and efficient without sacrificing meaning, emotion, or description. There is a poetic quality to the narrative which readers will find soothing. This quality manages to make even the most gruesome scenes beautiful. The Afghan countryside takes on a tragic note as its practically indescribable grandeur hosts scenes of utmost horror.
In spite of all of this, the story is lacking. The narrative jumps from third person to first person and back again without warning. One chapter may be Egitto’s story told through third-person omniscience, but the next time readers see Egitto, it is via first person narration. It is a most unusual experience and one that can be quite jarring for readers.
While the characters themselves are interesting and varied, there are so many of them that not only is it challenging to keep them all straight, most of them remain flat and one-dimensional. There is little to no character development for most of the characters within the story. This lack of development undermines the character-driven plot of the novel.
One gets the distinct impression that in The Human Body, Paolo Giordano was a bit too ambitious in scope or did not write a long enough novel to achieve what he was trying to achieve. The cast of characters is just too big to be able develop them fully so that they not only help drive the plot but also so that readers can bond with them. There is also an unsettling feeling that one should have more than a rudimentary knowledge of the military, any military before starting the novel. So little of military life gets an explanation that those readers with no familiarity with or exposure to the unique acronyms and lifestyle of professional soldiers will be lost. It is a shame, really, because the potential greatness of The Human Body is so very near to the surface. All of the elements for this to be an amazing novel are there; they just need more page space to take root and to blossom – something they did not get.
It must be said that The Human Body is extremely well-written. Its sentences are crisp and efficient without sacrificing meaning, emotion, or description. There is a poetic quality to the narrative which readers will find soothing. This quality manages to make even the most gruesome scenes beautiful. The Afghan countryside takes on a tragic note as its practically indescribable grandeur hosts scenes of utmost horror.
In spite of all of this, the story is lacking. The narrative jumps from third person to first person and back again without warning. One chapter may be Egitto’s story told through third-person omniscience, but the next time readers see Egitto, it is via first person narration. It is a most unusual experience and one that can be quite jarring for readers.
While the characters themselves are interesting and varied, there are so many of them that not only is it challenging to keep them all straight, most of them remain flat and one-dimensional. There is little to no character development for most of the characters within the story. This lack of development undermines the character-driven plot of the novel.
One gets the distinct impression that in The Human Body, Paolo Giordano was a bit too ambitious in scope or did not write a long enough novel to achieve what he was trying to achieve. The cast of characters is just too big to be able develop them fully so that they not only help drive the plot but also so that readers can bond with them. There is also an unsettling feeling that one should have more than a rudimentary knowledge of the military, any military before starting the novel. So little of military life gets an explanation that those readers with no familiarity with or exposure to the unique acronyms and lifestyle of professional soldiers will be lost. It is a shame, really, because the potential greatness of The Human Body is so very near to the surface. All of the elements for this to be an amazing novel are there; they just need more page space to take root and to blossom – something they did not get.
October 1, 2013
Oh, Paolo Giordano. After the fabulous
Solitude of prime numbers
, I had my hopes up. I thought I would read another thoughtful, poignant novel. Judging from the blurb, I thought I was in for a read that will explore loss, pain, suffering - the devastation that war wreaks on the spirit of its participants, leaving the body as the sole survivor in the aftermath.
Now forget the paragraph above. My anticipations have been based, unfortunately, in my overactive imagination. I see that the author put work into the book and that he tried to explore the topics mentioned above, but it just didn't work. Part of the problem is that the reader's attention is dispersed on a multitude of characters, the majority of which are quite colorless. The pacing is not the luckiest either. I felt like the first part of the novel, which set the scene for the second one, just hogged the screen-time that should have been devoted to the third part (i.e. the consequences of the operation on the lives of all the people involved). This novel had the potential to be good, but so much of it went to waste. I was thoroughly underwhelmed.
However, I couldn't give the book one star due to Giordano's writing shills. There were a couple of passages with brilliant narration (especially the two monologues!) which were so excellently done that I'm ready to overlook my crushed overinflated hopes. Two stars.
Now forget the paragraph above. My anticipations have been based, unfortunately, in my overactive imagination. I see that the author put work into the book and that he tried to explore the topics mentioned above, but it just didn't work. Part of the problem is that the reader's attention is dispersed on a multitude of characters, the majority of which are quite colorless. The pacing is not the luckiest either. I felt like the first part of the novel, which set the scene for the second one, just hogged the screen-time that should have been devoted to the third part (i.e. the consequences of the operation on the lives of all the people involved). This novel had the potential to be good, but so much of it went to waste. I was thoroughly underwhelmed.
However, I couldn't give the book one star due to Giordano's writing shills. There were a couple of passages with brilliant narration (especially the two monologues!) which were so excellently done that I'm ready to overlook my crushed overinflated hopes. Two stars.
March 28, 2013
"De eenzaamheid van de priemgetallen". Zo heette het eerste boek van Paolo Giordano en kenners en media waren waanzinnig enthousiast. Ik niet. Ik vond het een oppervlakkig boek en meen mij te herinneren dat ik het 2 sterren gaf of zo.
Nu heeft Giordano een nieuw boek uit en ik wou het een kans geven. "Het menselijk lichaam" zou nog beter zijn dan 's mans debuut, zo beloofden websites, blogs en kranten. Ha, misschien zou ik deze dan toch weten te smaken, dacht ik.
Niets bleek minder waar. Het menselijk lichaam is een loom boek, een traag boek, er worden veel woorden gebruikt, maar weinig verteld. Het bezorgde mij weer een ongemakkelijk gevoel. Misschien is dat wel de bedoeling van de schrijver en dan verdient hij 5 sterren!
Maar toch heb ik meer het gevoel dat Paolo Giordano méér bezig is met "kijk eens hoe gelaagd ik een verhaal kan vertellen! onderling verwezen verhalen! een mozaïek! met flashbacks en zo!" dan daadwerkelijk met het brengen van een goéd verhaal. "Het menselijk lichaam" lijkt mij meer een stijloefening dan een leuke roman.
Ik heb het slechts tot aan de helft volgehouden. Meer zie ik niet zitten.
Nu heeft Giordano een nieuw boek uit en ik wou het een kans geven. "Het menselijk lichaam" zou nog beter zijn dan 's mans debuut, zo beloofden websites, blogs en kranten. Ha, misschien zou ik deze dan toch weten te smaken, dacht ik.
Niets bleek minder waar. Het menselijk lichaam is een loom boek, een traag boek, er worden veel woorden gebruikt, maar weinig verteld. Het bezorgde mij weer een ongemakkelijk gevoel. Misschien is dat wel de bedoeling van de schrijver en dan verdient hij 5 sterren!
Maar toch heb ik meer het gevoel dat Paolo Giordano méér bezig is met "kijk eens hoe gelaagd ik een verhaal kan vertellen! onderling verwezen verhalen! een mozaïek! met flashbacks en zo!" dan daadwerkelijk met het brengen van een goéd verhaal. "Het menselijk lichaam" lijkt mij meer een stijloefening dan een leuke roman.
Ik heb het slechts tot aan de helft volgehouden. Meer zie ik niet zitten.
December 22, 2014
I picked up Giordano's other book Solitude of Prime Numbers based on the strength of the title. I picked up The Human Body based on the strength of its predecessor. And it didn't disappoint. The Human Body is actually about human spirit, there is something profound in searching for meaning and beauty within the context of something as inherently ugly as a war. I don't normally read war stories, particularly not the modern wars, war is the sort of thing best viewed and explored in retrospect with a benefit of perspective and hindsight. The Human Body explores the lives of young Italian military men and one woman in Afghanistan before, during and after their deployment in all their moral complexities. It's vividly realistic, incredibly moving and avoids a lot of the cookie cutter trappings normally associated with such themes. Exceptionally fine, emotionally intelligent exploration of guilt, duty, fear, love and other humanisms, excellent writing (and translation), pretty much what literature ought to strive to be. Very compelling read, tough to put down, despite thematic heaviness. Recommended.
September 23, 2014
Novels about war, and particularly those closely following the lives of soldiers in that war, have always appealed to me. Perhaps to make some sense out of chaos? Who knows? It’s not for this review to determine. Like Matterhorn, written by Karl Marlantes, The Human Body strives to give readers a glimpse of war on a personal level and it also remarks upon the differences between those in command and the rank and file. For the most part he succeeds. We are given insight into certain characters’ lives and Giordano follows through. He doesn’t disappoint at the end. It was interesting (and a bit confusing) for this American to figure out the rank of the soldiers and I was grateful for the Translator’s Notes at the end. Ultimately, I think this book is very good and I would not hesitate to recommend it, but with a caveat. For me the transition from The Red Zone and brutal fighting to the return to base was too abrupt. The book would have deepened in the depth that it needed if the author would have spent more time here.
November 6, 2012
Il libro mi è sembrato avere due velocità: la prima parte in Afghanithan si legge molto in fretta, l'epilogo dedicato al ritorno in patria l'ho trovato lento e a tratti noioso. E' in questa seconda parte che ritorna il Giordano introspettivo, che scandaglia le vite dei suoi protagonisti per raccontarci di conflitti con i genitori, di esperienze pregresse che dovrebbero giustificare le scelte fatte successivamente. Il finale psicologico ed intimistico stona con la fisicità evocata dal titolo e di cui è intrisa la parte restante della storia. Non so se il contrasto è voluto, ma non mi è parso particolarmente riusciuto. Avrei preferito una condanna diretta della guerra, senza tanti giri di parole, senza sconti e sfumature.
October 27, 2017
Jak někteří lidé v komentářích píší, Giordanova prvotina
Osamělost prvočísel
byla lepší. Protože ale mám jistou slabost pro knihy s válečnou tematikou,
neumím Tělo nějak rozumně ohodnotit/zkritizovat a pokud vás příběhy současných vojáků taky zajímají, tak s chutí do toho.
(Pokud byste chtěli o pobytu vojáků v Afghánistánu něco autobiografického, doporučuju od českého autora knihu Do temnoty .)
neumím Tělo nějak rozumně ohodnotit/zkritizovat a pokud vás příběhy současných vojáků taky zajímají, tak s chutí do toho.
(Pokud byste chtěli o pobytu vojáků v Afghánistánu něco autobiografického, doporučuju od českého autora knihu Do temnoty .)
December 3, 2012
Quando leggi questo libro trovi scritto quello che ti aspetti succeda veramente in una missione di pace in Afghanistan.Ti sembra di essere lì, soffri con quei soldati, oppure li disprezzi a seconda di quello che ti viene raccontato in quel momento.E' scritto bene; è profondo ed è una conferma della consistenza di Giordano.
June 1, 2017
"Պարզ թվերի միայնությունը" վեպի հաջողությունից հետո սա Պաոլո Զիորդանոյի երկրորդ գիրքն է, որով անշուշտ պետք է ապացուցեր, որ ի վիճակի է գրել ոչ միայն սիրավեպ, այլև իսկական, ծանր վեպ: Դրա համար ընտրել է պատերազմական թեման: Վեպը իտալացի զինվորիների ծառայության մասին է Աֆղանստանում: Ինչպես վերջում է ինքն իրեն հարց տալիս Զիորդանոյի հերոսը, այս վեպում հեղինակը փորձել է պատասխանել հարցերին, թե ի՞նչ է ընտանիքը, ինչո՞ւ է սկսվում պատերազմ և ինչպե՞ս դառնալ իրական զինվոր: Մեծ հաշվով, երեք հարցերն էլ մնում են անպատասխան: Ասել, որ վեպը վատն է, անարդար կլինի, որովհետև հսկայական աշխատանք է կատարել, բավական մանրամասն նկարագրել է զինվորական կյանքը, բայց հենց զինվորական չորությամբ էլ նկարագրում է հերոսներին: Ռեմարկի պատերազմի վետերաններին դու համակրում ես առաջին էջից, Զիորդանոյի ամենաերիտասարդ հերոսի մահը չի առաջացնում այն շոկը, որից հետո փորձում են դուրս գալ մյուսները: Հետևաբար, ականատեսի զուսպ հայացքի ներքո էլ հետևում ես, թե ինչպես են մյուս հերոսները դուրս գալիս հետ-տրավմատիկ սթրեսից: Մի խոսքով, ստացվել է կիսավավերագրական ռազմավեպ, որտեղ իր հերոսներից պես հեղինակն այնքան զուսպ է, որ կարծես ընթերցողին էլ է կաշկանդում է ավելին զգալ: Զիորդանոն իր առջև դրված խնդիրը լուծել է մասամբ: Իհարկե նա ապացուցեց, որ բացի սիրավեպից կարող է գրել այլ թեմաներով, բայց չկարողացավ այդ այլընտրանքը ներկայացնել նույն հաջողությամբ, ինչ նախորդ վեպը:
February 21, 2020
People have their own story, their own background and experience that brought them to a certain point in life. In this book Paolo Giordano takes the story of a group of soldiers and let's us understand where each of them comes from, and how certain things in life shaped them as individuals, how their lifes come together, and how a traumatic experience in war taints them forever. Reading about this in almost a psychological analystic way can be interesting at times, but if the whole book is based on said analysis, and the story doesn't captivate you on it's own, it better be a really great analysis and that unfortunately is not the case. The traumatic war story gives many options for incredible psychological dissection but quite often it feels that the descriptions don't add to further understanding of characters, and neither helps to create a basis for to the actual story itself to develop.
The book isn't bad to read, but it feels a bit like a missed chance.
The book isn't bad to read, but it feels a bit like a missed chance.
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