Dear Aitite

Two Letters All at Once

Old Martin receives two letters from the Basque Country at his new home in Boise, Idaho and his grandson Jimmy asks why he gets too many letters from Europe, but he is unable to share enough. He always wanted to come to America but hadn't planned to settle here for the rest of his life so he didn't learn to speak English well, and now he cannot share his stories and most importantly how he immigrated to America, to his grandson in the language. Now an 80-year-old man, Martin has nothing much to do: spends time tending his lorategi (garden), always has arguments with his Irish daughter-in-law, gets his hands on chocolate pudding and likes to think like shepherds do, as he calls it. The two letters brought back the news of death of his two closest friends back home and as he dwells on the contents of those letters, many of his lost old memories find their way back in and now he wants to put them down so as not forget them again.

As Martin narrates, three loggers Beltza, Iharra and himself enjoyed each other's company though they were completely different in characters: haughty and swaggering Beltza would conquest girls while Iharra would shy away from having to listen to his romances; Martin was quite a dancer; and all three would drink at the bar, sing or even engage in a ruffle with the young men from other town. Martin enjoyed both the bleakness of the landscape and he thought the richness of the festivals and celebrations at home was all that is in the world. But this untouched harmony was intruded when an old man appeared in the town with a cylindrical stone for lifting contest. Beltza gave it a try and when Iharra too wanted to lift the stone Beltza made fun of him among his surrounding girls; a crack opened in the friendship between them. Martin tried to be fair with both of his friends: first tried to stop them from fighting against each other but then tried to be neutral when the unstoppable competition thing – created and flared by the old man – progressed because then nobody knew what plan the old man had up his sleeves. What follows is the Martin's thirst for spying and eavesdropping at his friends' training places and he comes across the treacherous swindle woven by the old man using his two best friends as baits who will be forever mad at each other because of this, nevertheless Old Martin couldn't do anything to stop it, rather he used the competition, amid fear and sadness, in his favor to win himself the sum to buy ticket for America.

Strong-willed Old Martin's frank and jolly narration makes us laugh and feel sad at times. Old Martin's monologue is easily identifiable and original to the nuances of old age and also of the immigrated people having difficulty absorbing the new way of life or culture shock. He tries to draw out a clearer picture of himself at this age, reflecting upon episodes, what he did and what he does and trying to be true to himself, though he is easily distracted by the present as he tries to concentrate on his past, feeling slightly melancholic. Two Letters All at Once evokes humor and sadness as the Old Martin recounts his vigorous and dreamy past, his unlikely fate and little gloomy but a complete life as an immigrant with few complains. This is a story born out of a life traversing two nations and identities. Basque words and the illustrations give both the story and Old Martin a unique and refreshing character – simple and memorable.

When a Snake Stares at a Bird

When a Snake Stares at a Bird starts with a snake hypnotizing a bird with its stare, and the spell is broken when Grandpa Martin – atop a donkey and who is to show him around the town – tells his grandson Sebastian to hurl a rock toward the bird. Sebastian had heard from his father that Grandpa was not right in his mind and he is awestruck when he witnesses Grandpa conversing with a robin, free from being bewitched and then after reprimanding the snake. And of course Grandpa is suffering from forgetfulness, and asks his grandson who he is, even before a longtime passes. A little later, Sebastian follows his grandfather yet to be surprised again, when the chained town dogs stop barking and wag their tail when his scrawny Grandpa passes by on his donkey. Grandpa takes Sebastian to a bar and gets him drunk when in fact he wants to take away the sadness of his grandson, while at home Sebastian's aunt and uncle take this chance to rebuke Grandpa Martin for his foolishness. Grandpa responds with his usual intention of going to Terranova once and for all meanwhile Sebastian in his drunken stupor wants everybody to know that his grandfather can talk to animals.

Soon Sebastian loses the company of his grandfather, and starts hanging out in the plaza on his own, and there falls in love with a girl.  He shares the secret about his grandfather's ability to discourse with animals with his girlfriend. Sebastian realizes that everybody in the town seems to know his grandfather has obsession with going to Terranova. While Sebastian is busy with his love affair Grandpa Martin plans something. Sebastian decides to follow his grandfather at night in his secret voyages, wanting to know more about his Grandpa's ability, wherever he goes, only to discover that Grandfather has finally made up his mind.  We are left with parting texts drawn by a flock of geese.

Like in the other novella of the Two Basque Stories, Atxaga with his exuberant narrative style is able to create a character of an old man with some unique inner life hidden away from the rest and the balance of subtleness and sharpness of the characters makes the story memorable. Part coming-of-age and part magic realism, When a Snake Stares at a Bird is one such story of a neglected old man who harbors a private dream and possesses an unearthly power. The story draws us into a giant world every individual has inside him and directs us to relate with primordial connections we feel toward each other at the same time rejoicing love and freedom with a mystic touch.

Author: Bernardo Atxaga

Translator: Nere Lete
Illustrator: Antton Olariaga

Publisher: Centre for Basque Studies, University of Nevada

Page Count: 120pp

Price: $19.95

Author Photo Credit: https://www.atxaga.eus/bernardo-atxaga/bernardo-atxagas-literary-universe

Review Copy Courtesy: Centre for Basque Studies, University of Navada

Iliad for People in a Hurry

The year is 1945 and Greece is still under the reign of German forces. There, in a small village, a young teacher arrives for whom our narrator immediately develops a crush. When British bombers launch an attack¹ on the German base located in the village, the students, among which are our boy narrator and his friend Dimitra, are led to seek refuge in a cave by their new teacher, Miss Marina. With having nothing to do in the darkness of the cave, Miss Marina begins to retell the story of The Iliad by Homer as an escape from the air raids.

1.       We were sitting in the classroom when the first bomb fell, making the windows rattle... The first victim was a donkey laden with wood. Her big belly had been split in two, and she lay there kicking all four legs in the air as she slowly died. The planes were not German. They were British. The next bomb hit the school’s primitive outside toilet, sending turds flying all around us along with dead mice and rats.

Achaeans (Greeks) and Trojans had been fighting for nearly ten years and yet the Trojan wall couldn't be pervaded by the opponent nor could the siege broken by Trojans. The worthiness of war—which was started when Helen, wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta, left with Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy—was waning among the Achaeans but they were under the oath to fight for Helen and Menelaus and had the inviolable need to keep up their war pride. As the story progresses, the foremost Achaean fighter Achilles withdraws from the war and recluses after obdurate Agamemnon, the commander of the Achaeans and brother of Menelaus, takes away his mistress when Agamemnon's desire for a woman is thwarted by the power of Apollo. Soon the two armies face each other, only to come at a conclusion that Paris and Menelaus must fight each other and one of them being dead will thus settle the war. Meanwhile, Helen is anxious that any outcome would be her loss. But Paris flees the duel and shortly the truce is broken and war is flared again. More lives are lost before Ajax from Achaeans and Hector from Trojans combat in a duel which is however unable to bring any culmination. Achaean warriors and leaders sense the absence of Achilles, with Trojans proving heavy on them with growing threat to their ships, but aren't able to appease him.

The Siege of Troy has freshly brought back the vigor, expanse and influence of The Iliad. Reading between the lines, we are able to connect the contexts of two wars: Trojan and Second World War, and are disgusted by the killings and atrocities while friendship, love and other soft and strong emotions still resonate with us. Just as children's emotions are shaped by the plots of the Iliad, they harbor doubtful view of the German soldiers, unable to hate or love them amid their close presence and death of kinships to their name. Reflection prevalent in the story is that war is always surrounded by questions that humans have always found unanswered or answers that are unjustifiable: "Is the need to love greater than the need to hate?"  "Who can distinguish one sorrow from another? Who can distinguish tears from tears?"

In the following days, like in a tug-of-war, the whip hand shifts between the two forces, when even a small hint of retreat from one side or a word of courage or a sense of a good omen made one force overpower the other. The Trojan commander Hector, despite taking several blows² himself, rages havoc against the assailants and push them close to the camps intending to burn their ships, and the news forces Achilles to allow deploying his forces, the Myrmidons, under the command of his dearest friend Patroclus to exhort the men for counterattack. Before long, Patroclus meets his misfortune and this eventually brings out Achilles to the battlefield having lost his beloved companion and filled with rage. Achilles taking lives of the Trojan warriors and those close to Hector are among the brutal scenes of the novel, and we cannot avoid being horrified when fight turns to a slaughter³, and this finally puts the two foremost warriors, Hector and Achilles, face to face to fight for their honor! Meanwhile, an attack by Greek resistance fighters, claims life of a higher ranking German officer and this leads to a tragic outcome in the village which matches the execution of the innocents in Trojan War and simple lives taken in revenge, and our 15-year-old narrator narrowly escapes his death. But, is he able to save all those whom he loves? The two parallel stories justify and complement each other as we reach to the end.

2.       Hector was at the forefront, and was the first to hurl his spear at Ajax, the son of Telamon. It caught the center of the shield and Ajax took a step back, but he was still capable of picking up a huge rock and throwing it at Hector with all his might. The boulder struck Hector on the neck, and he spun around a couple of times before falling to the ground. He dropped his spear, and his heavy armor prevented him from moving. Several Achaeans rushed forward to finish him off with their spears, but they failed. Hector was immediately surrounded by the foremost Trojan warriors; they protected him with their shields and stood firm until they managed to convey him to his chariot, drawn by his swift horses.

3.       Achilles flailed wildly around him. Dryops was stabbed in the neck and fell at his feet like an empty sack. Achilles left him there and went for Demuchus, pinning him down with his spear before finishing him off with his sword. He dragged the two unfortunate brothers, Laogonus and Dardanus, from their chariot and slew them. The next man, Tros, dropped to his knees in front of Achilles and begged for mercy, but not a trace was left in Achilles’s heart. Tros clasped his legs and pleaded with him, weeping, but Achilles drove his sword into the other man’s liver. Black blood spurted out, along with his life. He killed Mulius by thrusting his spear into one ear and out through the other. He struck Echlecus over the head with his sword so that the blood gushed out, then he chopped off Deucalion’s head. Rhigmus died when the spear pierced his stomach, and his charioteer when it penetrated his back as he tried to flee.

Miss Marina voices the author to tell the war epic in such simplicity and in a fashion of a folktale that anyone who hasn't had the courage to face poetry or chance to read the Iliad would easily understand the intensity of the clash, its evolution and formation, and largely the human side of it with little space for divine intervention unlike depicted in Homeric Iliad. The episodic composition of the telling gives us time to reflect as well as builds up the anticipation among the readers as is among the students in the story. The novel, filled with blood, sweat and tears, has juxtaposed not only the two wars, but has also pictured brutal faces of war untouched by historical or mythological consciousness proving human failure to keep up the truth higher than their pride and provide the psychological depth of the warriors, friends, mothers and lovers, all pointing to the fact that: "War is a source of tears, and that there can be no victors."

Author: Theodor Kallifatides

Translator: Marlaine Delargy

Publisher: Other Press

Page Count: 208pp

Price: $14.99

Author Photo Credit: https://like.fi/kirjailijat/theodor-kallifatides/

Review Copy Courtesy: Other Press

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