Bricks upon Dust
Bricks upon Dust in a book by the Hungarian-English writer Paul Tabori with direct impressions of the Second World War , which was published by Hodder & Stoughton in London in August 1945 . It depicts the return of a 37-year-old wounded soldier to his largely destroyed hometown after the end of the fighting. The story is kept in the fictional ; neither the characters should have corresponded to existing ones, nor is the city or even the home country of the protagonist named. The plot is strictly chronological , the narrative position is authorial ; the narrator knows the whole story and knows what is to be told, but he himself does not appear in it. The narrator also does not take sides or evaluate any actions. This gives the reader the impression that they are being told exactly what is important for the course of the plot.
In his extensive oeuvre, Tabori has used many literary genres and genres, from novels to narration to science fiction . This work cannot be clearly classified and is therefore listed as a non-genre.
action
The city to which the discharged soldier Luke returns is portrayed as depopulated and misanthropic. Only a group of young people, all marked and traumatized by the horrors of the enemy occupation , try to control their city under the leadership of the by far oldest, Joanna. The place is also described as very secluded and difficult to reach, especially since the technical infrastructure is no longer available on the river due to collapsed bridges and destroyed railway connections . At first Luke is received anything but friendly and is even supposed to be killed, but Luke recognizes one of his former students in a member of the youth gang, who admits to his teacher. Luke is accepted as a “man of his own”, but the unstable social structure that has developed among the young people threatens to be disrupted. The group does not want to recognize him a priori as the new leader, just because he is significantly older than they are and he also had the profession of teacher. A natural disaster, the provisions for the approaching winter and the steadily growing stream of more returnees make this initial conflict less and less important.
rating
This book shows how the simplest, archaic structures of an autarkic group are gradually adapted and improved according to current needs, until finally a kind of local government and local government has emerged. Inadequacies and personal sensitivities are clearly highlighted.
As in another work by the author, "Return to the Wineyard", all characters have biblical names, as they are common in the part of Eastern Europe where Tabori came from and which is obviously the scene of the action.
Tabori, who was directly affected by the upheavals during the Second World War and was probably about the same age as Luke when he wrote Bricks upon Dust , has dealt with this topic in several of his works. The most direct criticism of the warmongers is expressed in his 1949 book “The Private Life of Adolf Hitler, The Intimate Notes and Diary of Eva Braun”.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Book review in the Toronto Daily Star, August 18, 1945, p. 23 with photo of the author.
- ↑ antiqbook.com