- Paperback: 198 pages
- Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher Inc; 1st Verba Mundi Ed edition (31 July 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0879239921
- ISBN-13: 978-0879239923
- Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 13.7 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,152,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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'With obvious affinities to Kafka's The Castle, The Tartar Steppe is a serener and more immediately rewarding book.' --The Times
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very original and thought provoking book,
By charles.nightingale@btinternet.com (felixstowe, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Tartar Steppe (Paperback)
Sometimes described as an indictment of military life and thought, this book touches on far more. It somehow reaches into ones innermost mind, to put a precise finger on the futility of ones existence, yet also on the inevitibality of our destiny. I have read thousands of books in my time, but never one that made me so sad for my own life. The setting for this powerful book - the lonely Fort Bastiani, in some unknown place and time - is superbly painted, and its characters in perfect keeping with it. A book that deserves to be more well known, it would stand very favourable comparison with many contemporary novels.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting and Hopeless,
By
This review is from: The Tartar Steppe (Paperback)
I can't believe no one's reviewed this book yet. I came across it as a result of 1001 Books To Read Before You Die, and though I'd never heard of it before, it definitely deserves to be in that list (or even 10 Books To Read Before You Die). It's haunting, sad, melancholic and, if you find yourself stuck in a rut, it might make you rethink your situation. The story is based around a young soldier assigned to a remote fortress whose garrison is perpetually waiting, waiting and hoping for an attack by the enemy, whoever they are, from across the desert they have to watch. If that sounds like a boring idea for a book, it honestly isn't. It's absolutely beautiful. Buy it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Waiting for the Tatars,
By
This review is from: The Tartar Steppe (Paperback)
Waiting for Godot in the desert of the Tatars. Officer Giovanni Drogo is assigned to Fort Bastiani, a frontier post in front of the steppe in which the Tatars live (the book is a bit iffy geographically, no doubt deliberately, as it suggests an Italian fort in what seems like Central Asia). He doesn't like the place right from the beginning, and hopes he would be out of it in four months, but he ends up serving (SPOILER AHEAD) thirty years. In which absolutely nothing happens, and in which he sacrifices the possibility of having a family or a meaningful career. And when he is about to retire, the Tatars (or whomever the invaders are) really attack, he is considered too ill and old to fight, so he is shipped immediately from the front. A great book (though perhaps a bit too long) that would be considered existentialist today, even if author Buzzati didn't suscribe to that movement. Note: Buzzati wrote some other great books, including the great fantasy book The Mystery of the Old Forest, which I believe has not been translated into English.
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