The Siege
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'His fiction offers invaluable insights into life under tyranny - his historical allegories point both to the grand themes and small details that make up life in a restrictive environment. He is a great writer, by any nation's standards.' Financial Times
Telegraph
Battle scenes predominate, and are admirably vivid, the narrative swirling and bursting
--This text refers to the
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
On the surface this appears to be the story of the siege of a medieval Albanian fortress by the Ottoman Turks. In fact it is firmly about the contemporary concerns of the author.
As others have said, Kadare uses the fifteenth century siege as a way of exploring issues occupying the Albanian of the 1970s. Although parts of the story do effectively capture something of the lost world of the Albanian resistance leader Skanderbeg and his Ottoman opponents (the mixture of Christianity and older beliefs of the Albanians is nicely portrayed), one is struck by anachronisms in the attitudes of the characters. Even more tellingly, however, the battle scenes, of which there are several, are told at a distance or reported by observers. We are never - even when the Turkish commander joins his troops in a final push - put into the heart of the action - the troops storming a breach, those scrambling over the parapets - as it happens. Kadare simply isn't interested.
The mechanics of the siege are only touched on. Damage inflicted by cannon fire on the castle walls is mentioned, but the breaches caused are not ever discussed by the besieging war council, which seems a trifle odd, given their importance to getting in. Nor do we hear of the defenders trying to patch them up. A mine dug by the Ottomans manages to get under the castle walls yet, rather than try and bring the walls down with it, they dig on to get inside the castle - an odd and unexplained decision. The castle, and therefore the siege, exists in the story only as an implacable obstacle: a literal symbol that the lives of the Turkish soldiers and their commanders' ambitions can be dashed against, in a confused maelstrom, belying the Ottomans apparent meticulous planning.
So what we have instead of a historical novel is a way that Kadare can discuss things that, presumably, communist Albania would not have let him talk about openly. The Turkish army, with its internal divisions, its secret intelligence on its own attitudes, its paranoid tendency to turn on its own, creating its own enemies, worse than those it really faces, its lightless labour camp and its strongman leader, whose main aim is to preserve his own position, is a pretty clear portrait of communist Albania. There are digressions about the nature of national identity, the progress of science and the durability of culture and language. For a short book there is a lot of intellectual ballast. Ideas are packed in.
The problem - for me, at least - is that this is too much a novel of ideas. As well as the lack of interest in the surface story of the battle, there is a lack of interest in the characters that people it. The kind reviewer might call them archetypes, but more accurately, they are ciphers, whose characters often develop little beyond their job descriptions.
Overall, good, but not great.
As others have said, Kadare uses the fifteenth century siege as a way of exploring issues occupying the Albanian of the 1970s. Although parts of the story do effectively capture something of the lost world of the Albanian resistance leader Skanderbeg and his Ottoman opponents (the mixture of Christianity and older beliefs of the Albanians is nicely portrayed), one is struck by anachronisms in the attitudes of the characters. Even more tellingly, however, the battle scenes, of which there are several, are told at a distance or reported by observers. We are never - even when the Turkish commander joins his troops in a final push - put into the heart of the action - the troops storming a breach, those scrambling over the parapets - as it happens. Kadare simply isn't interested.
The mechanics of the siege are only touched on. Damage inflicted by cannon fire on the castle walls is mentioned, but the breaches caused are not ever discussed by the besieging war council, which seems a trifle odd, given their importance to getting in. Nor do we hear of the defenders trying to patch them up. A mine dug by the Ottomans manages to get under the castle walls yet, rather than try and bring the walls down with it, they dig on to get inside the castle - an odd and unexplained decision. The castle, and therefore the siege, exists in the story only as an implacable obstacle: a literal symbol that the lives of the Turkish soldiers and their commanders' ambitions can be dashed against, in a confused maelstrom, belying the Ottomans apparent meticulous planning.
So what we have instead of a historical novel is a way that Kadare can discuss things that, presumably, communist Albania would not have let him talk about openly. The Turkish army, with its internal divisions, its secret intelligence on its own attitudes, its paranoid tendency to turn on its own, creating its own enemies, worse than those it really faces, its lightless labour camp and its strongman leader, whose main aim is to preserve his own position, is a pretty clear portrait of communist Albania. There are digressions about the nature of national identity, the progress of science and the durability of culture and language. For a short book there is a lot of intellectual ballast. Ideas are packed in.
The problem - for me, at least - is that this is too much a novel of ideas. As well as the lack of interest in the surface story of the battle, there is a lack of interest in the characters that people it. The kind reviewer might call them archetypes, but more accurately, they are ciphers, whose characters often develop little beyond their job descriptions.
Overall, good, but not great.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is an easy read. It's a great story too. I'm pretty sure that, were I to be an intellectual, I would find a lot more in this book. I'm not- I just want to be entertained and this book did not disappoint.
I read this in 3 days and that was only because I had to waste time going to work and sleeping.
I read this in 3 days and that was only because I had to waste time going to work and sleeping.
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
A well written historical novel set at a time when the author's homeland Albania was under attack from the Ottoman Empire. Because of this backdrop, he was able to get it published in his home country in 1969, though it contains subversive messages about the nature of an arbitrary and authoritarian political system. I must say I found much of it rather unengaging and a little flat, though perhaps in part that may be down to the double translation into French then English.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A book to read many times
It's an anti-war novel. It's an anti-totalitarianism novel. It's a book of ideas rather than characters. It's all those things and much more. Read more
Published 11 months ago by D. O'Reilly
Breathtaking narrative of a siege to the death
The story revolves around the siege of an unidentified castle in Albania, as the Turks were beginning their invasion of the Balkans. Read more
Published 15 months ago by davidT
Classic of the Communist Era
The Siege tells the story of Ottoman expansion into Europe in the 15th century, or more specifically Kadare's Albania. It does so in simple and descriptive language. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Kloot
A chronicle for all time
This book was chosen for the book group that I belong to, and to be honest, I wouldn't have chosen to read it otherwise, and if I hadn't been on a lazy holiday, with plenty of time... Read more
Published on 19 Feb 2010 by Jane @The Owl Pen
Outstanding as Both Historical Fiction and Allegory
Originally published in Albania in 1970, and then translated into French in the mid-90s, this excellent novel has finally made it into English. Read more
Published on 2 Oct 2009 by A. Ross
A profound thriller
Kadare is less economical in his use of words producing a creative, colourful and descriptive narrative of a tense prolongued seige, reflecting on the effects and consequences of... Read more
Published on 11 Oct 2008 by Flembo
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