The Maze (Hardcover)

The Maze is a fictional story about a brigade of Greek soldiers, fleeing the Turks and heading for the coast. They are lost in the barren, inhospitable and, at times, impassable desert as we are introduced to a variety of characters headed by a Brigadier who is past retirement age, disillusioned, with a passion for Greek mythology and totally dependent on morphine as a way of dealing with the predicament he now finds himself in. Other main characters are Major Porfirio, the Chief of Staff, who is driven by his own demons, the aide who follows the major down the path to self-destruction and the brigade Chaplain who is slowly driving himself and the brigade insane under the weight of his aspirations.

However, it is the medic who, although not fully qualified, is dependable, efficient and unbelievably accomplished when it becomes apparent that he has acquired most of his skills during the campaign. With the help and co-operation of his illiterate, but dedicated and loyal, orderly he manages to distribute medication, kindness and a semblance of stability among an increasingly unsettled and irrational group.

A disastrous decision under attack (retrospectively told), a series of thefts and the anonymous distribution of revolutionary handbills help undermine the Brigadier's authority and sanity, thus increasing his dependency on morphine and his Chief of Staff. A plane crash, and the saving of its wounded pilot, provide the catalyst for the denouement.

In the meantime, the brigade stumbles upon a small Anatolian town and takes up residence, thus upsetting the status quo of the settlement which has, for centuries, maintained deep Christian and Muslim divides.

This is an absorbing book, full of flawed but believable characters, a plot to intrigue and descriptive prose which transports the reader to the terrible wasteland of tired minds and bodies and dry, inhospitable desert.

Part Two begins in a local village, and introduces its cast of stock characters. There's the buffoonish mayor who's literally gotten fat off his office. His fiancee, the sophisticated foreign courtesan stuck in this dreary backwater. The schoolmaster, and the shopkeeper, neither of whom make much of an impression, an alcoholic newspaper correspondent, and finally a maidservant and a gardener who emerge as the only two people to really find happiness. The Greek soldiers manage to make it our of the desert and arrive at this town, shaking up the established order. Which makes it sound more exciting than it actually isómake no mistake, this is a slow novel. Events do build up to a fairly tragic climax which never feels fully paid off or legitimate, or even climactic, and the brief epilogue ends things on much more of a whimper than a bang. The overall effect one walks away with is that Karnezis has stiched together a series of unsubtle character studies revolving around the frailty and pitfalls of belief and what it takes to be happy in life.

The writing is a bit of a mixed bag, which at times is very atmospheric, and at times too baroque and overdone. In the same vein, some of the similes are quite nice, but they frequently misfire and occur far too often. Although, it has to be acknowledged that it's quite impressive writing for someone who is writing in their second language. Characters rarely feel alive, and few have distinct voices. There are some nice moments of humor mixed in, gentle comic touches that provide a welcome change from the general defeated tone. Also scattered in are references to Greek mythology, which are footnoted and laboriously explained. There are no doubt, a number of biblical references mixed in as well, but as someone who never read the Bible, they passed me by. On the whole, it's not bad, just not that great, and I would hesitate to recommend it to others.