dead europe
February 23, 2010It’s been over a month since I finished Christos Tsiolkas’ Dead Europe and I’m still unsure what to think of it. I’d say it’s really really good, but I can’t explain why. I’d say it is really visceral and revolting, but I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’d tell you it has vampires in it, but I’d hate you to think it’s Twilight.
Dead Europe has two stories running at once. One is narrated by Isaac, a Greek-Australian photographer travelling in Europe. The other seems like a parable or a fairy tale, but is actually the back-story of Issac’s mother. Both of them are filled with horror, the difference being that Isaac’s horror creeps up on him despite his rational new-world outlook, whereas in the back story the horror is tied to superstition and ignorance.
The two stories together cover a lot of ground – World War Two, the end of communism in Eastern Europe, the immigrant experience, the Holocaust, the Greek coups and Junta. Where the book is really successful is that it doesn’t use just one of these, it ties them all together into a kind of pan-European story without losing significance of each, and centering these events on the lives of ordinary people.
As Isaac comes to realise that he is possessed, and doomed, the two stories begin to mesh together, and instead of the pretty picture postcard Europe that an Australian tourist might photograph, the dark festering depths of all of Europe’s history and unresolved hatreds come bubbling up to the surface and can’t be ignored.
This is one of the most interesting things about this book – it directly challenges clichés that most readers and writers actively participate in. Immigrants do not make good in the new country, prodigal sons are not lauded on their return to the old country, Paris and Prague are not pretty and romantic, but grim and cruel.
While I can’t say why, I would strongly recommend this book as a compelling and thought-provoking read, and will leave it to people more coherent than me to say why.
Dead Europe
Christos Tsiolkas
Random House, 2005
