{"id":1487,"date":"2012-07-23T20:28:14","date_gmt":"2012-07-24T04:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/?p=1487"},"modified":"2012-07-23T20:28:14","modified_gmt":"2012-07-24T04:28:14","slug":"review-hhhh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/?p=1487","title":{"rendered":"Review: HHhH"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laurent Binet helpfully subtitles HHhH<\/em> as “a novel,” but that’s probably intentionally misleading. It’s more of a book that intertwines a historical novel, with the commentary track of that novel, with the story of it being written.\u00a0 That kind of thing can come off as too clever for its own good, but Binet remains engaging throughout.<\/p>\n

The topic of this combination of introspection, research, and literary project is Operation Anthropoid, a WWII assassination carried out by Czechoslovakian resistance fighters trained in London by the Allies.\u00a0 It is indubitably the stuff of high adventure.\u00a0 Daring secret agents strike a symbolic and pragmatic blow against the mastermind of the Final Solution in their occupied homeland.\u00a0 The stakes couldn’t be higher and there’s drama in both the execution and the aftermath.\u00a0 Binet’s not the first to see the literary potential here.<\/p>\n

This kind of story basically has to become a myth, but Binet – having set out to write about it – spends a lot of his time writing about how he wants to write about it and what others writing about it has meant.\u00a0 He doesn’t want to change the people involved from heroes to protagonists, though writing about them in a historical novel will certainly do so.\u00a0 And thereby make them more heroic, but less human.\u00a0 By writing himself into the story thinking about these things he makes himself into a character.\u00a0 Now his concerns become as much a part of the story as the history.\u00a0 That’s always true, of course, but he makes it explicit.<\/p>\n

It’s a saving grace of the book that Binet the character is friendly, thoughtful, and great company.\u00a0 He may be concerned with the effect of telling the story, but he also does a great job of doing it.\u00a0 He brings the men to life compassionately, describes the times and places with telling detail, and relates his feelings sympathetically.\u00a0 The overall effect is one of hearing the history with a well-read and interesting friend.<\/p>\n

Binet the author has researched his topic in nearly obsessive detail.\u00a0 He knows the history of the operation in every particular, and the versions told in literature and popular fiction even better.\u00a0 It’s great to think deeply about the nature of fiction, but nothing gives those concerns weight like being able to point at the telling details one author uses and another discards.\u00a0 Especially when the truth gets slippery.<\/p>\n

HHhH<\/em> is unique and fascinating.<\/p>\n

Strongly Recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laurent Binet helpfully subtitles HHhH as “a novel,” but that’s probably intentionally misleading. It’s more of a book that intertwines a historical novel, with the commentary track of that novel, with the story of it being written.\u00a0 That kind of thing can come off as too clever for its own good, but Binet remains engaging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1487"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1493,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions\/1493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}