Olivia Manning is not a well-known writer. Why this is I really don’t know. The Balkan Trilogy is a great accomplishment and any young writer who is serious about learning how the craft should take a few cues from it. There are three aspects of great writing that Manning masters. One is the building of characters through dialogue, another is a strong sense of place, and the third is the building of tension and suspense.
The Balkan Trilogy tells the story of Harriet and Guy Pringle, a young couple who have just gotten married after knowing each other for a week. The two arrive in Bucharest, Romania since Guy works for the British Legation, teaching English literature at the university. The British Legation is a branch of the colonial ministry and the British relation with Romania is one that is a mixture of political alliance and colonial possession. The first two books, “The Great Fortune” and “The Spoilt City” take place in Bucharest while the third, “Friends and Heroes”, takes place in Athens where the Pringles go to escape from the Nazi invasion of Romania. They get involved with a whole cast of other characters along the way. One of the most memorable is Yakimov, an exiled Belorussian prince who has fallen into poverty since his wife died and his inheritance has dwindled down to a trickle. There are other colonial bureaucrats and journalists in Bucharest. The expatriate community is a network of socialites and they have little more than loose associations with the Romanian people who mostly stay in the background.
It is fair to say that there is not any overarching plot in this trilogy. Rather there are a lot of subplots, or I might actually call them “micro-plots”, that support an overarching theme. That theme is the shaky relationship between Harriet and Guy. Both of them are naive and both also came from lower class backgrounds, a detail that isn’t thoroughly explored but does, however, give insight into why the two of them act the way they do. Harriet is smart and perceptive, possibly the most intelligent character in the novels. Her desire is to get closer to her husband and discover who he really is while also discovering Romanian society and getting to know herself. Guy, on the other hand, is gregarious by nature, always willing to help the downtrodden and generous to a fault. This is both the best and the worst trait of his personality. Guy is book-smart and ideological, but tragically naive when it comes to other people. He wants to spend time with everybody he meets, everybody, that is, except Harriet who he treats like a kid sister that he doesn’t want tagging along while he goes off to do what he thinks of as more important things. Sometimes these things involve socializing with people who are down and out, looking for ways to take advantage of him.
From the beginning, we get a clear picture of who Guy and Harriet are. This is primarily done through dialogue, not just with the Pringles but also with the other people they interact with. The characters stand alone as individual humans, but their personalities and psychology are built for the reader by how they interact with others. They are who they are but they become much more because of how they socialize; it is a gestalt effect where the overall picture is much larger than the sum of its parts. Olivia Manning isn’t the only writer to have employed this technique but she does do it better than most any other authors I have read. Some readers compare her to Jane Austen but I think she is better at dialogue mostly because I find Austen to be a crashing bore.
The theme of the Pringles’ marriage carries through the whole trilogy. The first book intoruduces this theme which is especially seen where Guy directs a stage production of Shakespeare, despite the political turbulence that has begun to set in. During rehearsals, Guy all but commands Harriet to stay away even though she wants to be a part of the project. In the second book, as the political situation gets worse, the two of them start to grow closer together. When the monarchy gets overthrown by Antonescu, the fascist Iron Guard starts crawling out of the woodwork, and the German Nazi presence in Bucharest grows on a daily basis, the Pringles begin to face some hard decision making. This is exacerbated by Guy allowing two people to stay in the apartment, Yakimov, who is homeless, and Sasha Drucker, the son of a Jewish banker who abandoned his military service because the soldiers where persecuting Jews. An even more absurd situation occurs when the Legation flies a scholar named Primrose into Bucharest to give a lecture when the entire country is being shut down by the Nazis and British citizens are being commanded to leave the country. Although Harriet continues to feel alienated from Guy and the rest of the expat community, she is drawn by circumstances to spend more time with him, even if it is solely for pragmatic reasons. The peak of their relationship comes when they take a retreat in the nearby mountains and have some serious discussions about their future.
And that theme continues when they move on to Greece. The German occupation of Bucharest puts their lives in danger, so they flee to Athens, a city that Harriet immediately becomes enamored with. She hopes that being there will bring her closer together with her husband, but he just returns to being his old self again. He spends most of his time socializing in cafes or working on lectures even though he isn’t formally employed. As the Italian and German fascists begin closing in on Greece, though, food becomes scarce, the situation becomes dire, and again the two of them are forced to spend time together because of the miserable circumstances. Guy continues to be optimistic and naive; he never gives up hope even though an aristocrat who has influence over the Legation in Greece and possible ties to the fascists keeps stabbing him in the back as Guy tries to get the Legation school running again. Guy also puts on variety shows for the benefit of the British soldiers who have shown up in Athens to defend Greece against the Nazis. This offends his boss and Guy can’t comprehend why. His strength of character and desire to do good for everybody while keeping a stiff upper lip is proven to be a symptom of weakness because he misreads these situations. He begins looking like he needs public adoration to feel good about himself, a flaw in his character which prevents his marriage from success. There are times when you might feel like slapping him and telling him to wake up and look at reality. Harriet, on the other hand, continues to get stronger. She develops an intuition for reading people that is more accurate than Guy’s perceptions. Even if she doesn’t solve all their problems, she does a good job of explaining the psychology of the other characters. By the time they leave Greece, Harriet has Guy and herself all figured out too. She realizes she has more potential as a career woman than he does as a lecturer due to his chronic problem of misplacing his priorities and ambitions. Some critics have criticized Manning for not sufficiently addressing feminist themes, but I think this unfair because the strength of Harriet’s character and intelligence speaks for itself. Just because Manning isn’t hysterically ranting about destroying the patriarchy doesn’t mean she isn’t sensitive to women’s issues. Besides, battering people over the head with a message doesn’t always mean it will be received; sometimes being subtle is a stronger way of communicating. This is something people in the 21st century don’t seem to understand. We live in an age of loudmouthed know-nothings who think they know everything.
While The Balkan Trilogy is largely about human relationships, these relationships take place against a background that is atmospheric, historical, and political. The second most distinct aspect of Manning’s prose is her ability to capture the feeling of a time and place with her language. For one thing, the dramatic shifts in the Romanian climate do a lot to move the pacing along. From the balmy and humid summers to the rainy autumn and heavy winter snowfall with its perpetually grey skies, she creates an environment you can really feel. She does just as well with the climate in Greece. Her descriptions of Bucharest and Athens are accurate as well. I know because I have spent time in both cities. The descriptions of Bucharest, called the Paris of the East in the pre-communist era, are vivid and show all sides of the city. Romania has always been at the crossroads of history. Once an outpost of the Roman Empire and a thoroughfare for migrating tribes from the Slavic lands and Central Asia, they were eventually conquered by the Ottomans who had ambitions for seizing territories farther west. In the cafe culture, street life, peasant markets, and restaurants you can see the ebbs and tides of history washing through the city. The aristocrats, mimicking the ways of the French upper classes are sinking into irrelevance. The peasants and Romani people ply their trades on the streets. The Jews are eternal scapegoats, and the English are popular because the Romanian king is allied to Great Britain. Things change quickly when Romania ditches the U.K. to join the axis with Hitler while Hungary claims Transylvania and the Soviet Unions claims Bukovina and Besarabia which is now Moldova. The social atmosphere of Bucharest, as portrayed by Manning, is fickle and emotionally detached. This contrasts sharply when the Pringles visit the mountains and have some freedom to contemplate their lives. The scenery is described as majestic and elysian although a shadow enters the paradise when Harriet sees the cruel way that the peasants treat their domestic animals.
The atmosphere is described just as vividly in Athens with its busy cafes, noisy bars, and restaurants. This inner city atmosphere contrasts nicely with the time the characters spend in the calm of gardens, on the beach, visiting the Acropolis, and hiking in the hills and forests that surround the city. The atmosphere continues to darken as the fascists progress towards the borders of Greece, food becomes scarce, and the country is plunged into a winter with downpouring rain. It is an atmosphere of hope deferred while the city plunges into the misery of starvation and fear.
Then there is the building of tension, another aspect of Mannin’g writing that makes it high quality. On a small scale, micro-plots are used frequently to keep the narrative interesting. One such micro-plot involves the arrival of an inconspicuous British secret agent in Bucharest who conspires to blow up Romania’s oil reserves if the Nazis ever take over the country. Guy gets involved with this and brings home a paper with the details of a bomb, but the conspiracy gets thwarted and nothing comes of it. The paper comes up again later in a second micro-plot involving Yakimov, the homeless former prince from White Russia who gets taken in by Guy to sleep in the spare bedroom. Yakimov is a complete leech who refuses to work and lives by begging for money and eating other people’s food. He gets angry at Guy for a petty reason and steals the paper then hands it over to a Nazi official in northern Transylvania. While Yakimov is angry at Guy, his ultimate motivation is to curry favor with the Nazi so he can get some food from him. Yakimov really is shallow and amoral, kind of like stray dog that begs for food and never reciprocates the kindness. He never considers that this action could lead to the Iron Guard harassing the Pringles and chasing them out of Romania. There are literally dozens of other subplots involving the affairs of the Legation, the activities of the journalists, and the relations between the large cast of characters in the Balkan region of Europe.
Another impressive way that Manning builds tension is with the creeping specter of World War II getting closer and closer. At the beginning, the movement of the Nazis across Europe happens far away and is of little concern to the expats in Romania. They are worried but the threat isn’t close enough to actually prevent them from pursuing an ordinary life. As the Nazis come closer to the Romanian border and finally occupy the country, showing up more and more around the city of Bucharest, it is like an ominous dark cloud moving over the sun. The closer the war comes, the more British nationals from their community start to leave and living in Bucharest becomes more and more precarious. Finally acts of violence against members of the Legation come like lightning strikes and it becomes obvious that the Pringles have to leave. What is so brilliant in the writing is the way the way the war starts off as little more than a small noise in the distance and becomes louder as it approaches until it is deafening roar in the narrative. When the Pringles arrive in Athens, the process starts all over again. At first they wax optimistically when the Greek army defeats the Italians invading from Albania, but then it wanes as the Germans move in and begin bombing Greece. The story moves gradually from joy to doom and you can see how it effects the characters psychologically like a noose tightening around their necks as they realize that trouble is coming their way.
It is almost tempting to say that this trilogy is a work of perfection if only there weren’t some glaring mistakes. There are a few spots where the narrative degenerates into purple prose and Manning also has a tendency to use long lists of adjectives that come off as amateurish and silly. There certainly isn’t enough of this to ruin the book though. Yet another problem is some sloppy editing. I usually overlook this when reading good literature, but it is almost embarrassing at times in Manning’s writing. In one scene after Yakimov has fled Romania and arrived in Istanbul, he walks into the Pringles’ apartment. After that he disappears from the narrative until they meet up with him again in Athens. In other scenes, characters speak up in conversations without the author telling us they were present. Some of these characters were never even introduced into the story so you scratch your head in wonder trying to figure out who they are or why they are there. The proofreading was done hastily to the detriment of the writing.
The Balkan Trilogy comes close to perfection in terms of both style and content. The story is deeply engaging and smooth, often moving at a fast enough pace to keep you going despite its length of over 900 pages. It is easy to read and as anyone who knows about writing will tell you, writing something that is easy to read, especially while maintaining a certain level of complexity, is extremely difficult to do. I don’t know how good Manning’s other books are, but she certainly hit the ball out of the park on this one. The Balkan Trilogy deserves to be a classic.
No comments:
Post a Comment