Tinpest.
Kops, Henri
Louis Ferron. Amsterdam. De Bezige Bij. 1997. 187 pages. 36.50 fl.
ISBN 90-234-3650-4.
An Austrian decree of 1868 rechristened the country the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its last emperor, Charles I, abdicated in
November 1918. Crown Prince Rudolf had committed suicide. Now the
monarchy is failing, but in Vienna one dances still. First Lieutenant of
the Guard Arthur von Lauersperg, scion of a titled military line, end
product of the Habsburg dynasty gone to seed, is gauche with women, of
hesitant mind, and accustomed to living in a continuum. Officers exist
who have fomented minor defeats in encounters with Russian rebels, Turk
adventurers, and a self-elected sultan, somewhere between the Caucasus
and the Gobi Desert.
An Austrian general and Lauersperg visit the same bordello in the
Jewish section of Vienna. The lieutenant lets slip a cynical remark
about the monarchy's disintegration. Battle-hardened HQ generals
are prone to prejudice against a titled officer's exclusive
preference for a Jewish courtesan, and Lauersperg is reassigned to a
post near the Black Sea, in command of a penal group. He contacts a Turk
rebel group desirous of allying with Austro-Hungarian forces. Stationed
in an old fort surrounded by rust-brown sand and bare rocks, the mission
hazy and supplies erratic, the lieutenant suffers hallucinations,
alleviating his exile with opium.
Fritz, the peasant-bred jack-of-all-trades orderly stuck with his
officer, wonders cynically how fast Arthur will perish. George Adami,
the son of the owner of the top-selling-noodle factory in the Empire,
went through military, college with Arthur. A cavalry captain married to
a lady of the upper bourgeoisie, Adami is both pragmatic and an expert
at conflict management, but saving his colleague is beyond him. The
trouble-free, newly promoted lieutenant general Adami will survive to
help Austria become a republic.
Louis Ferron writes dialogue that is suitably sharp and blunt. His
profound, crystalline analyses of motivation, mistakes, and desperate
compensatory actions which issue from Hofburg Palace during the
monarchy's dying throes help explain why God-given sovereignty was
no longer acceptable and painful intervention was necessary. The
principals act coherently. The author's familiarity with music and
theater enriches our perception of Adami's wife and son and also
acquaints us with Ferdinand Raimund, the Austrian actor and farce
playwright whose suicide was precipitated by the fear that he had been
bitten by a mad dog.
The limited passages of gore and sex are quite frank and real. A
haunting gradation etches the portraits of Austrian soldiers destroyed
in gangrenous trenches in Moslem desert territory either by poison gas
released from the floating Hindenburg airship or by Soviet bullets meant
for Kalmuk and Chechen nomads swarming for access to the basics of
statehood and security. This rather difficult read even incorporates
touches of Oriental mysticism and uses the so genuinely French
languissant.
Henri Kops Fort Bragg, Ca.
