Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres
Louis de Bernieres is a courageous writer. So much is evident when reading this sprawling, grand narrative of a time and place largely forgotten to us in the twenty-first century. Telling the story of a small town in Turkey before, during and after the first world war, the book spans some 800 pages. At times exasperating, at others compelling, de Bernieres’s narrative of world events intruding upon a small community is like the story of someone growing old and losing their innocence, step by step along the way.
There are similarities to de Bernieres’s most famous work Captain Corelli’s Mandolin but this book is a far more ambitious affair. We are treated to an amazing array of characters and the narrative employs a number of tricks to help distinguish them from each other. De Bernieres chooses the simplicity of the first person narrative to tell the story of a number of key characters, giving us a very personal view of the world. Coupled with this is a more standard third-person narrative that tells the majority of the story. It is a testament to de Bernieres’s skill that we are able to flit about and change viewpoints without confusion.
A third style is used for Mustapha Kemal Ataturk; the man responsible for the modern Turkish state. These chapters are all written in present tense and so have the immediacy of a news report. For the most part Mustapha Kemal’s chronicle is a nice contrast to the rest of the tale but sometimes it does feel a little overused. In the middle of the novel there is a series of chapters all written in this way. The effect is that it feels very much like a list of events rather than a story. There is so much information that de Bernieres needs to get across though, and it is difficult to think how else he could have done it.
De Bernieres’s ambitions also mean that his writing can be irksome in other ways. He revels in his use of unusual words (take ‘mommoxity’ for example) but there are so many that it smacks of someone showing off, drawing too much attention away from the story and onto the cleverness of the writer. This problem is compounded by the frequent ethnic words that pepper the text. The sheer amount of them means that far from creating exotic colour they merely get in the way. This is a shame as de Bernieres is obviously a master with the English language. At other points his writing is a pure delight; very few authors are able to evoke the beauty and ugliness of the world around us as effectively.
De Bernieres writing is remarkable also for its philosophical nature. Take for example his thoughts on beauty as expressed by one of the main characters Drosoula:
“When you looked at Philothei, you were reminded of a terrible truth, which is that everything decays away and is lost. Beauty is precious, you see, and the more beautiful something is the more precious it is; and the more precious something is, the more it hurts us that it will fade away: and the more we are hurt by beauty, the more we love the world; and the more we love it, the more we are saddened that it is like the finely powdered salt that runs away through the fingers, or is washed away by the rain.”
This example from early in the book is just the first of many times that I had to stop and reflect for a while.
Characterisation is of course where de Bernieres is at his strongest. He is an expert craftsman and his accomplishment is impressive when one takes into account the different sides he has created for so many different people. Even when the characters are stereotypical they are still wonderful. Fekrit, the abusive foul-mouthed soldier from Pera is largely one-dimensional but also a joy to read about.
This is an historical novel, and while I certainly learned a lot I was most impressed by its great relevance to the world today. Most obviously this is in its portrayal of the relationship between Christianity and Islam, but also in the way ordinary people get caught up in events that are beyond their control and the tragic consequences that ensue.
At times this read can be a bit of a trudge. While it is a central character in itself, the town of Eskibahce is described in great detail far too many times. Moreover, the end of the book tends to go on and on explaining the same events from different viewpoints while not really revealing anything new. In this way it reminded me of War and Peace; also a fantastic novel that is at least two hundred words too long.
Above all there is much about this immense novel that could be better, but given the breadth of material it covers, one can only stand back in awe of de Bernieres’s achievement.
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