Customer Reviews

The Ghost Rider

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The Ghost Rider" is a revised version of "Doruntine" and tells the simple but riveting story of a bride (Doruntine), brought back from her marriage by a deceased brother Kostandin. Doruntine arrives in time to accompany her dying mother to the grave. Police chief Stess is tasked with the investigation to unravel the mysterious circumstances of Kostandin's intervention.

In typical Kadare style he tells his story concisely, dispassionately, and enthusiastically, but always finds a way to introduce the unexpected in a comical and entertaining way, even when he his intention is deadly serious. The outrage of the Patriarch at the mere though of a resurrected Kostandin, though comical for his reasons to be so, is suddenly sinister when he instructs Stress to "find any rider who would confess" to having been the "ghost rider". The Baron, fearful of the consequences to his power instructs Stress to find an "acceptable" explanation. It is this exposure of the fundamental dishonesty of the State and Church when they feel threatened that Kadare so eloquently exposes, particularly when Stress has a "confessor under torture", but he (Stress) refuses to accept the confession. Whilst we so often correctly pin this type of dishonesty on the Stalinist rulers of Kadare's time in Albania, we are blind not to recognize it in our contemporary priests and presidents.

Kadare in "The Ghost Rider" goes much further in analyzing the psychology of society, and not only Albanian society. Whilst Kostandin gave his "besa" (I think I shall translate it as commitment rather than promise) to fetch Doruntine back if a calamity was to befall the family, he does so (incredulously so for a dead man), but then one of Kostandin's friends explains to Stress: "we see things differently". Yes the "besa" is not always personal, it permeates society, and in the end it is not important who brought Doruntine home, it is the fact that Doruntine came home. If we have learnt anything from the past we should know it was the "besa" of the "communist" people that undid the Soviet Empire, it was the "besa" of the Vietnamese "peasants" that undid the American Empire, it is the "besa" of the "innocent" that is undoing the institutionalized church, and it is increasingly this "commitment" that will write our future.

Yes, another masterpiece by Kadare, good for reading as a story only and challenging to understand ourselves in a complex world.

Ghost Rider is a novel about the old Albanian tradition of besa. Kadare analyzes the tradition masterfully and his descriptions are vivid and detailed. It's really hard to put this book down after reading a few pages. I truly enjoyed this book.

The Ghost Rider is part middle ages myth, part detective story, but in the end mostly a study in the palpable spirit of a community that is tenuously balanced among the conflicting pulls of dueling religions and political powers. Add to this the fact that the book was in part written under the watchful eye of the Soviet regime and then translated from a French translation to English, and you arrive at a work that is hard to characterize and culturally difficult, as an American, to understand.

The premise is the return of bride Doruntine to her hometown in Albania from the unnamed faraway land where she has been sent in marriage. She is sent away by her brother Kostandin, and ostensibly returned by him as well, although at the time of her return, he has been dead three years. Stres, the detective, is charged with solving the mystery, although it turns out that none of the powers that be are actually seeking the truth. Each is looking for a solution that will enhance its own grip on the village.

There are glimmers of a traditional detective story, but those merely act as a foil to the fact that the mystery is not one to be solved by traditional detective work. At the end of the day, the quotidian methods of analysis are belied by the "besa", the intangible spirit of the community that can cause to occur what cannot rationally or physically occur. I was distracted by the several instances in which it became clear that the physical transport was no doubt accomplished by Stres himself. Was that meant to question whether the besa was in fact a powerful force or to indicate that it was so powerful that even the level-headed Stres was susceptible to its power?

I remain on the fence about this one, so I gave it 3 stars.

Serious formatting issue. I've tried on both the iPad and the iPhone and it's the same both places. Text is too large to comfortably read and cannot be reduced. Flipping forward solves the problem, but once you flip back -- i.e. try and start the book -- it's back to 24 pt. Awful! Awful! I want a refund. An unreadable book. Who's the publisher? Canongate. Booooo!