Gossip From the forest [Paperback]

Thomas Keneally (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1976

A tale of personal prejudice and political obstinacy from the author of Schindler's List. In 1918 at Compiègne, France, a group of intractable men negotiate to forge the armistice ending World War I. The Allies press for total submission; the Germans angle for compromise. So they talk on and on, while the guns roar and men die.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

As in Keneally's portrait of Joan of Arc, Blood Red, Sister Rose (1974), this treatment of a historical event - the Armistice negotiations which ended World War I - explores the roots of personal and political power. The railroad car in the forest of Compiegne, where the meetings between the allies and a hastily assembled group of Germans took place, was appropriately shunted to a siding - away from the thousands who died and the millions who would live by what was decided there. The delegates bring their playthings into the crowded car: Marshall Foch his self-sanctified conviction that wars are won by "moral force"; aristocrats of both sides their cherished hierarchies; and Matthias Erzberger, who Finds himself spokesman for the Germans, his conscience - a luxury for which he will never be forgiven at home. While the negotiators indulge in "mystical exercises" or bargain for ships and sealing wax, some dream (Foch, of mute soldiers hiding in the forest; Erzberger of "pale soldiers. . . seeping waters") while others grumble fearfully about socialism and tell tall tales. There was, for example, the story of a suicidal horse. . . "What rider (now) would be safe?" The air becomes stale and close and (in Keneally's one unfounded fantasy) a couple make love on the negotiating table: "It was insufferable to think that in such a little space. . . eight men (could) weave a scab over that pit of corpses four years deep." With dramatic dialogue insets, this is a ruthless pursuit of those leaders who, as Foch remembers Joan of Arc, can make us "swallow things whole." (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Thomas Keneally is renowned as the author of Schindler's List, which was awarded the Booker Prize and made into an Academy Award-winning film by Steven Spielberg. His latest work is The Great Shame, a narrative history of the Irish diaspora. He is author of more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction and is one of Australia's leading literary figures. He lives in Sydney.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; 1st edition (1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151367051
• ISBN-13: 978-0151367054
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,062,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Story Telling!, March 31, 2008

By 

madhatter "madhatterlg" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gossip From The Forest (Paperback)

Twenty years after the first time, I just reread 'Gossip'. Forgot what a stunning piece of work this is. Although little known, this book is by far his best work...way better than the more popular 'Schindler's Ark".

Keneally does a great job of adding depth to the chief characters in the German delegation. The sense of despair drips from each page as these men come to understand they are there to sign their own death warrants. Although the book also explores the Allied side, it is four Huns that bring the raw emotion to this book.

Incredible story telling.

4.0 out of 5 stars Who Is Responsible for the "Stab in the Back" Lie?, October 7, 2006

By 

givbatam3 "givbatam3" (REHOVOT Israel) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gossip From The Forest (Paperback)

In 1945, when the Second World War ended with the surrender of Germany and Japan, everyone remembered how the First World War Armistice was signed by a group of low-level politicians and functionaries, so the top German and Japanese commanders were made to sign the instruments of surrender, so that their military leaders couldn't claim that they "weren't really defeated but were betrayed", as was the case by the Germans in 1918. After the Armistice was signed, Field Marshal Hindenburg who was the nominal commander-in-chief claimed that Germany had been "stabbed in the back" and that its retreating, but undefeated army was forced to capitulate for no reason other than betrayal by disloyal elements in the home front.
This fine book deals with members of the German Armistice delegation and how they confronted the unbearably painful responsibility of agreeing in the name of the German Reich to the practical disarming of Germany, including the destruction of its Navy and Air Force and weakening of its economic base.
As interesting as the book is, reading it raises a lot of unanswered questions, for example,
exactly how was it that it came to be that such an undistinguished group of men were chosen for this job. Delegation Chief Matthias Erzberger was an important politician, but as a member of the liberal wing of the Catholic Zentrum (Center) party, he was not involved in the actual decision making of war policy. The other men were basically unknown to the public. There are two possible answers: (1) the book states that outgoing liberal Chancellor Prince Max von Baden wanted the delegation led by a politician who supported the Reichstag's 1917 peace declaration which called for reasonable
peace terms. The Allies had stated that they didn't want to deal with
the "militarists" and "autocrats" who had been running Germany during the War, thus Prince Max felt that keeping the well-known military figures out of the delegation might encourage the Allies to give better terms.
(2) On the other hand, it could be argued that the military figures ruling Germany (Hindenburg, Ludendorff and the rest of the reactionary Prussian military aristocracy that had the real power) were already looking for a way out of having to take responsibility for the disaster they had brought on Germany, and so, using the excuse of the danger of a "Red" revolution, they jettisoned the Kaiser, who was a liability, and installed a Social Democratic goverment, led by incoming Chancellor Friedrich Ebert (whose Socialists they despised) and thrust upon them the onus of signing the Armistice,
and by leaving important military figures out of the delegation, they left the door open for the "stab-in-the-back" myth.
Another problem that I have with the book is that author doesn't give any reference to the sources he used, so the reader can't tell what personal observations and quotes are stated in the text are real and which are "extrapolations" of the author.
Yet another problem I have is that although the author does put us inside he "head" of delegation Chief Erzberger, we are told very little about the other members of the delegation, for example, how is that a "lowly" Captain (Vanselow) is chosed to represent the Germany Navy (at least the Army did send someone of the rank of General (von Winterfeld), but couldn't the Navy at least find an Admiral, even an unknown one?) and why they specifically were chosen.
At the end of the book, we are told how Erzberger came to be assassinated, something that he feared ever since the Armistice, but I would have like to have know if the stain of being a "November Criminal"
stuck to the others as well and what happened to them. The author does mention in passing that Erzberger's murderers were finally apprehended
and convicted after World War II, but I also would have liked to find out who they were and what their sentences were.
Finally, I detected an error in the book near the end where it states that Erzberger felt a sense of relief when he heard that Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau was assassinated, since Rathenau was a Jew, leading Erzberger to think that the right-wing extremists were now after Jews and not "the November Criminals". The only problem is that Rathenau was assassinated a year AFTER Erzberger.
In spite of these drawbacks, I still recommend the book, even though the question of whether it was the German's military's machinations that really led to the delegation's composition or Prince Max's sincere belief in the possibility of Allied leniency is not resolved by reading the book.

A final note- I recall seeing a film version of this book many years ago, and I think it would be worthwhile to re-release it as a DVD.

4.0 out of 5 stars The origins of World War II, January 20, 2001

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gossip From The Forest (Paperback)

Four years of the most terrible conflict in history came to an end in an isolated railway car. In a time when propaganda had learned to cudgel reason and "weapons of mass destruction" were first truly introduced, weakened French and British armies were told they were victorious. In truth, it was a sea blockade with it's attendant hunger and fatigue that had ended the battles. No matter, propaganda had done its job well. The Western Allies had convinced themselves that Germans were evil incarnate for starting the war and that the time for vengeance had come.

Even before the rise of Hitler, the Germans felt they'd somehow been betrayed. Unable to face a victorious enemy they considered inferior, German aristocrats delved into their Civil Service to find four men to face the wrathful victors to bring about a peace. Thomas Keneally has searched into the histories of these four, so poorly equipped to face such immense anger, resurrecting them to become the central figures in a drama of foregone conclusions.

Thomas Keneally has an unmatched talent for bringing the "small people" into literary prominence. Given the list of his works, you'll seek in vain for depictions of the like of Henry VIII, Elizabeth Tudor or the Sun King. Keneally won't waste his talent or your time on such artificial entities as hereditary monarchs or esteemed statesmen. Yet all of his characters, particularly in this book, are placed in positions of world-shaking importance. Mighty events hinge on the actions of these otherwise "common characters". More, he draws them with a vividness any medieval bard would envy. He has no axes to grind, but shows us how important it is for us to understand that history doesn't move at the whim of those who consider themselves important. "For want of a nail . . . " is the key concept behind nearly all of his writing.

If ever there was a man to envy, it's Tom Keneally. He has an ability to get inside the minds of his characters, presenting them to us with unchallenged validity that most writers cannot equal. But if you're not a writer trying to emulate this talent, you may pick up this book fully confident that you have encountered a writer of special strengths. There is no aspect of this book that warrants criticism, with but one possible exception. When this book was recommended to a friend, she came back with the complaint that "it isn't fair to write about real people. How would you feel if one of these people was your uncle?" Keneally's very next book, A RIVER TOWN, was based on the life of his own grandfather. Would you have the courage?