Customer Reviews

A Partisan's Daughter (Vintage International)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have always been a big fan of Louis de Bernieres, and I am happy to say this newest book doesn't disappoint. Note that this is a quick read - you can easily read it in one sitting.

Summary, no spoilers.

This story is told in short chapters, narrated by the two main characters - Chris, a lonely man who lives with a passionless wife he calls The "Great White Loaf", and by Roza, a young woman he meets on the street and propositions, under the mistaken belief that she was working as a prostitute. Well, she wasn't. At least not at that time.

This unlikely couple end up meeting and having regular talks at Roza's dilapidated home, where she tells him stories about her life. We wonder if Roza is an unreliable narrator, but we want to believe her, and so does Chris. Her stories charm Chris, so much so that he begins to fall for Roza, and he craves her company and fantasizes about making her his lover. He is falling in love with her, and she seems to be caring for him, too, despite her tales getting wilder and more sordid.

No spoilers - but we know early on that these characters do not end up together, and that this is the cause of quite a bit of regret. By the end of the book, we find out why, and what happened.

I enjoyed the book a great deal. It can be very funny at times, and yet there are also some horrendous things that happen, in particular to young Roza as a young girl. This story tells us something about lost opportunities, and about living life to the fullest.

Recommended.

I have read all of Louis de Bernieres books, but I think he wrote this one because he was short of money. Compared to "Birds without Wings", e.g. this is not up to his usual standard.
A man, unhappy in his marriage, listens to the stories of a Serbian woman and becomes more and more enchanted with her. We don't know if these stories are real or if she makes them up in order to show, or satisfy a craving for an exciting past.
In any case, he believes her. I found it rather tedious and even the few shocking bits came across as "oh well, what else is new?"
Not one of my favorite Bernieres.

I'm not exactly sure what to make of this book - like other reviewers said, to me it mainly seemed meaningless! It was a very frustrating read, and an unrewarding one. Maybe I'm just missing the point, but I think that might be because, if there is one, the point is buried under a story that is much too convoluted and long.
The other thing that really bothered me was Roza's discontinuity. I know we're supposed to be very skeptical of her, but more than that I was skeptical the author's portrayal of her - it seemed to me that Roza, as a character, kept shifting, and not in a good way. Her first-person narrative sometimes differed from what she told Chris, and this made plenty of sense. But then, it seems that not only do we have to distrust everything she said to Chris, but also everything she says to us. I mean, was she a prostitute or wasn't she? She tells it to us both ways. In the beginning, the prostitution was a lie meant to shock Chris, in the ending she narrates (to us, not Chris) her life of sex for money in a totally convincing, emotional way - and I don't know what to make of that. Why should I care about a character that doesn't seem to actually exist? There isn't even enough of a "real" Roza on the page for me to buy "Roza the lier" - I don't buy her existence at all. Chris was interesting but his role was quite small, so I felt invested in neither of them, and I think that is probably the reason that this book was, for me, so very boring.
I think I only finished it because I got strung along on the quality of the writing. The writing was enough to get me really excited about this book... but never for longer than 15 minutes, and pretty soon it was just a drag to the last page while I was asking myself why didn't I just give it up. Maybe it was the lack of characterization, maybe that there wasn't really much of a story? In any case, I do not recommend this book.

Reading 'A Partisan's Daughter' following the great satisfaction of reading 'Bird's Without Wings' and 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' has left me grossly dissapointed. This book stoops to the level of grocery store paperback novels with a seemingly meaningless and depressing "love" story about an unlikely pair. The lack of character development of the main characters and surrounding cast leave you unlikely to like anybody in the book. The disappointment of the plot of the book will only be surpassed by the ending, which will leave shaking your head and wondering if the same writer of the 'Birds Without Wings' wrote this novel as well. I give it 2 stars because I was entrigued enough to read this book in its entirety, however it is not nearly as fascinating as some of his other works

Other reviews will provide you with information about the setting of the story and its two central characters. The structure of the novel, with each character reporting in turn on what was said in their strange relationship, is interesting, and will keep the reader engaged. As in other books by this author, you are promised a good read.

My main comment concerns the interplay between the novel as plot, story, and character as fiction and the suspension of disbelief that is required from the reader.

First, a warning. This discussion could be considered a spoiler. Others have given away the ultimate ending, but not its significance. If I am right, there is an even more provocative aspect to the conclusion.

When one reads a novel we know that the characters are not real, even though the author's skill may have us responding emotionally to life events as though the book were factually biographical. As the facts of a character's life are made known, we form some image of the person represented. But what if the character is lying? What if all (or most of) the "facts" are themselves fiction? Although this is not stated in the case of Roza, there are strong hints at the end that she was spinning great yarns that were a tissue of lies. That Charlie, the other protagonist, believed them makes him all the more pathetic.

The interesting question is, then, how does the reader respond when, at the end of the day, we realize that the character whose life story has in turns shocked us, made us sympathetic, perhaps even enlightened us about situations that we've only seen reported in the press, is not only fictional in the usual sense, but has created a fictional story concocted by the fictional character? If this is all the book consists of (and I believe that is true here) should we not be disappointed, at best, or angry at being lied to ourselves, at worst?

Disaffected husband Christian is finally driven to seek a street-walker for relief. The encounter proves entirely unfulfilling, since the young woman he attempts to pick up declares otherwise. Roza, however, perceiving his confusion and embarrassment, decides he's harmless and invites him to return - on a platonic basis. The invitation leads Chris to becoming an adoring recipient of Roza's relation of her past life. In this brief compression of Roza's life and Chris' reaction to her tale, de Bernieres demonstrates that brevity can encompass much.

Who is Roza? Chris never confronts that question directly. Instead, he lets her account of her life, implausible as much of it seems, wash over him. He accepts whatever she tells him at face value. He's shocked at much of it, of course. Roza is the daughter of a fighter for the Old Man - Tito - against the Nazi invaders of Yugoslavia. He's tough, and that trait has passed on to her. Roza's father is a sentimentalist as well, however, and she possesses that sense, also. Although it's never made clear how he managed the costs, Roza's parent sends her to university. Predictably, her first love is found there - except it isn't.

De Bernieres passes the narration from Roza to Chris almost seamlessly. You are taken into one character's confidence only to be snatched away by the other. Feelings are dumped on you whether you wish them or not. Nothing here is hidden - or at least you are told what the narrator wishes you to learn. As you read, you are confronted with stark contrasts. Both characters are born out of their time. Chris watches the mixture of excitement and despair of 1970s Britain. Life among the young is less constrained, more experimental and free-thinking than he's used to. But Roza's flat is one among many occupied by young squatters in a very dilapidated building. Chris' heroes aren't Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones - yet he realises he must come to grips with what they represent.

The contrast with Roza could not be more stark. Her life has been a roller-coaster ride of delights and despairs. She's Chris' tour guide to a life he can't even imagine. Is it to his credit that he's not repelled enough to leave, sitting out the episodes of Roza's life with more grief than resentment. Why does he keep returning? Why does she wish him to? She's a mix of "young woman in control" and "victim of men's depravities" by her own admission. What is Chris' role in her life - to allow her to reassert her illusion of control or to demonstrate depravity is not gender specific? De Bernieres, for all he exposes the character's views to the reader, allows them to keep much hidden away.

The finale to this taunting situation is inevitable, almost Hollywood in its predictability. Yet, that aspect doesn't disappoint. Any other conclusion would have been contrived. That this one is not detracts nothing from how the author leads the reader to it. The brevity of this book may suggest that it lacks depth. Nothing could be further from the truth. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

This book was not as strong as some of the other Louis de Bernieres books I've read. From the very start it is hinted that there will be a disastrous ending, which never really lives up to your expectations. The tales of the daughter's life do not encourage immense sympathy as you are never sure whether she is telling the truth or not.

Chris is like millions of middle-aged men. Stuck in a loveless marriage, he is frustrated at the thought that this might be all there is to his life. One night, while on the way home, he sees a streetwalker and impulsively, stops and tries to hire her. He is instantly filled with regret when the woman is insulted that he thought she was a prostitute. She then tells him that he can take her home to make up for it, and he does. As she leaves his car, she tells him that he seems a nice man and that he should come by sometime for coffee. Then she off-handedly mentions, "When I was bad girl I never took less than five hundred. I don't do cheap."

Thus starts the relationship between Chris and Roza. Roza is a young Yugoslavian woman who is in England illegally. Chris does stop by her apartment and she becomes a modern-day Scheherazade, full of exotic stories that have made up her life. Each story reveals more and more of her character and needs. Chris is entranced, both by Roza personally and by the stories she tells. He is shown a side of life he'd never seen as he realizes that while he wants more adventure in his life, he is actually unlikely to pursue it if it means leaving his comfortable, boring life. "I wouldn't want to be a partisan unless I got weekends off and missions were optional."

Roza's stories revolve around men in her life, starting with her father. He fought for various factions in Yugoslavia as a partisan, and lived his life afterwards extolling the strength and honor of men like him who were willing to sacrifice everything for the land and lives they loved. Then there is her first love, met when she attended college. After that, she met a man who brought her to England and she lived with him for a while, then slowly drifted away when she got bored. She drifted into hostess work. Roza is fatalistic about her life, and is quick to say she has disappointed the idea of being a partisan's daughter.

Louis De Bernieres has created two characters that the reader quickly learns to care about. The slow emergence of Roza's history and of Chris' reaction to its revelations creates a tension that leaves the reader anxious and intrigued. The reader wants to read more of the emerging relationship between these two people who are so diametrically opposed in outlook and life experiences. This book is recommended for readers of current fiction, and is one that will remain in the reader's mind for quite a while after it is completed.

I really wanted to like this book. The prose was fluid and the story had some good elements of suspense, however the characters were so predictable and banal that it became torture towards the end. You kept waiting for something to happen that would add some real personality to the main characters, but alas they remained cardboard cutouts... a dull English man married to an even duller woman with a daughter that does not respect him wokring a demeaning/dead end job with absolutely nothing to show for his existence. Hmm... I think this might have been done already by quite a few authors... The cigarette smoking dangerous slightly crazy compulsive liar Eastern European woman with exhibitionist tendensies that might have been a prositute... Wow, that is really new and original. Maybe there should have been a cameo by Ivan Drago as the ex-boyfriend that forces the English man to drink vodka and do Slavik dance! at least that would have been funny. I found the lame attempts to explain Balkan infighting to be patronizing and an insult to the reader's intelligence.

In the late 1970s in wintry London, fortyish salesman Chris detests his life; he loathes his job and hates his marriage; though widower status gives him some hope to get past the despair of being with the "Great White Loaf" late wife. Discontented with his lot he keeps asking himself is that all there is?

When he spots Yugoslavian expatriate Roza walking, he assumes she is a hooker. He bungles his efforts to hire her services. She corrects his misconception and they begin to talk. He drives her home and she invites him in her flat for coffee. A friendship forms that he believes is the underpinning of a romance and she assumes is platonic. She explains she came from her homeland seeking a break but so far has found only hardship that has her considering a return to her homeland where her father is a die hard Tito backer.

This is an extremely complex relationship drama. The dark gloominess of both protagonists makes this a difficult novel to read as the focus is actually on opportunity costs, especially those not chosen. Roza is the more interesting star as her tale is sensationally erotic over the top and at times ugly, but also feels hyperbolic symbolizing the plight of minorities everywhere (especially Iron Curtain Europe during the Brezhnev Era). Chris is the more realistic characterization of the western middle aged normal who wonders why life is depressing so finds excitement in his companion's tales. Not for everyone, as at times overly dramatic and extremely reflective including the action scenes, A PARTISAN'S DAUGHTER is a deep look at the late 1970s.

Harriet Klausner