Group Read, August 2016: The Tartar Steppe

This month we are reading Dino Buzzati's The Tartar Steppe. I'm looking forward to joining others in reading this book. Please post any comments you have here.

OK, I'm in! I am so behind on my reading this year, but I read a few reviews of this book and couldn't resist.

I had to order a copy through interlibrary loan, so it may take a bit to get here. Once it arrives, I'll be joining in.

I read this some years ago and liked it. The word "Kafkaesque" applies.

I put aside Memory of Fire (it's the kind of book you can do that with) so that I can read this with the group. I think I'm going to enjoy this one. Just the opening chapter was almost eerily compelling.

I read this one earlier in the year so I am curious to see what everyone thinks.

I read it last year and am also interested in hearing your opinions.

Half way through. A gloomy and oppressive book. Kafka is the obvious comparison but this is less surreal and more claustrophobic. That's not a criticism! I'm enjoying it, in a gloomy way. Probably not a good book to read, say, in winter when you are shut in with a cold, but in August it's fine.

> Its winter here in Australia and the family are coming down with a cold! However, will be joining you in a couple of days.

I am a hundred pages in and find it hard to concentrate. Although I am gripped by the setting and Buzzati's style, I am not really impressed by Giovanni Drogo's thoughts and deeds so far.

I just started this yesterday and am avoiding reading comments until I am done. I am hoping this won'tbe a straight-forward story, that there will be a hint of weird about it, based on the end of Chapter 6:

"Meantime, that very night (had he but known it he might perhaps not have been inclined to sleep) that very night time began to slip by him beyond recall."

And then it goes on with beguiling imagery of life's journey. I don't know why, but the passage struck my fancy.

>11 ELiz_M: I thought the same after that sentence. It keeps being a straight-forward story however.

Spoiler alert!!!

But I did like the second half better than the first. The desolation and resignation (hopefully the right words to express what I mean) are everywhere, Giovanni becomes one with his surroundings and that makes him somehow more real.

The chapters in which he goes back to the city are painful, his knowledge that he doesn't belong there anymore. But does he belong to the fortress?

His life continues and when the Tartars finally arrive, Giovanni can not even be excited about it. All this waiting, and then the deception.

A depressive read. I am happy he dies with a smile.

SPOILER ALERT

I managed to read this in a couple of days. Quite liked it even though it didn't quite develop as I had initially expected (I was thinking some sort of gothic, descent in to madness plot).

I didn't find it as depressing as others. I was thinking that might reflect my current stage of life where I'm quite happy doing what I'm doing indefinitely, much like our protagonist. While it is clearly about a wasted meaningless life, it also struck me as an indictment of massive military spending for no purpose on equipment that is obsolete before it is ever used.

I found the passage where he switches roles as the taciturn veteran meeting the young recruit coming up from the city quite moving (the young recruit repeating the exact words he used when he was that age).

I think this is a book a lot of people can relate to - is anything we do in life meaningful, and how do we get trapped in to not reaching our potential?

>13 puckers: Yes, I was also moved by the passage you mention. How confronting this must have been for him!

>13 puckers:, >14 Simone2: I had hoped that the book would end with that meeting! I guess it is more complete and possibly more uplifting for Drogo to realize that at least he could end life honorably, but....... my cynical modern sensibilities couldn't relate to his sentiments at all.

>13 puckers: That is pretty much how I read the story as well. It is a story about the merciless passage of time, the heavy power of habits making it very difficult to move on and embark upon a new life, but it is also about the joy of belonging somewhere - even if you thought it was alien and repulsive at first glance - and pride in doing your part well, even though you might not understand it's place in the grander scheme of things.

A military organization in peacetime is the ultimate example of meaningsless work. It's all preparation and training for something, that might never have any significance, but I think most people working for some time in a large organization can relate to the power of habit and the pride in your own work even though you sometimes doubt the wisdom of the where the whole thing is going.

Now, I wouldn't want to be Drogo but I could relate to him and was rather fascinated by the book.

I read this one earlier in the year and kept asking myself 'is this a story about a wasted life or did he live exactly the life he was meant to live'. It does raise a lot of interesting questions.

Eliz_M I felt the same about that sentence, really moving.
I have avoided the reviews with spoilers, will read them when I've finished.
I found chapter six really moving, the bits where he wonders if his mother is thinking of him and the description of the 'journey of life' - then that sudden realisation that the gate is shut behind us and life has moved on. Really liked this part of the chapter.
I'm quite drawn into the story, would be better if it was an actual book rather than my ipad though.