A Distant Mirror – Part 2: 1351 – 1400

“Full wise is he that can himself know.” – Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Canterbury Tales’

The 14^th century produced some great literature even though the printing press was not yet invented.  ‘The Divine Comedy’ by Dante Alighieri and ‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Geoffrey Chaucer, both of which I’ve read, and ‘The Decameron’ by Giovanni Boccaccio and the poems of Francesco Petrarch, both of which I have not read, were all written during the 14^th century.

At the battle of Potier in 1356, once again the English beat the French mainly due again to the long bow.  This time the English capture and hold for high ransom the French king John II (John the Good).

 In 1358, peasants in France called the Jacquerie were unhappy with their financial burden resulting from the Hundred Years’ War.  They roamed through the countryside killing nobles, raping the nobles’ wives and daughters, and burning down their estates.  Later in 1381, the English peasants also revolted against high taxes and having to work on church lands.

John Wyclif of England began giving stirring sermons in the 1360s against the supremacy of papal law and against payment of revenues to the papacy.  He is sometimes called the Morning Star of the Reformation.   Wycliff was also responsible for the first translation of the Bible into vernacular English.

Pope Gregory XI dies in 1377, and in the disagreement that followed, two Popes are elected.  Urban VI in Rome has the backing of the Holy Roman Empire, England, and most of Italy.  Clement VII in Avignon has the backing of France, Spain, and Scotland.  The papal schism will last until 1418.

The second and third waves of the Black Plague swept through Europe during the second half of the 14^th century, killing a further large portion of the population.

At one point. both England and France had boy Kings.  Richard II in England succeeded to the throne in 1377 at the age of 10.  Charles VI was only 11 when he became the King of France in 1379.  In both cases the boys’ uncles actually ruled taking no responsibility beyond lining their own pockets.  Finally in 1388 Charles VI was able to dismiss his uncles, and he became known as ‘Charles the Bold’   However in 1392, Charles VI had his first spell of temporary insanity and killed four of his knights and almost killed his brother.  These sporadic bouts of insanity became more frequent and of a longer duration, and from then on he was known as ‘Charles the Mad’.

For most of the 14^th century the countries and city states of Europe were too busy fighting each other to mount a crusade.  However the Ottoman Empire made major gains into Serbia and south eastern Europe winning the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. In 1394 Pope Boniface IX proclaimed a new crusade against the Turks.  This was the last major crusade, and it culminated in the Battle of Nicopolis.  This battle was a major victory for the Turks and a major defeat for the crusade army.   Sigismund would later state, “We lost the day by the pride and vanity of these French. If they believed my advice, we had enough men to fight our enemies.”

“A Distant Mirror – The Calamitous 14th Century” by Barbara Tuchman – Part I: 1301 – 1350

“A Distant Mirror – The Calamitous 14^th Century” by Barbara Tuchman (1978) – 597 pages

The Battle of Crecy – 1346

“The cost of war was the poison running through the 14^th Century.”

“Money was the crux. Raising money to pay the cost of war was to cause more damage to 14th century society than the physical destruction of war itself.” – Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror

A few months ago, I was faced with the trivia question ‘Who were the opponents in the Hundred Years’ War?’  I could not answer the question correctly.  My ignorance of the 14^th century was total.

Here was an entire century of which I knew nothing.  It was definitely time for me to read “A Distant Mirror – The Calamitous 14^th Century”. A book I’d been promising myself ever since it was published in 1978.  For me, a history of a time or place of which I know nothing is almost as good as fiction.

I certainly will not attempt to review or critique Barbara Tuchman as a writer of history.  “A Distant Mirror” stands above criticism.  Instead I will discuss a few of the events related in the book.

At the beginning of the 14^th century, France was the dominant power in the world.  It certainly had the largest contingent of aristocratic knights to draw upon for battles.

In 1304, Pope Benedict X in Rome died, supposedly after eating poisonous figs.    French influence leads to the selection of the Bishop of Bordeaux who becomes Pope Clement V.  In 1309 Pope Clement V moves his court to Avignon, France, at the request of the French King to escape Roman hostility.

Starting in 1315 a cold wave hits Europe, the start of a climate change called the Little Ice Age that lasts hundreds of years, and with the shorter growing seasons the peasants become subject to famines. The lords and ladies of the aristocracy continue to do well thanks to the rents, taxes and other fees they collect from their subjects.

In 1338 the Hundred Years’ War, a dispute between France and England, begins.  This war actually lasts 115 years, although it was only fought sporadically.

A major battle of the war took place in 1346 at the town of Crecy in northern France.  It was a major victory for the English under King Edward III because of the English superiority with the long bow.  The aristocratic French knights considered themselves much too good to fight alongside commoners who were the best archers.

 “As long as combat was desirable as the source of honor and glory, the knight had no wish to share it with the commoner, even for the sake of success.”

 The first wave of the Bubonic plague hit Europe in 1348-49, killing a third of the population at that time.  So many workers died that wages actually rose.

A Group of Flagellants

Along with the witchcraft and the anti-Semitism, a group called the Flagellants appeared after the first wave of the Plague.  They believe that the Plague is a judgment of God on sinful mankind.  As they walk through the countryside, men and women flog one another.  They preach that anyone doing this flogging for 33 days – one day for every year Christ lived – will be cleansed of all sin.

Thus ends the first half of the 14^th century.  It only gets worse.

(to be continued)

“The Days of Abandonment” by Elena Ferrante

“The Days of Abandonment” by Elena Ferrante (2002) – 188 pages

 “One day, right after lunch, my husband announced that he wanted to leave me.” – the first sentence of “The Days of Abandonment”

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It turns out he has found a new much younger woman who happens to be one of their ex-babysitters, thus he is leaving his wife and two children, ages eight and five-and-a-half.  Is ‘abandonment’ too strong a word, too over the top?

Olga, the woman here, is devastated.  Elena Ferrante as a writer is not afraid to deal with strong emotions.  This is not an uplifting novel about how things are not as bad as they seem.  Before the novel is over Olga descends into despair and almost loses it completely. Ferrante as a writer is not afraid to deal with hard unflattering feelings.

“The Days of Abandonment” is the novel that put Elena Ferrante on the map.  As you may be aware, “My Brilliant Friend” by Ferrante was my top read for last year, and now I went back to the well.  ‘Abandonment’ is another winner for me.

“Existence is this, I thought, a start of joy, a stab of pain, an intense pleasure, veins that pulse under the skin, there is no other truth to tell.”

One of Ferrante’s real strengths is that she can be matter-of-fact and honest about her characters’ strongest ugliest reactions.  Her abandoned female character has no stiff upper lip, no toning down of emotions.  Perhaps I’ve read too many fine-tuned even-tempered British novels and appreciate a writer who is willing to go blunt and operatic and let it all hang out.

One statistic I watch to measure a novel’s reception with the public is its waiting list at the Minneapolis Public Library system.  The waiting list even for novels which are originally tremendously popular dwindles down to nothing after a few years.  I checked the waiting list for “The Days of Abandonment” which now stands at 9, extremely good for a novel that is over ten years old.   Perhaps it gets a steady audience of women who find themselves in a similar situation.

Even though I’m a male I could identify strongly with Olga’s clueless-ness when dealing with practical mechanical devices.

“The Days of Abandonment” is not a pleasant read.  It is an unflinching depiction of a woman dealing with an extreme difficult predicament, with abandonment.  The novel does have its redemptive moments especially toward the end.

“The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily” by Dino Buzzati

“The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily” by Dino Buzzati (1947) – 143 pages

“Sit still as mice on this occasion

And listen to the Bears’ Invasion

Of Sicily, a long, long while

Ago when beasts were good, men vile.”

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Having read and enjoyed Dino Buzzati’s “Poem Strip” a while ago, this time I went to the New York Review Children’s Collection rather than their Classics Collection.  With the Buzzati drawings and a fun story, “The Bears Famous Invasion of Sicily” holds pleasures for adults as well as children.

One terrible winter, all the small plants in the mountains were frozen over with snow, and there was nothing left for the bears to eat.  King Leander decides to lead the bears down from the mountains to the plains where the humans live.

Buzzati is not above winking to the adults who are reading this book to children.  Consider the following.

 “King Leander.  He is the King of the Bears, the son of a King who in turn had a King as father.  He is therefore a bear of most ancient lineage.  He is tall, strong, valiant, virtuous, and intelligent too, though not as intelligent as all that.  We hope you will like him.”

 This story might not be right for real small children, since there is a fair amount of violence in the war between the bears and men; also later the bears and the men drink wine and gamble, all tastefully handled. Finally little children might not appreciate Buzzati’s sly humor as above.  I suppose the ideal audience would be children of the age of six or seven, maybe just before they are of an age for action movies.   On the other hand, if you are the type of parent who doesn’t want stories watered down for their kids, little kids might really love this story too.  The story makes clear that the bears aren’t perfect either, but King Leander is a good wise leader, a role model.

Dino Buzzati also wrote novels for adults.  My next book of his I read will probably be the adult novel, “The Tartar Steppe” which was supposed to have been a major influence for J. M. Coetzee in writing “Waiting for the Barbarians”.  Dino Buzzati was one of those multi-talented people like Tove Jansson and Ruth Park who could draw and write children’s books as well as write adult novels.

Most of the story in “The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily” is told in prose, but it occasionally breaks out in rhyme as the first lines above are an example.  Buzzati put everything he had into this book.

“The Cocktail Waitress” by James M. Cain

“The Cocktail Waitress” by James M. Cain (1977, 2013) – 254 pages

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The attitudes in “The Cocktail Waitress” are so different from those of today that it almost seems like a story from a different century.  Well, it is from a different century, the depraved old twentieth century.  The time is the 1960s, and “The Cocktail Waitress” has that sleazy ambience of “Mad Men”, but even more sleazy.

The story begins with young Joan Medford burying her husband.  He abused her, and one night he came home drunk. She kicked him out of the house, him  wearing only his pajamas, and he crashed the car into a culvert.

Joan is a femme fatale, and she kind of knows it despite her innocent demeanor.  She has a kid, but she can’t keep him at her home, because she has to go out and earn a living all day.  Her ex-husband’s sister is all too willing to keep the child.

Joan takes a job as a cocktail waitress in a bar and restaurant, figuring the pay and tips would be good.  On the job she must wear a very short skirt, peasant blouse, and pantyhose.  Her fellow waitress Liz gives her some advice.

 “In the bar bare legs get kind of cold at one o’clock in the morning.  But if you’ll accept a suggestion from me, with what you’ve got to go inside the blouse, I’d leave the bra off.”

 “You sure about that?”

 “Well I do. It kind of helps with the tips.”

 Soon Liz becomes Joan’s best friend.  Liz makes extra money on the side off-hours from some of the male bar patrons.

Joan starts working at the bar serving drinks.  Two customers in particular pay her a lot of attention.  An old man, Mr. White, comes in and sits at the same table every afternoon, and Joan talks to him when she is not busy.  Soon Joan finds out that he is rich, and that his wife has died.  The other guy interested in Joan is young rake Tom Barclay   Tom would be “pawing me over whenever I came to the table, especially around the bottom which he patted a number of times.”  His bad behavior doesn’t stop Joan from becoming strangely attracted to him.

That is the setup.  If you want to know what develops, you can read it.

“The Cocktail Waitress” is the last novel that James M. Cain wrote.  The problem was not that he hadn’t finished it like many other writers’ last novels; the problem was that he had finished several versions with different endings when he died in 1977, so which to use?  Finally 36 years later, the novel gets published.  I believe “The Cocktail Waitress” is good enough to stand with Cain’s famous works “Double Indemnity”, “Mildred Pierce”, and “The Postman Always Rings Twice”.

Last night I watched “Mildred Pierce”, the old version with Joan Crawford.  Great movie.  “The Cocktail Waitress” is probably closest to “Mildred Pierce” of Cain’s works in that they are both about a woman who loses her husband and must fend for herself in the work world, whether by opening a chain of Mildred’s restaurants or by serving drinks in a bar.  Trouble ensues.

It stands to reason.  Women are people too and thus fully capable of planning and committing murder.

“A Constellation of Vital Phenomena” by Anthony Marra

“A Constellation of  Vital Phenomena” by Anthony Marra (2013) – 382 pages

A lot of writers make the following mistake.  When they depict characters in sad and desperate situations, these characters lose their personalities.  The people in the story become stilted and cheerless due to the pressure of events.  But even in the worst of circumstances, unless one is directly affected, his or her essential spirit will shine through.  “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena” is one of the more humorous novels I’ve read, yet there are few situations that are as wretched as that of Chechnya in the years portrayed in the novel, 1996-2004.  Humor, even black humor, is one of our basic coping mechanisms.

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Who would have guessed that one of the finer novels released in the United States in recent years would be about the wars in Chechnya?  “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena” is a quite moving story; it will make the readers laugh through their tears.  The novel is about people living and dying in the brutal modern world.

First here is a little background on Chechnya.  Chechnya is a fairly small landlocked country east of the Black Sea and west of the Caspian Sea.  Islam is the predominant religion in Chechnya.  Formerly there was a fairly significant Russian Orthodox population which has mainly left the country as a result of the wars.  When the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990s, Chechens fought and won their independence from Russia in a war.  The country did quite well for a while, mainly due to the huge oil resources under their land.  However in October, 1999, Russia started the Second Chechen War to regain control of the country.

Much of the “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena” story takes place at a bombed-out hospital in the Chechen town of Volchansk.  The hospital used to have a staff of 500 but it now is down to a staff of three including Sonja who is the only doctor.  One whole side of the hospital is missing, bombed during the war.  Yet the hospital still gets quite a few patients due to all the land mines in the area.

The novel mentions Leo Tolstoy a few times.  Tolstoy wrote a novel, “Hadji Murad”, which takes place in Chechnya.  I would guess that Anthony Marra is going for the same emotional sweep in his writing as Tolstoy.

In a few scenes “Constellation” depicts the torture of Chechens by the Russians.  These scenes are so brutal you can well understand why civilized countries outlawed the use of torture to achieve their goals.

The novel certainly takes the pro-Chechen side in the war, although Wikipedia does show that both sides committed atrocities.  The novel does point out that some of the Muslims, especially those in the Wahhabi movement, wanted to turn the war against Russia into a holy war and really didn’t care about Chechen independence.

“A Constellation of Vital Phenomena” shifts the point of view between each of the seven main characters, and each of their stories is gripping emotionally. Each of the main characters must deal with their own situation, and the stories are fascinating.  I unsuccessfully tried to find out more about Anthony Marra’s background to figure out his profound interest in Chechnya.  I suspect that Leo Tolstoy would praise this novel.

“The Woman Upstairs” by Claire Messud

“The Woman Upstairs” by Claire Messud   (2013) – 253 pages

 “Who is he who always walks beside you?  No-fucking-body, thank you very much.  I walk alone.” 

Forty-two year old school teacher Nora Eldridge tells the story in “The Woman Upstairs”.  She teaches second grade at Appleton Elementary in Boston.  She lives in an apartment and has never been married.

 “We’re always upstairs…We’re the quiet woman at the end of the third floor hallway, whose trash is always tidy, who smiles brightly in the stairwell with a cheerful greeting, and who, from behind closed doors, never makes a sound.  In our lives of quiet desperation, the woman upstairs is who we are, with or without a goddamn tabby or a pesky lolloping Labrador, and not a soul registers we are furious.  We’re completely invisible.”

 A new school year starts, and one of the new students is a boy named Reza.  Nora meets Reza’s mother Sirena and his father Skandar.  Sirena is an artist, and soon Sirena and Nora together rent an artist studio in an old warehouse.  Nora sees this as a chance to pursue her art, something she hasn’t done since before college.  Meanwhile Sirena is a real artist who is quite famous in Paris and is preparing for her next Paris show.

I discovered Claire Messud early in her career with her first novel “When the World was Steady”.  That novel had a depth of insight into her characters’ inner lives that most writers do not approach.  Her next two books “The Last Life” and “The Hunters” also impressed me with their perceptiveness.  Her next novel “The Emperor’s Children” was her breakout novel.  That novel about New Yorkers before and after 9/11 made the best seller lists and was long listed for the Booker.

However to me it seemed that in “The Emperor’s Children” Messud went wide with a large number of characters so that it did not have the depth of her earlier novels.  In “The Woman Upstairs” Messud concentrates on only a few individuals and I actually prefer “The Woman Upstairs” over “The Emperor’s Children” for that reason.

Messud has found the drama in the life of this middle-aged schoolteacher Nora.  There is high drama in every human life, but sometimes it takes a writer of the intelligence and acuity of Claire Messud to discover and develop it.  It almost seems like Messud intentionally sets up these challenges to her writing ability by choosing characters whose lives are seemingly mundane. This time the challenge really paid off.

“The Woman Upstairs” will be considered a feminist novel, and that it surely is.  That doesn’t mean that men must bypass an exceptionally intelligent and interesting novel.