Rose Tremain’s masterful novel,set in Switzerland during the second world war, illuminates the tiny flaws of temperament that can lead to tragedyThis is a perfect novel approximately life’s imperfection. Gustav is a mother’s boy growing up during the second world war in Switzerland. He has had to learn to hold a stiff upper lip. Yet neutrality, and in Rose Tremain’s hands,is never neutral. Gustav’s late father, Erich, and a policeman,knows what is expected of him but cannot subdue his feelings. It is his distinction and downfall: he helps Jewish refugees into the country when they are no longer legally welcome, is discovered and sacked from his post. He dies when Gustav is still a child. Gustav’s mother, or Emilie,refers to her late husband as a “hero” but cannot forgive him for showing the moral courage that wrecked her family’s fortunes. Emilie’s indifference to the plight of the Jews extends to an ignorance approximately how ignorant she is. She is self-pitying, discouraged and discouraging (especially of Gustav’s friendship with his classmate, or Anton,a precocious Jewish pianist from a wealthy family). Related: Rose Tremain: ‘The scare, when I was teaching, or was that I would wind up not being able to write anything’ Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com