Product Description

Two Irish-American scholars from Harvard journey to Albania in the 1930s with a tape recorder (a 'new fangled' invention) in order to record the last genuinely oral epic singers. Their purpose, they say, is to show how Homer's epics might have been culled from a verbal tradition. But the local Governor believes its an elaborate spying mission and arranges for his own spy to follow them. The two dedicated scholars realise only too late that they have stumbled over an ants' nest. This simple tale by Albania's most eminent and gifted novelist serves to lift the veil on one of the most secret and mysterious countries of modern Europe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147678 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Herald
'the sophistication of the tale and its telling disguise great intelligence and sophistication.' - Alastair Mabbbott

Herald
'the simplicity of the tale and its telling disguise great intelligence and sophistication.' - Alastair Mabbott

Nouvel Observateur
Here is a novel that reveals the many facets of Kadare’s talents

Customer Reviews

Fascinating Balkan tale
It is short but very deep: the tale of two ethnographers visiting Albania in the 1930s during the rule of King Zog, to record ancient epic poetry (the H in the title stands for Homer). The two ethnographers are supposed to be Irish, but might as well be Japanese for the purposes of the story: the novel is about Albania, not about Ireland. (Perhaps it was in part a response to Andrić's foreigners encountering Bosnia in The Days of the Consuls?)

But it's also about the construction of truth, how stories are told, especially when the state tries to regulate knowledge and information. Although the patriotic version of Albanian history - 1878, 1913 - is the only one told here, one senses that Kadarë himself doesn't completely buy it, and subverts it in the way he tells the story. In the meantime people escape as best they can, the rather ethereal epic poetry souight by the Irishmen in contrast with the erotic dreams of the governor's wife. A really good book, strongly recommended.

A Little Muddled but Enjoyable
The H of the title is Homer (of Odyssey and Iliad fame), and the central figures of this tragicomic satire are two Harvard researchers who arrive in Albania during the reign of King Zog (1930s) to study the oral epic tradition and its relation to Homer. Armed with the newly invented reel-to-reel tape recorder, they set themselves up a remote region where they will convince passing "rhapsodes" to recite epics into the tape recorder for later analysis. Alas, the idea of this is so preposterous to the paranoid Albanian authorities that they assume the two researchers are spies, and so order the governor of the remote province to keep a close eye on them. He, in turn, enlists the services of his most trusted informer, Dull Baxhaja, whose florid reports are the primary enlivener of the governor's dull days.

Somewhat wacky hijinks ensue, as the governor's wife dreams of a romantic assignation with one of the researchers, and Dull's reports grow more and more darkly comic. Originally written in 1981, the book is eerily prescient with regard to contemporary nationalist Balkan politics, as a wandering Serbian monk enters the story, takes umbrage that the researchers are not interested in Serbian epics, and stirs up trouble for them. At the same time, the theme of paranoia and emphasis on the rivalry between various informers is itself a satire on the grim nature of Communist Albania under the Hoxhas. Amidst all this, Kadare is also trying to say something about the elusive nature of art and historical memory. The overall effect is a little muddled, but not unenjoyable.

Note: The novel grew out of Kadare's 1970 meeting in the with Albert Lord, a notable scholar of oral epics who told Kadare of his travels in the former Yugoslavia as the assistant to Milman Parry during 1933-35. Affiliated with Harvard, Parry and he engaged in much the same kind of research as the two characters in the novel -- albeit with rather more successful results. In fact, part of the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature at Harvard has been digitized, and it is now possible to hear some of their field recordings online!

Entertaining, knowing and will keep you thinking
The previous reviewers have outlined the plot so I won't go over that.

It's probably the most straightforward of Kadare's novels and yet within lies layers that will have you teasing out ideas for a long time afterwards.

Almost every character ends up disappointed yet this is not a depressing book, rather it's told with sly wit and an awareness of the human character.

I raced through it in a weekend and have since reread it twice.