Dino Buzzati: The Tartar Steppe

[Heteronym]

Lieutenant Giovanni Drogo receives an assignment to the old Bastiani Fortress, on the frontier, where the desert starts and goes on for miles until disappearing inside a thick mist. Young Drogo is disheartened because he yearns for military glory, for the romantic death on the battlefield, and nothing has ever happened in Bastiani, and it’s unlikely any enemy should attack from the desert. The old officers try to cheer him up: many years ago in that desert there used to be Tartars, and some think they’re still there, preparing for a war; so the best thing is to wait, wait, wait. But maybe the Tartars are just a legend, made up by officers and soldiers who needed something to believe in while the years passed, and nothing will ever happen in Bastiani at all.

I won’t ruin anyone’s enjoyment of this brilliant novel by saying that this is practically the plot of the novel. Not much seems to happen in the novel, decades go by, and all's the same. Dino Buzzati, using the military life, has crafted a parable about the mistake of wasting one’s life waiting for something to happen instead of enjoying it fully, about all the squandered opportunities at happiness, and about the irreversible course of time. What the novel misses in action it gains in character moments, in reflections about life, which will seem familiar to anyone who has stopped to consider whether they're making the fullest use of the time they have on Earth.

The Tartar Steppe is almost Kafkaesque in that a man is placed in an oppressive situation from which he can’t escape either because of bureaucracy or because of a flaw in himself. But whereas Kafka writes like an intricate nightmare, Buzzati writes like an elegy, full of compassion for the protagonist.

Drogo is a fascinating character: he doesn’t want to serve in Bastiani, he wants the luxurious life young officers have in the city; some of the old officers even warn him to leave as soon as possible, or he’ll never leave: sooner or later the desert will exert a mysterious influence over him like it does over everyone. Drogo doesn’t believe that will happen, and the years ago on, until he no longer cares. Like K., he's just beaten into indifference.

The ending is heartbreaking: Drogo does leave Bastiani and the reader is ready to cheer for him, but Buzzati turns everything upside-down in an unexpected way that makes The Tartar Steppe one of the most beautiful novels I’ve ever read.

 

[saliotthomas]

I appreciate the short,clear and explicit reviews you write Heteronym,it's alway a pleasure.
Did you read it in English?

I remenber reading this for school and it left a deep impression on me,the wasting of a life been a burning subject at the age when you need to take crucial decisions in your life orientations.
I vaguely remenber poemes about Drogo(in the book ?or from other?)

I pick up a Italian Mysteries by Buzzati two days ago and shall be glad to read it soon.

 

[Heteronym]

I read the novel in Portuguese: a lot of Buzzati's work has been been translated here in the past few years. I discovered him three years ago when I was studying Italian; since then I've been reading everything I can by him. He's a marvellous writer.

Having the novel fresh in my head, I'm sure there wasn't any poetry in it. Were those poems by Buzzati? I know he also wrote some poetry, although I've never read it.

 

[saliotthomas]

For once i wasn't too mistaken in my allegation.

It's a song from Jacques Brel

Je m'appelle Zangra et je suis Lieutenant
Au fort de Belonzio qui domine la plaine
D'où l'ennemi viendra qui me fera héros
En attendant ce jour je m'ennuie quelquefois
Alors je vais au bourg voir les filles en troupeaux
Mais elles rêvent d'amour et moi de mes chevaux

Je m'appelle Zangra et déjà Capitaine
Au fort de Belonzio qui domine la plaine
D'où l'ennemi viendra qui me fera héros
En attendant ce jour je m'ennuie quelquefois
Alors je vais au bourg voir la jeune Consuello
Mais elle parle d'amour et moi de mes chevaux

Je m'appelle Zangra maintenant Commandant
Au fort de Belonzio qui domine la plaine
D'où l'ennemi viendra qui me fera héros
En attendant ce jour je m'ennuie quelquefois
Alors je vais au bourg boire avec Don Pedro
Il boit à mes amours et moi à ses chevaux

Je m'appelle Zangra je suis vieux Colonel
Au fort de Belonzio qui domine la plaine
D'où l'ennemi viendra qui me fera héros
En attendant ce jour je m'ennuie quelquefois
Alors je vais au bourg voir la veuve de Pedro

I guess you will anderstand the general meaning and the nams should be familliar.
On the subjet of Italian writing,i bought this summer The guepar by Lampedusa for a re-read,this time in French(also it's Sicily,the language is the same).I left it to my father but it's one of the best book i ever read.

 

[saliotthomas]

The last time i read The tartar steppe, i must have been the age of Drogo when he first reach the fort, my final year in college. And like Drogo life was a vaste open steppe before me and time limitless.
Buzzati has a way to make the emptiness of the landscape, the silence of the fort appealing, you can understand what hypnotise Drogo, the spell that blind him to the passage of time. The contrat betwin the noisy shallowness of the city compare to realilty of the this desolate place.
Each time i went to a small village in the mountain after Paris, i felt the same anguish the first day, the difficulty to reajust ones life rythm. But once it's done, i could live weeks and monthes doing very little very slowly.
Buzzati from some photos i found of him must have spend time in the Apls, i could feel this perfect knowledge of the isolation and at the same time a sense of belonging.
I can specialy relate to the description of there obsevation of the valley, seing things coming slowly. When i'm in the chalet, i can watch for ages cars moving way down, wandering who is it, what they do.

I was wandering what i thought of Drogo, there is a double edge to the personnage, he is clever, ambicious and a dreamer but he is also very weak, he never face conflict or involve himself fully.
Be it with the girl he loves, his superior or his friends. He is a spectator of his own life.
And if it appears that he past his life by or failled because of the isolation, i think he would have failed the same, even with a life in the city and a more successfull carrier.
Some find this a difficult read, or at least a bit depressing but i found it easy and quite untertainig.