“AT THE FRONT” A NEW ASIA MINOR NOVEL

 

The first thing to note about Yiota Krilis’ latest Greek language novel is the title: «Στο Μέτωπο» "At the Front." This is a title that is eminently fitting considering that most of the plot concerns itself with the Asia Minor Front where Greece is destined to risk much to achieve its dream of national fulfillment and fail miserably, but also with a labyrinth of opposing factions, each  with their own conflicting worldviews: the internationalism of the communists, the so called “small but honest” Greece of the monarchists and the “Greece of the two continents and five seas” of the supporters of Prime Minister Eleutherios Venizelos.

In English, the meaning of the term «Μέτωπο» is rendered as“Front,” that is, as far forward as possible - the front line. In Greek however, the term encodes various other meanings, deriving from the ancient μετά and ωψ (face). The Greek term thus connotes that place where you face others and behold them with your eyes. Consequently, while the English word is impersonal, the Greek focuses on the human being, in order to show us exactly what it entails to stand on the front line, face to face with another and look into the eyes of that fellow human being who will either kill you or be killed by you.

An exploration of the semantics of the title becomes necessary because many are those who attempt to write about the war but few succeed without resorting to cliches and melodrama. What is remarkable about Yiota Krilis’ work is that it places war in its proper context.  The result, is a deeply humane tale, its carefully considered prose adding a multitude of facets to the human species’ desire both to live and to take life.  

Below the title, there is a subtitle, which reads: “The Epic of Asia Minor.” At first, this may appear disconcerting. Usually, when the word «έπος» is used in Greek in relation to war, it generally signifies wars in which “our side” has emerged victorious, such as the ‘Epos’ of 1940, or what are referred to in Greek as the “Trojan Epics.” The term itself derives from the ancient Greek verb epos, I speak, and it commonly denotes a lengthy narrative poem, typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.

Yiota Krilis’ book is not a work of poetry. However, the author in a dextrous way interweaves the ancient style of epic within her prose by quoting a plethora of verses from songs and poems contemporary to the era she examines in her novel. Uniquely, the verses constitute a parallel narrative within the text that act as a chorus in an ancient tragedy,  commenting on the plot and the psychological condition of the main protagonists and intensifying the distance between myth and reality. It is this distance, between hopes and the possible, that forms the tragic element in the novel, in keeping with Aristotle’s dictum: “whoever, therefore knows what is good or bad Tragedy, knows also about Epic poetry.”

Below the word Epic on the title page, we come across another subtitle: “A Historical Novel.” What then is the historical novel and what does it have to do with the epic? How can we attempt to define a work that seeks to define itself on its cover in so many different ways? Granted the work is set in the past and it pays attention to the mores, social conditions and other details of the depicted period, which in this case is the Asia Minor Expedition of 1919-1922 along with the period immediately before. True historical events intersect the lives of the main protagonists, some of whom are real and others imagined and the historical context in turn affects the flow of fictional events and the fate of the persons involved. Yiota Krilis’ expert use historical framing grants the reader a semblance of security and ease. However, this is an illusion which is cultivated with enviable skill by the author as she contrasts scenes of war and horror with bucolic scenes of everyday life, joy and hope for the future.

Yiota Krilis’ choice of main protagonists is highly successful, as is her choice of their place of origin which acts as a motif as the story unfolds. They hail from rural Arcadia, and much use is made of the expression, “ET IN ARCADIA EGO,” the meaning of which the main protagonists discover only when they leave Arcadia and embark upon their own epic journey, to the edge of the Greek world, Asia Minor. The intercession of a Smyrnan painter is required in order for them to learn that the expression is used by the French painter Nicolas Poussin in one of his paintings, where some figures flank a stone inscribed with the Latin expression, which means: “And in Arcadia, am I.” This expression will be used by the protagonists as a touchstone and a password, not only of their identity but also of the way in which they identify with their fellow human beings, as well as the places and the situations in which they find themselves.

Of course, what the author keeps silent and never reveals to the Arcadian comrades-in-arms is that the person credited with saying “ET IN ARCADIA EGO” in Poussin's painting is Death itself, who can penetrate even the most idyllic landscape, as Arcadia was for the neoclassical and romantic writers of the West. Allowing the main characters to misuse the saying as a means of establishing identity is brilliant in the manner it introduces irony, because from whatever point of view we examine the work, Death reigns everywhere, an original literary device that not only lends realism to the work but encourages us to discover for ourselves, like the protagonists, the multiple aspects and dimensions of futility and death, both of people, and civilization as a whole, undermining stereotypes and subverting prevailing socio-historical narratives, through delusion.

What is also fascinating about the manner in which the author treats her main characters as compared to other works of the genre, and especially those written by those who come from Asia Minor or their descendants, is the colonial subtext that underlies their presence in that land. While the narrative canvas is broad, it is mainly the Arcadian soldiers who reveal Asia Minor to us. Although the text is liberally peppered with dialogue in which the protagonists accept and propagate the “Greekness” of the lands they visit and fight for, in contradistinction to the royalists, they themselves are foreigners and their discourse feels contrived, stage-managed and overly simplistic, especially to those readers who come from the area. This too bears witness the author’s immense art: She manages, in a complex way that appears effortless, to reconcile two "incompatible" concepts: myth and history, while at the same time posing deeper questions as to identity beyond racial and social constructs.

All the while, the reader is treated to a sensory expedition into the collective memory of Hellenism, where competing concepts of homeland, cosmopolitanism, class differences, history, topography and value systems flow around each other and converge, as a river conveying the individual destinies of an entire people.

Much could be also be said about the book's intertextual relationship with other writings: its magisterial tone is reminiscent of Tolstoy's War and Peace and Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, Its pathos evokes Dido Sotiriou’s “Bloodied Lands” and its sense of frustration and futility find in Panos Karnezis's English novel “The Labyrinth,” a kindred text.

 

Ultimately, the author’s greatest contribution to the genre is her text, both as a narrative and as a form. Armed with an emphasis on detail, rendering a world irretrievably lost, she implies that the only element that endures time is language and its transformations. Thus in her novel, linear narrative intersects with memory thanks to the operation of associations, glimpses, as captured in dreams and beliefs, interwoven with flashbacks, dialogue and inner monologue, and enhanced by extensive description and cross-references from historical sources. The use of language adds verisimilitude without becoming tedious and the main protagonists learn about key events from the same sources that we do: contemporary newspaper articles or speeches, which the author, who has undertaken extensive research, provides us.

A book that cries out for an English translation, Yiota Krili’s “At the Front” goes a long way in establishing her as one of the most fascinating Greek novelists of our time.

“At the Front” can be obtained by enquiring at cathopoulos@gmail.com or 0428968715

DEAN KALIMNIOU

kalymnios@hotmail.com

First published in NKEE on 20 September 2023