The ghost hovering over this assured and astonishingly mature first novel is that of Joseph Roth, the great interwar Austrian novelist. Perhaps this reflects Wray's own double origin, as the son of an Austrian father and an American mother. Oskar Voxlauer, Wray's Austrian protagonist, was a teenage deserter from the Austro-Hungarian army in WWI. As the novel begins, he is returning to his native village, Niessen bei Villach, in 1938, after a 19-year stay in the Ukraine. His Russian lover's death has released him, and he is coming back in the middle of Hitler's Anschluss to see his lonely mother. To escape the tensions in Niessen, Oskar goes to work as a gamekeeper on a stretch of forest his Jewish tavernkeeper friend Ryslavy owns outside town. There he meets the old gamekeeper's daughter, Else Bauer, who lives under a vague cloud, having borne a daughter out of wedlock. The two are briefly happy together, but then Else's cousin, Kurt, returns to Austria from exile in Germany, as the head of the Nazis in Niessen. Kurt is also, Oskar quickly discovers, more to Else than a cousin. Oskar publicly opposes the Nazis; Kurt ambiguously patronizes him. Soon the triangle between Else, Oskar and Kurt becomes fraught with menace. The gloom of the dark days of late '30s Austria is heightened by Oskar's recollections of personal trauma: his wartime experiences; the suicide of his father, a famous opera composer; and the brutal collectivization of the Ukrainian countryside. Wray's first novel displays psychological acuity, a mastery of dialogue and an unfailing historical empathy, and should garner deserved raves.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
A disillusioned Austrian soldier returns home from World War I after 20 years only to face a new moral and social dilemma. Oskar Voxlauer, son of a well-regarded family in his town, deserts his unit soon after arriving at the Italian front in 1917. He makes his way to the Ukraine in the days following the Russian Revolution, taking up with Anna, a Ukrainian widow. After her death, he returns home, finding work as a gamekeeper. History, in the form of the German annexation of Austria in 1938, soon intrudes on his solitude, however. Complicating matters, he becomes involved with Else, whose cousin is the local Nazi commander. The delicate d tente among the threesome disintegrates after hooligans vandalize a bar owned by Paul, a Jewish friend of Oskar, forcing him, in his own way, to take a stand. More a character study than a moral tale, this is a quietly memorable first novel. For most libraries.DLawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, MA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
From Publishers Weekly
The ghost hovering over this assured and astonishingly mature first novel is that of Joseph Roth, the great interwar Austrian novelist. Perhaps this reflects Wray's own double origin, as the son of an Austrian father and an American mother. Oskar Voxlauer, Wray's Austrian protagonist, was a teenage deserter from the Austro-Hungarian army in WWI. As the novel begins, he is returning to his native village, Niessen bei Villach, in 1938, after a 19-year stay in the Ukraine. His Russian lover's death has released him, and he is coming back in the middle of Hitler's Anschluss to see his lonely mother. To escape the tensions in Niessen, Oskar goes to work as a gamekeeper on a stretch of forest his Jewish tavernkeeper friend Ryslavy owns outside town. There he meets the old gamekeeper's daughter, Else Bauer, who lives under a vague cloud, having borne a daughter out of wedlock. The two are briefly happy together, but then Else's cousin, Kurt, returns to Austria from exile in Germany, as the head of the Nazis in Niessen. Kurt is also, Oskar quickly discovers, more to Else than a cousin. Oskar publicly opposes the Nazis; Kurt ambiguously patronizes him. Soon the triangle between Else, Oskar and Kurt becomes fraught with menace. The gloom of the dark days of late '30s Austria is heightened by Oskar's recollections of personal trauma: his wartime experiences; the suicide of his father, a famous opera composer; and the brutal collectivization of the Ukrainian countryside. Wray's first novel displays psychological acuity, a mastery of dialogue and an unfailing historical empathy, and should garner deserved raves.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
A disillusioned Austrian soldier returns home from World War I after 20 years only to face a new moral and social dilemma. Oskar Voxlauer, son of a well-regarded family in his town, deserts his unit soon after arriving at the Italian front in 1917. He makes his way to the Ukraine in the days following the Russian Revolution, taking up with Anna, a Ukrainian widow. After her death, he returns home, finding work as a gamekeeper. History, in the form of the German annexation of Austria in 1938, soon intrudes on his solitude, however. Complicating matters, he becomes involved with Else, whose cousin is the local Nazi commander. The delicate d tente among the threesome disintegrates after hooligans vandalize a bar owned by Paul, a Jewish friend of Oskar, forcing him, in his own way, to take a stand. More a character study than a moral tale, this is a quietly memorable first novel. For most libraries.DLawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, MA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.