Reading Dasa Drndic’s novel Trieste is not easy. She has decided to tell the story of Haya Tedeschi in a way that will probably frustrate most readers but if you stick it out it will be worth it. It’s just too bad Ms. Drndic cared more about her subject than her reader. It could have been a better book had she given her writing style a more reader friendly approach (maybe it’s the translation.)
It is the story of Haya and the city of Trieste and the horrors it endured during World War II. This novel is laid out with pictures, interviews, testimony from The Nuremberg Trial, 43 pages of the names of the Jews who were killed in Italy or countries occupied by Italy, and the main portion is the history of what transpired in the city of Trieste.
In the pages of Trieste you will find yourself wondering how these horrors could have happened and this is where Ms. Drndic succeeds in showing it’s not that difficult if you strip it down. She has you asking yourself could I have taken part in these horrors. Are the people portrayed in these pages people you could meet on the street today? Would you know anybody whose job during wartime was to exterminate as many people as possible? If asked for your advice on how it could be improved, would you offer input if you loved your country and believed in the war? Would you be friends with someone who created a rubber sex doll for German soldiers to relieve themselves sexually so they could be disease free? Sounds crazy but these are the kind of stories you’ll find in Trieste.
When I got to the list of names of those killed I found myself looking for people’s names that I know today. Could the names of these lost souls been one of my neighbors or friends ? How do we justify horrors that take place during wartime? Should the enemy ever be forgiven? Trieste is not a book you’ll find yourself finishing in one sitting but you’ll certainly find it sitting with you for a very long time.
