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About the author …. Scott Anderson is a war correspondent and a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine.
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About the author … Scott Anderson is a war correspondent and a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine. His work has also appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, Harper’s, Outside, and many other publications. Over the years he has written from Beirut, Northern Ireland, Chechnya, Israel, Sudan, Sarajevo, El Salvador, and a number of other war–torn areas. He is the author of the novel Triage and Moonlight Hotel. Also the nonfiction books The 4 O’Clock Murders, The Man Who Tried to Save the World, and, with his brother, Jon Lee Anderson, War Zones. Anderson lives in Upstate New York.
Background: Iraq and the Kurds In the aftermath of the Iran – Iraq War Saddam Hussein’s government tried to eradicate from the mountainous north of the country the Kurdish people who had used the occasion of Iraq’s struggle with Iran to forcibly state their own case for a separate Kurdish state. This was interpreted as having been treasonous help for Iran, and Hussein aimed considerable military force – including poison gas attacks – at eliminating them. During the Iraq-Kuwait conflict, the Kurds once again tried to extract themselves from Iraqi control, and once again suffered horrific reprisals afterwards. Anderson’s novel is set during this time, and illustrates the endless futility of a small, ill-equipped force using impossibly rugged terrain to escape and hide from an opponent vastly better-equipped and completely ruthless. The action at the start of the novel – Mark’s experiences on the mountain and in the Harir Cave occur in an area inhabited by the Kurds, but inside Iraqi borders.
Background: The Spanish Civil War From 1936 – 39, the Spanish Civil War split Spain, and called forth people outside Spain who joined the “International Brigades” and fought for the Republican (left-wing) cause against General Franco and the (Fascist) Nationalists. As with any civil war, the conflict was intense and spiteful, as villages and towns were divided by political loyalty: neighbour fought neighbour. With the exploitation of the conflict by Fascist super-powers Italy and Germany as a “tryout” for their weapons and some tactics and troops, the social and physical destruction was pervasive and long-lasting. Picasso’s Guernica details a horrendous raid by German Stuka dive-bombers on a village. Terrible atrocities were carried out by both sides. Joaquin’s “Casa de los Queridos” exists in the region of Granada, in the south of Spain, near the Mediterranean Sea. Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is set in Spain during the war, and is a good extension text.
Maps: Kurdistan (1) Shaded area shows the area of Iraq inhabited by the Kurds. The “Harir Cave” is not a real location.
Maps: Spain (2) Area covered by events in “Triage”. Mark can see the outskirts of Granada from the eastern window of Joaquin’s studio.
Synopsis Mark Walsh is an American war photographer, a veteran of many war zones Believes that if you “keep [what you see] separate, you don’t feel a thing.” At the start of the novel, he is almost killed on a mountain top, by a mortar shell. After treatment in a hospital cave, he returns to the New York apartment he shares with Elena Morales, his Spanish girlfriend Mark experiences physical and mental breakdown (post-traumatic stress disorder) due to his narrow escape from death. Elena’s estranged grandfather, Joaquin, a “psychiatrist” of sorts whose experience comes from treating “Franco’s killers” in and after the Spanish Civil War, arrives unannounced in New York, and begins to treat Mark. After some success, he takes Mark and Elena back to Spain where he continues to unravel the causes of Mark’s breakdown.
Characters (1): Mark Walsh Background is the American mid-West. Somewhat estranged from his family (a sister in California, another in Chicago, a brother in Seattle, parents in Florida). A war-photgrapher, he spends much of the year on stockmarket “bets” – trying to guess which war will “go platinum”, so that his photos will be most easily sold. Mark likes to take landscapes, but these are not commercially viable. When he returns from his trips, he usually stays in a hotel to clear his head before going home. The apartment he shares with Elena is divided: a “monastic” main room, which he keeps deliberately barren, and the rest of the apartment, which Elena fills with pictures, flowers and ornaments. The death of his close friend, Colin, causes Mark’s defenses to crumble, and he suffers a complete breakdown.
Characters (2): Elena Of Spanish origin, working for the UNHCR, in New York. Father died when she was young. Estranged from her grandfather, Joaquin, who brought her up, having found out about his activities during the Spanish Civil War. Close friends with Diane, Colin’s expectant wife.
Characters (3): Joaquin Widower (wife died of cancer), son in a car accident. Entire family murdered during the Spanish Civil War Lives in “Casa de los Queridos” – House of the Dear Ones (also known as Casa de los Caidos (House of the Lost Ones), which he extorted from its previous owner, the Duque D’Orellana Worked with soldiers from Franco’s “Death Squads” after the Spanish Civil War. Elena believes him to be the “Fascist Father-Confessor” Has his own war scars: the “Incurables” Believes in God: because of “cruelty too exquisite” to be accidental. Knows he has to cure Mark to reclaim his grand-daughter.
Characters (4): Talzani American-trained Kurdish doctor Works in “the worst hospital in the world” – the Harir Cave Practices euthanasia – the tags “system” Casualties too badly injured for immediate treatment, or whose needs would require too many scarce resources are shot – by him. Knows the truth of Mark’s injuries and experiences: “… these little mysteries … War is full of them.”
Themes War– what effects does war have on those who are exposed to it? This is both in the direct sense and peripherally: Elena’s grandfather’s actions still affect her; Lewis Perez is still trying to find the truth of his father’s wartime fate … Mark and his father have had more direct exposure, and have had to deal with more severe consequences. Then there is the fate of the Sri Lankan cadets, the people in the Luwero Triangle, in Uganda … and the Palestinian boy. “Triage” – triage is the process by which casualties are assessed for treatment. The worst-injured receive the highest priority … as a rule. However, what if the injuries are so severe that the patient is certain to die? Triage can also be the process by which we select which memories and even relationships to “let go”. Love– the relationship at the heart of the book is a love-triangle of sorts … Joaquin is estranged from his grand-daughter, who loves Mark – sort of. Mark’s and Elena’s relationship has gone from champagne and strawberries to lettuce … Joaquin doesn’t really care about Mark – until he realises that the only path back to his daughter’s affections is through Mark’s cure … Fate – “There is no pattern to who lives or dies in war … In war, people die because they do … You see how it goes? Simple math. Math and luck.”
Triage links and further reading • Education Age discussion: http://www.education.theage.com.au/pagedetail.asp?intpageid=97&strsection=students&intsectionid=3 • Education Age discussion: http://www.education.theage.com.au/pagedetail.asp?intpageid=1081&strsection=students&intsectionid=3 • Interview with Scott Anderson • http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/08/reviews/981108.08dickeyt.html • “For Whom the Bell Tolls” – Ernest Hemingway • “One Crowded Hour” – Tim Bowden • “War zones” – Scott Anderson (with John Lee Anderson) • “Moonlight Hotel” – Scott Anderson • Hotel Rwanda” - true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsis refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda • “The Year of Living Dangerously” - journalist on his first job as a foreign correspondent. His apparently humdrum assignment to Indonesia soon turns hot as President Sukarno electrifies the populace and frightens foreign powers
Addendum Guernica – by Pablo Picasso
