Apartment in Athens

Glenway Wescott was a good friend of Somerset Maugham's, and so I had hoped he might have come under his influence more than is suggested by this novel. Or, perhaps that's unfair; Maugham was a great teller of tales but sometimes he lacked the philosophical insight into his characters that might have propelled him into the first rate; Wescott's book is more devoted to the psychology of his characters than the lives they live.

'Apartment in Athens' is an interesting piece, following the life for a year of a family in Athens whose home is taken over by a German officer during the second world war. Their routines are shattered, they suffer the depravities of subservience, and in the end they are punished though they are innocent. The show more characters, and indeed the plot, work well as metaphors for the war and the warring nations, but one has to wonder if there is enough here for a novel. A novella, or a piece in a collection of short stories, might have been more suitable; as it is, there is not enough plot here to carry the book all the way.

My YouTube review is here: https://youtu.be/XCZyivmZ07k show less

This is a harrowing story of a domestic situation in occupied Greece during the 2nd World War. The atmosphere is menacing and tense. The reflections about, and by, the various characters are fascinating. I found this a moving and gripping piece of work.

a story about a family forced to take in a German soldier in Athens during ww 2. the first part of the novel is told from the husband and German soldier's point of view, the second half from the wife. the novel has some very interesting twists. a nice read

308. Apartment in Athens, by Glenway Wescott (read 12 Feb 1947) I read this book in February 1947 but was not moved to mention it in the diary I kept in those days and now I don't remember anything about it so I conclude it was not very memorable.

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Wescott-Un-appartement-a-Athenes/231174
> Le Livre de Poche (celiatas) : https://fr.calameo.com/books/0043038443afedcb9a996

> Tout comme son extraordinaire Faucon pèlerin (un des " trésors de la littérature américaine du XXe siècle ", a écrit Susan Sontag dans le New Yorker), Un appartement à Athènes de Glenway Wescott décrit une troublante relation triangulaire. Dans cette histoire d'un couple de Grecs qui, dans l'Athènes occupée par les nazis, est obligé de partager son appartement avec un officier allemand, Wescott met en scène un intense drame de la cohabitation et du rejet, de la résistance et de la contrainte. Un appartement à Athènes - le livre de Wescott qui, de son show more vivant, a connu le plus grand succès critique et commercial - décrit une grande et terrible guerre vue sous l'angle de la vie quotidienne. C'est l'histoire forte et insolite d'un combat spirituel dans lequel il est presque impossible de distinguer le triomphe de la défaite. " Je n'ai lu aucun autre livre - qu'il soit fiction ou document - qui m'ait, autant qu'Un appartement à Athènes, fait sentir la faim et l'étouffement, le repli sur des positions intérieures, le besoin de construire des défenses intérieures, de réorganiser et de réorienter, derrière le masque de la soumission, toute la structure de sa vie et toute sa raison d'être. " (Edmund Wilson) " Une belle étude de l'humiliation et de la noblesse, culminant dans le drame et se résolvant dans le désespoir... Sa modération, son absence l'exagération et sa sérénité sont aussi admirables que l'idéal grec qu'elles reflètent et honorent. Partout éclate la dignité d'un style dans lequel rien n'est inutile ou insuffisant. "
—(Eudora Welty, Amazon.fr).

> Un ballet morbide, orchestré de main de maître par l'auteur du Faucon Pèlerin.
—A. Fillon, Lire show less