Hhhh laurent binet book review6/26/2023 ![]() ![]() It’s better for me not to know more of the details ” the narrator remarks while debating whether to acquire Heydrich’s wife’s memoirs. ![]() ![]() Anxieties about writing are central to the novel, including but not limited to the narrator’s research, his personal library, his opinions on reconstructing dialogue, and the precision of certain details (was Heydrich’s Mercedes actually black or just very dark green?), which all rival the historical plotline in terms of importance. The text is almost entirely one to ten paragraph vignettes describing either historical anecdotes, the narrator’s experience of researching and writing, or some amalgam therein. Heydrich is the character that the narrator seems most compelled by, but the historical narrative is far from the centerpiece of the book. The novel is narrated by a present-day boyish historian attempting to write a historical novel about Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, a Slovak and a Czech, parachuting into Prague to assassinate Heydrich. And if you couldn’t - if you had to add details or invent motives - would you feel like you betrayed those who lived the events? HHhH, Laurent Binet’s debut novel about the attempted assassination of Nazi Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich in occupied Prague in 1942 is, to its final pages, preoccupied - obsessed even - with these questions. Now imagine trying to tell someone about that experience, while maintaining perfect allegiance to historical facts. Imagine a history textbook makes you weep. ![]()
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