Wildcat Under Glass, by Alki Zei (translation: Edward Fenton)

[rachelmanija]

A classic Greek children's novel from 1963 about a little girl living in Greece when it goes under a fascist dictatorship in the 1930s, written by a woman who had that exact experience.

Melia and her older sister lead a relatively carefree life, bored when they're stuck inside in the rain and delighted when their uncle Niko spins tales of the stuffed wildcat they have in a glass case, until the fascists take over and Niko becomes a rebel, her sister joins the Youth Fascist League, Melia is stuck in between, and the wildcat takes on both a real and metaphoric life of its own.

The earlier sections focus on the real details of a specific childhood; the later ones are more event-based about "this is what happens under a dictatorship." I was expecting things to get a lot more catastrophic and tragic than they actually did.



The wildcat is used to convey messages, and also as code for Niko. Youth Fascist plotline ended a bit anticlimactically, with the sister sent to steal stuff and accidentally finding Niko in hiding, which pushes her into a nervous breakdown. She doesn't tell and leaves the fascists, he leaves for Spain, and that's the end.



I feel a bit philistine for saying so, as it's obviously an Important Book, I didn't find it terribly memorable purely as a reading experience. I read it because I'm trying to read books that have been sitting on my shelves for ages and I have no idea why I even have them. In this case I suspect that the cover made me think it was about either a living or a magical wildcat. Generally I avoid Important Books for children about historical events, as I very rarely enjoy them.

Wildcat under glass

Comments

[osprey_archer]

I often find translations underwhelming even if the original work has been highly praised - like some of the liveliness/charm gets drained out of them in the process of translation. In this case it sounds like the plot was the problem as much as the prose, though, which isn't something that the translation would really change.

What is it with publishers putting big cats on their book covers and then having barely any big cat action at all? I'm still bitter about the Kate diCamillo book The Tiger Rising, which has a girl riding a tiger on the front cover, and then in the book that only ever happens in a dream! How can you tiger-bait me like this, publishers???

[rachelmanija]

The worst offenders are books which have dragons on the cover and none in the book. I don't want metaphorical dragons and big cats, I want real ones!

[sovay]

I don't want metaphorical dragons and big cats, I want real ones!

EXACTLY.

[sartorias]

YES!

[yhlee]

I KNOW!

[sovay]

In this case I suspect that the cover made me think it was about either a living or a magical wildcat.

rushthatspeaks and I were discussing this phenomenon yesterday as the Metaphorical Dragon Problem.

[rachelmanija]

I still remember my ire at Dragons in the Water and The Young Unicorns/

[sovay]

I still remember my ire at Dragons in the Water and The Young Unicorns

Same, actually! All the more so if you are coming off the Murry books which are casually full of time-traveling unicorns and cherubim and tiny mammoths. What gives.

We agreed that at least Laurence Yep does not pull this shit. If he names a book Dragon War, by God it will have dragons fighting in it. (And when it's Dragonwings or Dragon's Gate, the cultural grounding makes its technically metaphorical dragons not disappointing. As far as I have been ever able to tell, though it's not all that relevant to the historical plot, The Serpent's Children means it.)

[starlady]

I learned about the dictatorship by dint of visiting a tiny nunnery near the Temple of Poseidon on Cape Sounion near Athens. As the nuns served us honey cakes they very matter of factly pointed to the tiny island visible from the garden and said "that's where the Communists were interned after the civil war."

Which led me to do some reading and realize that Greece, too, was wild in the 1930s and 40s.

[kore]

Which led me to do some reading and realize that Greece, too, was wild in the 1930s and 40s.

I remembered some of that from The Magus.

[mildred_of_midgard]

What a disappointment about the wildcat!

I think my favorite Important Book for children about historical events is Letters from Rifka. I usually find epistolary fiction unreadable, but this was written in a style that actually worked for me.

Given the topic, it's incredibly optimistic (I mean, it's about successfully escaping from pogroms, not about staying put during the pogroms), full of hope and agency. Recommended.

ETA: Rereading it, I remember that it's also notable for kindness in dark times. It definitely falls into your preferred category of books where helping a stranger leads to good outcomes rather than bad. There is quite a lot of helping of strangers, both the protagonist receiving help in the first half and her paying it forward in the second half. I hadn't actually noticed the structural aspect until writing this sentence.