I had never heard of Ismail Kadare prior to being introduced to his name via a discussion on Goodreads with Daniel and Sarah.

The File on H. is a fictionalized story. Loosely based on researchers Albert Lord’s and Milman Parry’s investigation of whether Homer's works were original or based on oral tradition, the book sounded completely out of my comfort zone.

Originally written in Albanian, the English version was translated from the French. Set in the 1930's there is something for almost everyone: Spies, intrigue, myths, legends, jealousy, romance, quirky satire, poetry, music and the more serious references to Lord's and Parry's actual research.

The story isn’t perfect and there is an undercurrent of the author’s nationalism. Still, I ended up really enjoying the book, both the oddly humorous introductory chapters and the more serious parts of the book.
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40. The File On H. by Ismail Kadare
published: 1981 in Albanian
translation: Translated from Albanian to French by [[Jusuf Vrioni]] (1989). Translated from French to English by [[David Bellos] (1998).
format: 202-page hardcover
acquired: June read: Aug 17-30 time reading: 4:56, 1.5 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: Novel theme: none
locations: northern Albania
about the author: born 1936 in Gjirokastër, Albania

Preface: I‘ve wanted to read Kadare for a while, care of LT. He keeps cropping up with appealing reviews (like DieFledermaus, who reviewed this book below in 2012). I picked this book up because of the connection to Homer (The "H." in the title). An off-site conversation about the oral tradition behind Homer led me to read it with a small group on Litsy.

It's a quick read. It looks at Albanian culture through two Irish Homeric scholars from Harvard who have come to record Albanian traditional saga singers, bringing along the first widely available tape recorder (first available in 1930). This happens to be exactly what Milman Parry and Albert Lord actually did, becoming famous for their theories of the oral tradition behind the Iliad and the Odyssey. But Parry and Lord notably recorded Serbian singers in Yugoslavia, not Albanian singers.

Kadare is having fun. He doesn't lead us to the Homeric ideas; but instead begins very oddly with an entertaining satire of repressive 1930's Albania (presumably directly applicable to 1981 Albania). And everything he does tell us is oddly indirect. But it all works. We touch on Homeric origins in only way we can, reaching as we do into the unknown, and extending only with our imagination.

I found this a terrific little playful novel.

Recommended for the spontaneous.

2022
https://www.librarything.com/topic/342768#7923213 ( )

I first read this book in my early twenties. A friend gave it to me as a present. At the time was studying Homer, and I dreamed with the times when oral storytelling was still alive. I used to think how wonderful it was when people would gather around the fireplace and hear old folktales. I thought storytelling was something from the past, and this book gave me access to a world that was very dear to my heart, but I would never get the chance to get to know.

Meanwhile I moved to the UK and found out about story circles, where storytellers gather together in a circle and tell stories. I became a storyteller myself, and telling stories became part of my identity. There are stories that I have been telling for years, and they do change with time, just as it is described in the book. It was wonderful to re-read this book 15 years later, and recognise techniques that I myself use, as well as my storytelling friends. I still love epic poetry and Homer, and this book made me want to read epic poems from Albania.

I loves Kadare's writing, his insight, his descriptions and his humour. When reading this book I still feel like I am being transported to another world, and I can almost feel it as it was so vividly portrayed. I think this book now became an old friend, and from time to time I will pay it a visit. ( )

The story started promisingly with suggestions of a spy intrigue and a number of interesting pompous characters. But it was weighed down by the research on Homer and the epics. I still give it a rating of 4 because of its originality. ( )

Night had fallen, and Shtjefen lit the tall oil-lamp, the one used for important occasions such as this. There was a special atmosphere at the inn this evening, something like a party feeling. Only the rhapsode, who was aware of being the hero of the night, stayed aside, and looked calmly at the tape-recorder. Bill kept glancing at him, trying to imagine what feelings the sight of this ultramodern device aroused in the rhapsode — bewilderment, or apprehension, or guilt about betraying his predecessors, the singers of yore? In the end he reckoned that the calmness of the rhapsode must have been masking inner turmoil. It would be the first time that the sound of his voice and of his labuta would not be lost in space, just as sounds always had been, but instead would be collected inside this metal box, like rainwater in a cistern or like . . . He suddenly feared that the rhapsode might change his mind.

Written around 1980 but set in the 1930s, this is a satire on Albanian politics and Albanian-Serbian rivalry. It tells the story of Bill and Max, two Irish scholars who come to Albania in search of the last remaining rhapsodes (travelling minstrels). While in Albania, they hope to work out whether Homer was single author of the Iliad or someone who created a standardised version of an existing epic into a single version by writing one of the variants down. They also want to find out if epic-composition is still a living art-form by recording the same rhapsodes singing the same songs on different occasions to see whether the songs change at all, and looking for evidence that new epics are still being created.

The governor of the nearby town has been asked to keep an eye on Bill and Max, as they are suspected of being spies, and he sets his favourite informer on the case. He sends back wonderfully-written letters from the inn where Bill and Max are staying although he is handicapped by being unable to speak English, so he can't tell what Bill and Max are saying when they are alone together, although they do speak a strange archaic version of Albanian when talking to the locals.

The historical setting of this story allows the author to get away with satirising the communist government in the guise of satirising the monarchist government of the 1930s. I loved the governor's reactions to his informer's ornate writing style, the governor's wife's fantasies about the Irishmen, and the reactions of the Albanians to the newly-invented tape recorder used by the scholars, all of which made this an interesting read. ( )