'LOVELY GREEN EYES' by ARNOST LUSTIG
'A little debauchery does no harm, no debauchery does a lot.'
This is truly an extraordinary novel, written by a man who survived the horrors of Auschwitz, and who lived in fact to tell his tale. Bizarrely though, this isn't so much his tale as a girl's story� a 15-year-old girl called Hanka who lies about being a Jew to survive, and who becomes a prostitute in due course. Obviously not through choice, but through being forced to entertain the fighting soldiers who require a little light relief from girls such as her. 'A girl was a bottle in which they emptied themselves' is one way of describing such affairs.
Given the subject matter, this can be quite grueling and harrowing, but it's ultimately a rewarding reading experience that you will never forget. In fact, it has a similar effect to Eric Lomax's tales from the war courtesy of his hugely affecting 'Railway Man' novel.
While there isn't a plot as such to 'Lovely Green Eyes,' Hanka is the prime narrator of events as they unfold, and as she gets to know a few of the many soldiers that she 'entertains.' Throughout the novel, there are some fantastic snippets of potentially life-changing philosophy, surrounded by moments of utter horror, given some of the sights and ordeals that Hanka, and girls like her, had to endure - for real - at first hand�
If she had owned up to being Jewish she'd have been killed, so in one respect 'she was better off than tens of thousands of others. She kept repeating this to herself. She was better off. She was paying for her life with her crotch, her thighs, her arms, legs, lips, fingers, tongue - and her soul.'
Religion is persuasively tied into everything too, as morality and humanity-related themes dominate the book to such an extent that you really can't read this and not be affected by its ramifications.
Mankind, quite evidently, can be a truly evil force to be reckoned with, and the Holocaust was one of the world's darkest hours. But some 60 years on after the Second World War ended, have we really learnt anything?
As war rages on around the world, lovely green eyes count for nothing in the eyes of all those people who apportion themselves power primarily to violate and take advantage of those people of a more vulnerable disposition than themselves. Fortunately, this novel goes along way in proving that there are people out there - such as the author in Lustig - who do care about others. For showing compassion for his fellow man, and woman, Lustig is more of a man than any gun-toting soldier could ever hope to be. No word of a lie.
'Lovely Green Eyes' should be read at all costs; it'll make you appreciate your lot in life a whole lot more.
In its bleakest moment, the thought that 'We were born to perish' is fleetingly aired. But no, we are born to live - and don't you forget it�
(Steve Rudd)
ISBN 0-099-44858-0 (first published in the UK by The Harvill Press in 2001)
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