The main problem of Laurent Binet's book "HHhH", which brought him fame and the Goncourt Prize in the nomination for the best debut, is the author's narcissism. In narcissism as such - especially ironic (and Binet is very ironic and reflective) - there is nothing terrible, but in this case it looks somewhat out of place. Perhaps, all the same, you should not flirt and correct your makeup in front of the mirror, talking about events of an epic scale - terrible, heroic and majestic.
Son of an historian, Binet was born in Paris, graduated from University of Paris in literature, and taught literature in Parisian suburb and eventually at University. He was awarded the 2010 Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman for his first novel, HHhH.
The abbreviation in the title refers the reader to the adage of the Third Reich - "Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich", "Himmler's brain is called Heydrich." Precisely as a fictionalized biography of Reinhard Heydrich - not the most famous, but perhaps the most dangerous leader of the Nazis, the author of the provocation on the Polish-German border (which, in fact, began the Second World War), the cruel ruler of the enslaved Czech Republic and the architect of the Holocaust - Binet's novel is read for the first hundred pages. However, if Heydrich is the center of the book, it is only in the same sense as the black circle is the center of the target. The story that the writer really wants to tell us is the story of a successful assassination attempt on Heydrich, carried out by the Czech Jan Kubis and the Slovak Josef Gabchik in 1942.
Abandoned from England on behalf of the Czechoslovak government in exile, Kubiš and Gabchik managed to fulfill their mission (Heydrich survived, but died of wounds a week later), and then, with several other comrades in the Resistance, took refuge in the crypt of the Prague Orthodox Church of Cyril and Methodius. There they waited out a wave of monstrous repressions, brought down by an angry Fuhrer on the Czech Republic (for example, the village of Lidice, almost randomly chosen, was demonstratively wiped off the face of the earth along with all the inhabitants), but they were betrayed by their former ally. The church became the scene of a battle as heroic as it was doomed: for several hours, seven paratroopers fought off 700 SS men thrown into the assault, but as a result they still died - someone was killed, someone committed suicide so as not to get alive into the hands of the enemy.
There are stories that need to be told simply - or not told at all, and the story of Gabczyk, Kubis and Heydrich is definitely one of them. However, Laurent Binet fails to keep within the bounds, and therefore the documentary fragments are generously interspersed with confused and emotional interludes. The author's romance with a beautiful Slovak, a break, a new romance with a beautiful Frenchwoman with a Russian name Natasha, a new break is even more painful than the previous one. Relations with his father (also a historian), his own experiences and fantasies, attempts to reproduce the dialogues between the characters - and annoying circular reflection on this matter ... Binet is so fascinated by his love for the past, and at the same time his own bright personality, that the thought of just standing backstage doesn't seem to even cross his mind. However, in those cases (fortunately, not uncommon), when he still gets tired of soloing and he needs a break, real protagonists come to the ramp, and then the text of Laurent Binet, almost against the will of the author, acquires true greatness and tragedy. However, perhaps, with such stories, it cannot be otherwise.
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