Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare
"Chronicle in Stone" by Ismail Kadare is a novel that captures the complexities of childhood perception against the backdrop of a war-torn, ancient city, likely reflecting Kadare’s own hometown of Gjirokastër, Albania. The narrative unfolds through the eyes of a child, who observes the actions of adults without fully grasping their significance, creating a blend of innocence and humor. Key characters, such as Isa Voco, who joins the Resistance and faces tragic consequences, and Kako Pino, a makeup artist with a haunting refrain of "It's the end of the world," are vividly portrayed, revealing their desires and struggles in a time of upheaval. The novel intricately weaves in elements of Greek mythology, drawing parallels between personal and timeless stories, as seen in the character of a young man searching for a lost girl, likened to Orpheus and Eurydice. Kadare employs imagery of sight and insight, symbolized through glasses, to explore themes of perception and understanding. The storytelling is interspersed with chronicles by an old man, adding layers of history and reflection to the characters’ experiences. Overall, "Chronicle in Stone" is a poignant exploration of memory, loss, and the indelible connections we have to our past.
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Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published:Kronikë në gurë, 1971 (English translation, 1987)
Type of work: Novel
The Work
Chronicle in Stone is a charming and humorous novel told from the fanciful viewpoint of a child who sees what people do but is not old enough to understand the context of their actions. The steep and ancient city of stone where he lives is not named, but it is surely Kadare’s birthplace, Gjirokastër. In the last scene, the narrator returns to the city as an adult, realizes he has been figuratively stumbling over its stones ever since he left, and strongly senses the invisible presence of the people he loved.
Kadare makes extensive use of images of sight, and, by extension, insight. The ladies of the neighborhood are shocked when Isa Voco starts wearing glasses. They look through his lenses and see only a distorted world. Isa, however, goes on to join the Resistance. He assassinates the Italian garrison commander and is captured and tortured. By the time he is brought out to be hanged, he is missing one leg but still wearing his glasses, which are the only thing that seem alive on his battered face. In other words, the viewpoint held by the Resistance remains intact. Isa’s friend and accomplice, Javer, avenges his death without getting caught and successfully carries out numerous guerrilla attacks.
Ironically, the first-person narrator also needs glasses, but none of the adults thinks of having his eyes tested. He takes a single lens from his grandmother’s trunk and holds it to one eye when he goes to a film or otherwise needs to see. His lens stands for the viewpoint of the writer, which brings everything into focus.
Kadare captures the essence of each character with deft descriptions, and most characters are portrayed with affection, such as Kako Pino. Kako has skillfully applied brides’ makeup for more than sixty years. She is a thin lady who dresses in black and carries her implements in a red bag. In conversation, Kako repeats hypnotically, “It’s the end of the world.” That is Kako’s leitmotif, and she says it countless times in the course of the novel. At the end of the novel, the Germans are suspicious of the contents of her red bag and hang her, thinking she is a saboteur. In a touching stylistic tribute to Kako, the narrator continues her voice, setting the unsaid words in a paragraph of their own: “The end of the world.”
Kadare makes effective use of Greek mythology. He describes how when the lights come back on after an air raid, Aqif Kashahu’s pale daughter has her thin arms around the neck of a fair-haired young man who kisses her. No one knows who he is. Aqif grabs his daughter by the hair and drags her upstairs and out of the house. She is never seen again. During a subsequent air raid, the fair-haired young man takes the young narrator aside and tells him that pregnant girls are either strangled or thrown down a well. The fair-haired young man starts breaking into homes to discover whether Aqif’s daughter was drowned in a cistern. The Italians arrest the housebreaker, but they show understanding for his story. When they confront Aqif about his daughter, he says that she is visiting distant cousins. Each chapter in the novel is followed by a fragment of a chronicle written by Xivo Gavo, an old man who lives in the city. In Xivo’s words, the fair-haired young man was Orpheus, seeking his Eurydice. Kadare thus shows that each person’s story is timeless.