Book Review: Die Siegerin/Victorious by Yishai Sarid translated into German by Ruth Achlama

 

Abigail, once a gifted child, is a psychologist helping the Army to win wars. Her father, a well known Freudian, is chronically ill. Her son, Shauli just joined the military service and would change her way of considering victory and war achievements in general. Her relationships are rather temporar, mostly former or current patients, most of them suffering of post-traumatic stress disorder. The father of her son is a happily married chief of staff with whom she had a one-night stand.

Those elements appear in the latest book by Israeli writer Yishai Sarid, Victorious - translated into German as Die Siegerin by Ruth Achlama. Sarid´s The Memory Monster was one of the most thoughtful books I´ve read the last year and I couldn´t wait to get my eyes on Victorious. However, although the context - war, an Army psychologist doubting the belief into her own work - offers a number of interesting combinations of plots, - predictable at a certain extent though, in the end prevailed a story self centered on Abigail´s.

The story is exclusively a first person account lacking sometimes the counter story which may be revealing and adding complexity to the story. A self-centered story is nothing more than a self-cetered story excluding any other narrative. Even though in a way it is predictable where the story goes - once her son is getting into the army her views on victory, military victory are put on trial -, in this case it is definitely no effort to bring more complexity and depth. In the end, everything goes just in the middle, with no radical break-up. Abigail does not contest the system openly - also a predictable outcome but at least makes the characters alive, and generally she does hurry up to decide, except when she decided to have her boy. 

Although I may understand the importance of introspection and of a ´me´ story I may confess that Die Siegerin/Victorious haven´t caught my interest too much. But the translation is very good therefore at least I was able to spend some time improving my vocabulary. 

Rating: 3 stars