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Nobel Author Turns Tables With 'Good Soldier' Story

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By BOB FRYER

Published: January 27, 2008

"Detective Story," by Imre Kertesz (Knopf, $21)

In a novel only 112 pages long, you might expect more to be unsaid than said, and this is the case with "Detective Story" by Imre Kertesz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002.

As a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Kertesz is all too familiar with the "good soldier" who was only following orders in committing unspeakable crimes against humanity. In "Detective Story," the main character, Antonio Martens, is one of those good soldiers, though in this book the setting is an unnamed country in Latin America.

Most tales of police-state horrors are told from the perspective of victims, but in "Detective Story," it is told through Martens. He relates that he was the "new boy" in the Corps, the agency enforcing "order" on the populace and guarding against "atrocities" against the state - those atrocities no doubt being attempts at a populist uprising against an oppressive government.

Martens is never graphic in describing the tortures and interrogations of what turn out to be innocent citizens who are nonetheless tried and executed by firing squad.

It is clear that one of those "atrocities" dreaded by Martens took place: The regime operating the Corps is overthrown and now it is Martens in prison, awaiting a vague, but no doubt bad, fate.

In his repeated references to his "flatfoot" or "new boy" status at the Corps, he seems to be deflecting blame for the sins of the Corps to his superiors, and his only hint at possible feelings or remorse is his mention of horrible headaches that seem to come during the interrogation and torture sessions he relates. But never does it seem to occur to Martens that he is guilty of any sort of monstrous behavior - just what one would expect from a good soldier.

Bob Fryer is the Northwest News & Tribune bureau chief.

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