Επιχείρηση «Κόκκινη Άμμος»

by Ann Thwaite, Ανν Τουέιτ

Κάπου έξω από τη Βεγγάζη, κοντά σ' έναν θάμνο στην κοκκινωπή έρημο, είχε θάψει ο Άγγλος Ντέρεκ Λίστερ τις σημειώσεις του, το 1942, πριν τον πιάσουν αιχμάλωτο στο Δεύτερο Παγκόσμιο πόλεμο. Είκοσι πέντε χρόνια αργότερα, το 1967, η δωδεκάχρονη Κέιτ του υπόσχεται να ψάξει να τις βρει. Εκείνη και οι δυο βοηθοί της –η εννιάχρονη αδερφή της Τζέσικα και ο συνομήλικός της Άραβας Γκαμάλ– θα ορκιστούν ν' ανακαλύψουν τα θαμμένα χαρτιά.
Θ' αρχίσει έτσι η Επιχείρηση «ΚΟΚΚΙΝΗ ΑΜΜΟΣ» – μια έρευνα γεμάτη περιπέτειες, μια εξερεύνηση μαγευτικών και παραδεισένιων τόπων, όπου η πραγματικότητα θα μπλέκεται πότε με τους αρχαίους μύθους και πότε με γεγονότα της πρόσφατης Ιστορίας, ενώ ταυτόχρονα τα τρία παιδιά θα ανιχνεύσουν τις αλήθειες της ζωής.

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Ann Thwaite is a British writer who is the author of five major biographies. AA Milne: His Life was the Whitbread Biography of the Year, 1990. Edmund Gosse: A Literary Landscape (Duff Cooper Prize, 1985) was described by John Carey as "magnificent - one of the finest literary biographies of our time". Glimpses of the Wonderful about the life of Edmund Gosse's father, Philip Henry Gosse, was picked out by D.J. Taylor in The Independent as one of the "Ten Best Biographies" ever. Her biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett was originally published as Waiting for the Party (1974) and reissued in 2020 with the title Beyond the Secret Garden, with a foreword by Jacqueline Wilson. Emily Tennyson, The Poet's Wife (1996) was reissued by Faber Finds for the Tennyson bicentenary in 2009.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

My sister urged me to borrow her copy of this book, and so I took it home with me, where it languished on my to-read shelf for quite a while. Somehow, I just never seemed to be in the mood to pick up children's book set in Benghazi. Could it possibly have had something to do with the loaded associations I have with that place name? Hmmm. Ultimately, I only took it up because I was shortly to make a visit to my sister again, and it would be a chance to return the book (books come into my house at a rate that makes it highly desirable to get them out).

So anyway author Ann Thwaite (whose biographies I admire, those that I've read) spent some time in Libya in the 1960s, while her husband was a professor at a university in Benghazi, and she used the setting for this book. This is one of a handful of children's books she published around that time which now seem completely forgotten. The story follows Kate, whose father has just accepted a job with an oil company, as her family moves from England to the hot unfamiliar North African coast. Before she leaves, the father of Kate's best friend Emily tells her of his time as a soldier in the area during WWII. He tells her that he had hoped to become a writer, but circumstances led him to take up his father's grocery business (a circumstance that causes Kate's mother to look down on the family). While he was in Libya, Emily's father kept a journal and wrote some poetry, but when the Germans suddenly recaptured Benghazi, he had to abandon the papers, burying them in a tin box at the foot of a camelthorn tree. Kate decides then and there that she will recover the papers, and possibly help her friend's father recover his dream of being a writer. In Benghazi, Kate and her younger sister Jessica make friends with a half English, half Egyptian boy, Gamal, who lives in the same apartment complex, and who's also new to the city. They enlist him in the rather quixotic quest, and the three spend the next few weeks (before their schools begin) on bicycles exploring various sites in the city and surrounding area that had been mentioned in a poem Emily's father was able to find in an old letter he'd sent to his mother from Libya.

What I liked best about the book was the local color. The scenes of the beaches and archaeological sites the kids explore were beautifully rendered, and I felt that I was really there, experiencing the heat. I agree with my sister (who wrote the only other review currently up on goodreads) that it's all a bit idealized -- every place they visit seems empty and safe (although there is some realistic parental concern). The book also has a certain emotional depth; Kate is twelve going on thirteen, and has an increasing awareness of the relationships between herself and all the people around her, and increasingly is aware her parents aren't perfect. Gamal's mother is more arty (literally) than her own deeply conventional mother. Kate is drawn to this, but can see that Gamal's family isn't perfect either (there's something to be said for regular meals). She knows it's extremely unlikely they'll find the papers, but yet the quest still absorbs most of her thoughts. This is a book I can easily imagine rereading, and having also liked The House in Turner Square, I'll gladly pick up any other of Ann Thwaite's children's books I come across.

My sister didn't care for the ending. I had some mixed feelings about it. My sister was disappointed that the papers, when discovered were illegible, the ink having completely faded. I thought this was believable -- but is there any value in realism after the papers have been discovered in such a mystical wildly improbable way? I think that not being able to read (or perhaps even find) the papers is the right ending to a book that on the whole is so realistic, but it seems Ann Thwaite wanted it both ways -- a successful ending to a treasure hunt, such as one might have in a less well written children's book, but some realism too. Now that I think about it, the ending is similar to that of Raiders of the Lost Ark, for what that's worth.

Last observation: after going all of my life without reading one single book set in Libya (unless Asterix the Legionary counts?), I've now read two in a short space of time. The other was The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984: A Graphic Memoir, which is set in the 1970s, after Gadaffi took power. Boy, what a difference that apparently made.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

The back cover says this is an "interesting and satisfying story for thoughtful readers." As a thoughtful reader, I was indeed very interested by the descriptions of ex-pat English life in Benghazi, though it was somewhat more idyllic in parts than I could believe--the beaches were empty and beautiful, and there were no poor people, at least that the main character, Kate, saw. But I wasn't satisfied by the ending, and had trouble believing in what happened with the papers.

[Alexander Theofanidis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Συμπαθές παιδικό/εφηβικό ανάγνωσμα, που παρά το δυνατό του ξεκίνημα χαλαρώνει στη συνέχεια και χάνει λίγο την εστίαση και τον προσανατολισμό του.

Κάπου έξω από τη Βεγγάζη, κοντά σ' έναν θάμνο στην κοκκινωπή έρημο, είχε θάψει ο Άγγλος Ντέρεκ Λίστερ τις σημειώσεις του, το 1942, πριν τον πιάσουν αιχμάλωτο στο Δεύτερο Παγκόσμιο πόλεμο. Είκοσι πέντε χρόνια αργότερα, το 1967, η δωδεκάχρονη Κέιτ του υπόσχεται να ψάξει να τις βρει. Εκείνη και οι δυο βοηθοί της –η εννιάχρονη αδερφή της Τζέσικα και ο συνομήλικός της Άραβας Γκαμάλ– θα ορκιστούν ν' ανακαλύψουν τα θαμμένα χαρτιά.

Θ' αρχίσει έτσι η Επιχείρηση «ΚΟΚΚΙΝΗ ΑΜΜΟΣ» – μια έρευνα γεμάτη περιπέτειες, μια εξερεύνηση μαγευτικών και παραδεισένιων τόπων, όπου η πραγματικότητα θα μπλέκεται πότε με τους αρχαίους μύθους και πότε με γεγονότα της πρόσφατης Ιστορίας, ενώ ταυτόχρονα τα τρία παιδιά θα ανιχνεύσουν τις αλήθειες της ζωής.

Μετά από πληθώρα περιπλανήσεων και άκαρπων προσπαθειών ανεύρεσης των σημειώσεων του Λίστερ, αν μη τι άλλο τα τρία παιδιά κάνουν μια καλή γνωριμία της Λιβύης γύρω από τη Βεγγάζη στην οποία συμπαρασύρουν και τον αναγνώστη, ενώ κάποια στιγμή, χωρίς αποχρώντα λόγο εμφανίζεται και ένα πνιγμένο πτώμα το οποίο τη 13χρονη Κέιτ κάνει (εις μάτην) το φιλί της ζωής. Ίσως είναι αλληγορία για τη δυτική παρουσία στη βόρειο Αφρική. Ίσως όχι.

Στο κεφάλαιο "Δεκατρία", με ένα μικρό πλοτ τουίστ η συγγραφέας επιχειρεί να φέρει τα πράγματα στις σωστές τους διαστάσεις, αλλά πλέον η Κέιτ έχει μεγαλώσει περισσότερο απ' όσο της επιτρέπουν οι σελίδες του βιβλίου που περιγράφει την ιστορία της και είναι ώρα να μπει η λέξη "ΤΕΛΟΣ", αφήνοντας λίγο στενχωρημένο το μικρό αναγνώστη και λιγάκι αμήχανο τον ενήλικα.

Στην Ελλάδα κυκλοφόρησε από τις εκδόσεις "ΚΑΣΤΑΝΙΩΤΗ", με τίτλο "Επιχείρηση Κόκκινη Άμμος" με την κλασική πια πορτοκαλί ράχη της "Νεανικής Βιβλιοθήκης", χωρίς ωστόσο να είναι από τους πιο πετυχημένους τίτλους που μας χάρισε αυτή η αγαπημένη σειρά...