Book: THE ORDER OF THE DAY
Author: Éric Vuillard
Reviewer’s Instagram: julia_flyte
Photo Credit: julia_flyte
Original Book Review
At the recent #AucklandWritersFestival, the author Philippe Sands recommended this book, which is a novel but borders on narrative non fiction. It tells the story of several pivotal meetings that took place between 1933-1938 in the lead up to Hitler’s annexation of Austria prior to WW2. Translated from the French, it won the Prix Goncourt in 2017. What is remarkable about is the many ways that it mirrors more recent events.
For example, it begins in 1933 when the Nazi party assembles the heads of Germany’s biggest industrial powers and demands their financial support. Most of the players are not natural supporters of the Nazi ideology and if they had declined to get into bed with Hitler, it might have changed the outcome of history. But instead they held their noses and opened their wallets – “twenty-four calculating machines at the gates of Hell”.
I was also struck by the way that Hitler and his cronies refused to operate in the way that politicians always had. They thought nothing of ranting and raging or just ignoring cues from the bewildered politicians of other nations who didn’t have a playbook for such behaviour. A situation that feels relevant and familiar.
It’s a short read – 129 pages – but gosh it’s thought provoking.
