Book | The House Of War

Fiction presented as a Historical fact.

Mavi Boncuk |

Aşkta ve Savaşta Mustafa Kemal (Turkish Edition | The House Of War  by Catherine Gavin[1] (1970)
"Kemal, sevgilim, artık gidiyorum, çünkü seni kalamayacak kadar çok seviyorum.""Aşkta ve Savaşta Mustafa Kemal" Amerikalı kadın bir gazeteciyle Mustafa Kemal'in Kurtuluş Savaşı'nın tam ortasında yaşadıkları büyük bir aşkın romanıdır.Amerikalı genç kadın, "içindeki kadın"ı, cinselliği, aşkı ve hatta gazeteci kimliğini ortaya çıkaran, bütün kalbiyle inandığı erkekle, Kurtuluş Savaşı Ankara'sında tanışmış, ilk beraberliğini Afyon'daki karargahta yaşamıştır.Kemal'in dediği gibi "Dar-ül Harb" de yaşanan bir aşktır bu.Romanın başkahramanları; Mustafa Kemal ve Evelyn Burrett, General İsmet, Fikriye ve Latife Hanım'lar, ve bir dizi asker, hükümet yetkilisi, basın mensubudur. Askeri ve siyası entrikaların, inançların, aşkların, devrim ve savaş planlarının dönemin gerçek mekan ve bölgelerinde ustalıkla kurgulandığı bir romandır.General İsmet ve diğerlerinin bir kadın için çok uygunsuz olduğunu düşündükleri halde, Kemal'in isteği üzerine savaşın Afyon, Dumlupınar, Uşak aşamalarını cephenin ön saflarında basın mensubu olarak izleyen bu kadın, zaferle sonlanan acıların, ölümlerin, fedakarlıkların, bağımsızlık inancının gücünün tanığı olmuş, izlediği, yaşadığı her şey sevdiği erkeğe hayranlığını ve haklılığına olan inancını arttırmıştır. Ne yazık ki, Dâr-ül İslam'ı yok saymak mümkün olmayacak ve Türk ordusunun başkumandanına tam da zafer gününde ve bir kez daha eşi olması isteğini tekrarlamışken"Seni kalamayacak kadar çok seviyorum" diye yazacaktır." Chiviyazıları Yayınevi / Littera Dizisi ISBN : 9789759187392

Paperback Jun-1970 William Morrow ISBN: 0688018203 ISBN13: 9780688018207 

Paperback Dec-1978 Pocket ISBN: 0671819267 ISBN13: 9780671819262

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (January 1, 1974)
ISBN-10: 0340106107 | ISBN-13: 978-0340106105

KIRKUS REVIEW
Intercultural rechauffe, which bears its own fading celluloid charm, in this tale of a fictitious love in the life of the Turkish hero, Kemal Ataturk, who in the 1920's defeated the Greeks and established Turkish independence. But Kemal's exploits here are merely a rousing background for the extramarital adventures and palpitations of American Evelyn Barrett, cool (nay hitherto frigid) wife of foreign correspondent Jeff, boyish (nay cloddish) in love-making. Jeff travels to Constantinople and Smyrna reporting political undercurrents and the growing strength of Kemal; Evelyn, meanwhile, a natural in journalism if not in the boudoir, acts as scribe for Kemal who skillfully prepares for a bit of tent-creeping. Evelyn thaws as Kemal's superior skill in amatory arts parallels his conquests in the field. The Greeks are routed and Britain, France, and Italy back down. (""Oh, Kemal, Kemal! You've really done it!"") Kemal offers marriage, but Evelyn, after a last-minute religious (Christian) revelation, refuses. Eventually Jeff, after losing his fluffy little mistress in an internecine brawl, returns, only to be cast aside by Evelyn. Much fairly convincing ado about international maneuvering in cities under siege--and it's a matter of chaise longue taste, like Turkish taffy.

Reader Review
Jeff Barrett and his wife, Evelyn, go to live in Angora (Ankara), the base of Kemal Mustafa (later, "Ataturk," which means father of the Turks) at the start of the Turkish Revolution in 1922, because Jeff is a journalist on assignment from a Chicago paper. Thier marriage has a lot of difficulty, they aren't in love anymore, and they bicker constantly. Jeff is then sent back to Constantinople (Istanbul) to cover developments there, they have a big fight that calls their relationship into question, and both of them are glad that Evelyn will stay behind. Jeff is also excited to get to Constantinople to spend more time with a young Turkish girl, and Evelyn is looking forward to spending more time riding horses with Kemal, the dashing French-speaking General, on the steppe around Angora. 

The Chicago paper needs someone to cover events in Angora, and Evelyn is there, having written (very well, in fact) under her husband's byline before. Evelyn, who has little sexual interest in her own husband, is on fire for Kemal, physically and intellectually, but she continues to repress her feelings. The fighting begins, and Evelyn, uncharacteristically for a woman, at Kemal's request, joins him at the front, and follows the Turkish army battle by battle, driving the Greeks out of Turkey. She is confronted with the horrors of war, including being fired upon herself, but handles them as well as a soldier.

Her war wounds are caressed by no other than the Gazi himself, and Evelyn does some of the best writing she has ever done covering Greek atrocities. Her stories, under her own name, Evelyn Anderson, are circulated in papers worldwide, giving her war reporting credibility, both with the paper and also the Turkish troops with whom she travels, and bringing international support to the Turkish cause of independence.

Meanwhile, Jeff is in Constantinople, and later Smyrna (Izmir), with his "little and cute" pet, Leila, who I felt bad for to some degree, but I was also disgusted, not because of their age difference, but because Jeff did not really respect her, she was like his little toy. There are several other interesting stories tied in to all of this, such as the dealings of Rosette, Leila's aunt and the madam of a harem, and a murder mystery that ties in with a Major Cravache as well as relatives of the British ambassador. All of it occurs in the setting of the real events in Turkey, battles, pillaging, and peace conferences, blow by blow.

[1] Dr Catherine Irvine Gavin was a Scottish academic historian, war correspondent, and historical novelist.

Gavin was born in 1907, in Aberdeen and studied history and English at the University of Aberdeen, graduating with first-class honours. After obtaining a doctorate on Louis Philippe of France, in 1931, she took up positions as a history lecturer at the Aberdeen and at the University of Glasgow. She stood as a Unionist candidate in two parliamentary elections in the 1930s, but without success.

During World War II, she worked in France and the Netherlands for Kemsley Newspapers.after the war, she married American advertising executive John Ashcraft and moved to the United States with him. they were together until his death in 1998. Gavin's works described by FictionDB as "historical romances". She died in 2001, aged 92.