Has anyone ever read the 40 days of Musa Dagh? It’s a book by Austrian author Franz Werfel about the then recent Armenian genocide.
It features an Armenian- French emigre to turkey who leads a resistance movement of his people on a mountain, reputedly where Moses received the Ten Commandments.
It’s considered relevant because it’s one of the only major works of fiction about the event and it’s Publication in Germany preceded the Holocaust by only about 7 years.
It almost was made into a film starring Clark Gable, but the Turkish government lobbied against it heavily, so it was never made.
I find the whole idea interesting. I always thought this genocide was mostly forgotten about in the west and only known ( in some circles) in the 90s. In the early 30s when this novel was published, I assume it had to be widely known all over the west for the book to be published and for it to get such a wide audience.
I like the book for historical reasons but I think it’s meh at best as a narrative. It feels sort of like a pulpy Oscar bait film of the 30s and 40s with plenty of dramatic speeches and “ forbidden loves.” It also has a lot of schmaltzy references to religion and “ Gods providence” as did other major films of that era like Ben Hur, Quo Vadis, and the Ten Commandments.
I think it’s worth reading/ being familiar with but I thought it was melodramatic, too long and not all that good as a narrative.
Thoughts?
by TheKingsPeace