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FORTUNE by Lenny Bartulin
For a while now, I have enjoyed reading Lenny Bartulin’s writing. His literary precision and artistic storytelling are presented with a disarming irreverence. His gripping “historical Australian western” book Infamy and the witty writing in his Jack Susko Mystery Series are both highly recommended. For perspective, it’s also important to note that I adore books with interconnected plots; David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas is among my all-time favourites.
Fortune has shifting narratives and intricate character sets, making it read like a cross-cultural adventure puzzle. Only brief glimpses into the lives of many characters are offered to readers by Lenny Bartulin, who shifts between them quickly. Some characters only briefly appear, and some life paths intersect or have an impact on one another. In this way, Bartulin illustrates how things can be unpredictable and how events as brief as “those sliding door moments” can have a permanent, irreversible effect on history.
I’ve always liked the idea of sliding doors in philosophy, so I laughed at this historical satire. In many ways, it reflects how I see the world, albeit perhaps not everyone else does. Those who prescribe to the omnibenevolent deity theory may not be quite so enamoured.
Confronting Subject Matter
In this book, bad things happen. horrible stuff And because Bartulin portrays them in such a matter-of-fact way, they are even more upsetting. This and the other reason I cited before are the main reasons why Fortune can be highly divisive. But as history has demonstrated, we are often our own worst adversaries. The deplorable treatment of people depending on their skin tone was once accepted by society. Having that reminder is not a negative thing. The fact that the narrator does not attempt to justify the actions of the people in this book, whether they are liked or not, is crucial in my opinion.
But just like in real life, there are also characters who show generosity, devotion, and respect that transcend rank or skin colour, and for the readers’ amusement, karma can occasionally be dealt out in darkly funny and satirical ways by fickle hands.
Fortune will entertain and engage the appropriate reader. The historical conundrum held my attention, along with the human connections and disappointments (which were occasionally so tantalisingly close), as well as the vivid imagery and fast-paced writing of Lenny Bartulin.
About The Book
Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew Prussia in 1806. Fortune follows the fortunes of a small group of people whose lives momentarily intersect on that historic day and then separate throughout the globe, starting on the day the hero leads his triumphal Grande Armee into Berlin through the Brandenburg Gate.
The novel, which spans more than a century, examines the effects of history on common people by moving from South America and the Napoleonic Wars to Van Diemen’s Land’s early penal settlement and the First World War’s guns. All lives are susceptible to the unforeseen whims of chance, whether they are willed into action or are passively endured. Fortune is a unique historical book, a beautiful gem of grand and brilliant brightness.
‘A thrilling tale of adventure told across centuries and continents…It made me laugh and cry and swear with astonishment. It is savage and nihilistic, wise and kind, never less than gripping, and it is over far sooner than you want it to be. And every line is marked with the author’s unmistakable stylistic signature: somewhere between Roger Federer at the net and Mick Jagger’s rooster strut.’ — Geordie Williamson, Chief Literary Critic, The Australian
The Review
FORTUNE
10 Score
Some individual scenes really got to me like the last few chapters in the Australian cabin. Some parts were quite humorous while others were quite heart-wrenching. Any book that has Napoleon as a main character is aiming pretty high in any case. You really got under the skin of the veneer of Napoleon to a kind of sleazy, gold toilet kind of person acting the role, ultimately, a poor person’s idea of an emperor.
PROS
- Intriguing Concept.
- History novel with a twist.
- Historical fiction that reaches epic proportions.
- Pure, Simple Entertainment.
CONS
- A barely coherent descent into nihilism.
- Gratuitous misogyny and racism.
- Too weird book
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