Review: A Meal in Winter by Hubert Mingarelli

 





A Meal in Winter is a novella following three Nazi soldiers, Bauer, Emmerich, and the unnamed narrator, in the midst of the Holocaust living on an army camp in rural Poland. To avoid being forced to shoot and kill captured Jews they go out on patrol searching for Jews hiding in the surrounding countryside and forest. Mingarelli paints a picture of a cold, brutal landscape that seems fitting considering the horrendous nature of what the characters are forced into doing. However, the rest of the book was lacking.

The group discover a young Jewish man hiding in the forest and take him with them to an abandoned house to cook lunch and warm up before heading back to the army camp. While cooking a pot of soup for lunch, a Polish man enters the house and offers potato alcohol in return for a portion of the soup, which the soldiers accept. When the Polish man discovers the captive Jewish man his anti-Semitism becomes evident. The soldiers however do not appear to be anti-Semitic at all, in fact, they are clearly suffering from the psychological effects of being forced to kill innocent people. They show discernible disgust with both the anti-Semitic Polish man and with the killings. The narrator explains how he attempts to dehumanise the captured Jews he interacts with in order to help minimise the impact of knowing that they will be killed, and that he may be the one killing them.

Despite their hunger and their initial choice of locking the captive Jewish man in a cupboard, the soldiers eventually offer him a portion of their soup. when they are finished and are preparing to leave they are left with a choice- they can bring the captive Jewish man back to the camp allowing the group to go out on patrol the following day, or they can release the man, resulting in the group being forced to participate in the killings at the camp the following morning.

I quite enjoyed the minimalist style of writing. Mingarelli conveys the bleak landscape, bitter cold, and harsh conditions incredibly well. The story itself is simple and straightforward.

However, I found that the book lacked a certain depth to it. I didn't feel a connection to the characters whatsoever, despite the humanity Mingarelli is clearly trying to display to the reader. While I realise the story is meant to be abstract I felt it didn't delve in far enough and tried to be too clever in its brevity. Unfortunately it reminded me most of the young adult literature I read in school to learn about the holocaust, although I imagine adolescent me would have been less impressed by A Meal in Winter than I was with other books in the genre.