German Green party founder fictionalized

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This article was published 26/09/2020 (2155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Award-winning Vancouver author Shaena Lambert’s most recent offering distinguishes her as one of Canada’s most thoughtful current writers. Set against a backdrop of Germany during the Cold War, Petra takes us on a fictional journey based on the story of Petra Kelly, real-life founder of the Green party of former West Germany, who died in 1992.

A writer by profession and activist by nature, Lambert’s fiction has been published to critical acclaim in North America, the U.K. and Europe, garnering numerous awards along the way. She divides her time among her various interests: writing, teaching, mentoring and environmental activism.

Her debut novel Radiance (2007) was a finalist for both the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Ethel Wilson Award. Oh My Darling (2013), Lambert’s second collection of short stories, was selected as a top book of the year by both the Globe and Mail and the National Post.

Recorded through the eyes of narrator Manfred Schwartz, who is also Petra’s occasional lover, Lambert’s latest literary novel recounts the trials and triumphs of the eco-political party in its early days. From its inception as a small group of earnest citizens protesting nuclear armament to its rise as a legitimate member of the Bundestag, die Grünen (The Greens) was a beacon of hope for many, a niggling irritant for others. Although the party today holds seats in 14 of Germany’s 16 state legislatures, it was not always seen as a positive force.

Manfred describes the emotional and physical commitment demanded of people like Petra and her comrades, some of whom are featured by name in the novel. Facing internal factionalism as well as blatant hostility from outside groups, the Greens managed to overcome early growing pains to become a model for ecological, social and moral justice around the world.

But the story of the party is not the only topic of Manfred’s narrative. In every paragraph, he reveals his adoration of Petra. His abject idolatry gradually turns to jealousy and disillusionment when Petra begins a long-term relationship with a general who had been a soldier in the SS. Although Manfred continues to follow party dictates and remains loyal to Petra and the cause, it is clear that the shining star of his world has lost her glow. And this is perhaps where the novel begins to lose a little of its own brilliance.

As a biography, albeit fictionalized, Petra falls into that gossip’s trap of revealing more about the person telling the story than about the subject of it. The tale of Petra becomes lost in the tale of Manfred, a far less inspiring character. Thankfully, Lambert’s storytelling skill rescues the book from mundanity, and the pages continue to turn to the end.

The ability to maintain reader interest while teaching valuable social lessons comes as no surprise from a writer of Lambert’s skill.

Petra is a relatively small book, but in a world beset by existential angst, political corruption, ethnic division and environmental degradation, it is worthy of our attention.

Angela Narth is a Winnipeg actor, author, and freelance literary reviewer.