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Hans Koning's (1924- ) Death of a Schoolboy (1974) is a first-person novel, narrated by the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Gavrilo Princip. In an introductory note, the Dutchborn American novelist explains, "It may depress some people, and cheer up others, but there were indeed freedom marches of schoolboys as far back as 1913, and they were called just that. . . . I did not want to create an aura of foreignness. . . . My story is not taking place in a far country." Writing in the early 1970s, Koning appears to be referring to the student activism of the late 1960s, relating to the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Koning never loses sight of this parallel as he explores Princip's mind and revolutionary spirit.
The story begins with Princip's dismissal from school for having organized a freedom march from his high school in Sarajevo to the Town Hall. Expelled for this activity, he decides to continue his education in Belgrade, Serbia. Here he meets two other students, who share his intense Slavic nationalism and his eclectic reading knowledge of revolutionary theory. The announcement of the impending visit of the archduke on June 28, the anniversary of the defeat of the Serbs at Kosovo in 1389, adds salt to the Bosnian wounds. Princip decides that "the only proper response to his visit, the only action that would be commensurate, would be to kill him." After being armed and assisted in crossing the border into Bosnia by the Black Hand, the three conspirators feel a sense of exaltation and purpose that creates an unbreakable bond uniting them. During the assassination itself, Princip, momentarily stunned by the sudden appearance of the archduke's car, fails to act in time. But the sudden, seemingly miraculous reversal of the car's direction gives him a second chance, and this time he fires two shots, killing both the archduke and his wife. The assassination itself seems to be blessed by Providence, or, as the revolutionary Princip sees it, history.
At this point, consistent with his plan to commit suicide after the deed, he swallows cyanide pills, purchased in Belgrade. But the chemist has tricked him; the pills are harmless. The rest of the novel deals with his thoughts and experiences during his imprisonment, as he tries to come to terms with his guilt for the death of the archduchess and for the punishments inflicted on dozens of people convicted of aiding the conspiracy. In his last year, dying of tuberculosis of the bone, he undergoes an amputation of an arm and hears of the collapse of empires and of the revolution in Russia, but these events do not eradicate the doubt he now experiences: "I no longer have the strength to understand my fellow man. I think I've lived just at the dawn of my species." The Death of a Schoolboy is an impressive novel. In exploring the psychology of a famous terrorist, it subtly moves that story to a universal level, using a muted style that gathers strength as it reveals the depths of its main character.
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