[Memes eXodus] A new book of Kadare in English, and a new NYTimes book review

[altin topi]

Reading the NYTimes review...

Richard Eder, the author of the Sunday's NYTimes book review article, July 7, 2002, writing about the most recent book of Kadare, "Spring flower, Spring frost" translated doubly (from Albanian to French and from French to English) defines that "It is Albanian identity, malformed by history, that Kadare  is aiming at." 

Kadare is grim, defying the Western view of human species as a complex of evil and good. If evil is your essence, it will come back and haunt you. So according to Kadare, it is no escape from the evil of the past. And in his book evil is the essence.

Mr. Eder should know a lot about Kadare and his books. In a way he conveys to us the feeling that he  is downgrading  Kadare this time, he thinks about the book as "unsteady, murky and capricious at times, but now and then with flashes of compelling wit and the frenetic syncopation of life about to be sucked back down a black hole."

The book is about Albania today, and it is a projection from the present to the past. Mr. Eden writes that " his(Kadare's) ground is less sure that it has been, though; he writes more richly when he projects forward from the past rather then backward from the present."

Kadare according to Mr. Eder wants to make  fashionable the word "remote," and to get recognition for things like the case of the  Blood Book, the Canon, which for a Western reader doesn't represent any more a universal appeal.

Kadare through his two main characters, Angelin and Mark gives you a hint of the peace of mind for a final resolution that sounds a wildly reasoning. As per the words of Mr. Eden: - "Only if the state incorporates such feuds as instruments of its penal code, can the past be appeased and made to relinquish its hold." At the end, Kadare is not  explicit, he doesn't make you know where his sympathies rest.

According to Mr. Eder, Kadare who owns a lot to  Kafka, this time is more closer to Swift than to Kafka. He ends his comments by saying that "His(Kadare's) greatness does itself more justice in allegory than in satire." 

Altin Topi







---------------------------------
Do You Yahoo!?
New! SBC Yahoo! Dial - 1st Month Free & unlimited access
-------------- next part --------------
HTML attachment scrubbed and removed