Another World

A true representative of dirty realism, Pedro Juan Gutiérrez uses his common sweat-blood-and-sperm references in an unexpected, highly elliptical way, as a pattern for this collection of 55 short (to very short to flash) stories that give off the poetic atmosphere we encounter in a black-and-white film. Oxymoron if you think that the heroes in Melancholy of Lions are the well-known confounded sort of people we encounter in the rest of the Cuban author's prose – a man who systematically poisons his wife, an elderly doctor who specializes in abortions and imenoplasticas, transvestites, suicidals, prisoners, and other forfeited human beings struggling to sharpen their sense of life within. There are, also, the circus lions of the title, which plunge into depression when not fed on time. You can find  some chocolate mice among them, too; and Gutiérrez himself who, like an angel by Wim Wenders, wanders in this grotesque universe and records the adventures of bodies and souls with exemplary condensation, critical choice of words and a strong and wide sense of scepticism. Magical decadent realism, indeed.

Note: The image of the post is a detail from the cover of the Greek edition (Metaixmio, 2012) of the novel. It is very well translated by Cleopatra Elaiotriviari who also wrote the addendum. 

    Something  
        to Keep us warm

As in the previous post, the book of this post is also situated in a war period which the author, Sakis Serefas, chooses to reminds us that the words "multicultural" and "multiracial" are contemporary terms used to describe something old and familiar - the smooth coexistence of people of many different nationalities. 


In his recent book "It΄s snowing outside" (Polis Editions, 2016), a theatrical performance is organised to mark the 100th anniversary of the arrival of foreign troops in Thessaloniki (the forces of the Allies entered the city in October 1915 on the grounds that they provide support to Serbia and Russia during the Great War). On the scene of a popular cinema-theatre house, a psychic using her various mental tricks calls the ectoplasms of six Allied soldiers to appear. The Englishmen Richard Johnson and John Smith, the Frenchman Achille Breton, the Italian Pietro Loretti, the Russian Nikita Smirnov and the Indian Bambalam recount some very typical incidents from their daily life giving out the feeling and rhythm of the time.  

These lively, very comprehensive testimonies are, of course, owning to the flexible skill of the author and his very special, stroboscopic narrative style that links history with the present in a text that demystifies fallacies and highlights misattitudes amidst cold weather and apathy.

Note: The installation by  Régis Dho (D.R.) is a detail from the cover of the book. 

 Not a simple story

Sometime in the past, I said that reading children's literature wakes an adult's mind up in a refreshing and thoughtful way. This is the case for "Erika's Story", a biography of a woman who escaped the Holocaust when she was a baby – her mother, in a brave moment of consciousness, decided to throw her out of the train which took her, and tens of hundreds other Jewish people, to a concentration camp. The baby was rescued by a family that raised her as their own daughter. Tens of years later, Erika told her story to Ruth Vander Zee, an american author and teacher she met by chance in 1995. 

Erika is not her real name. Ruth Vander Zee changed it and transcribed the woman's story into this concise little book. Because of its format, the brief text and the simplicity of the language, the book is addressed to children aged 8 and above. However, the story can also be read by both children in their early teens and adults as it is an effective wake-up call for the racist and the anti-Semitic incidents that reappear in present days with alarming frequency and severity.

The photorealistic illustration of the book by Roberto Innocenti supplements the text with fine details that lead to questions and discussion.  It also creates a suggestive atmosphere that involves the children emotionally in the narrative which, despite the gloomy subject, exudes hope. "Erika's Story" could be read after "On n'a rien vu venir"  so as to demonstrate not only the similarity and the great relevance of the past with the present, but also the impact of a decision. History involves children and they should definitely learn about it. Talk about it, too. 

Notes: The book has been wonderfully translated in Greek by author and teacher Marisa DeCastro and published by Kaleidoscope Publications (2015).