Георги Господинов поздравление за наградата която получихте ,това е голямо признание за вас и цяла България която се гордее много със вас ,само едно мога да напиша голям респект към вас 🎉🎉🎉❤
Finished reading it today. I enjoyed it, though it took me more time than usual to finish this. There were moments when I felt very uninvolved, especially the fourth section in which every country’s decision on referendum was being told. A bit too repetitive and stretched out to be honest, if you aren’t aware of the history of all those individual countries. The third section on Bulgaria kind of reminded me of NoViolet Bulawayo’s Glory. The parallels between Soc Bulgaria in the making in the book and Jidada were uncanny. So much so, I was waiting for “tholukutti” to appear on one of the pages. Overall, very inventive and a brilliant concept. I want this book to win the prize. (Brain says Boulder, heart says Still Born, gut says Time Shelter)
"No time belongs to you, no place is yours. What you seek does not seek you, what you dream does not dream you. You know something was yours in another place and time, so you keep crossing past rooms and days. But if you are in the right place, the time is different. If you are in the right time, the place is different. Incurable." Taken from Time Shelter :)
I remember picking this up in the bookstore to read in the cafe, but ultimately put it back. I'll pick it up again off your recommendation! I didn't have a reason to put it back, it seemed very interesting. I guess I just didn't want to buy it then, haha.
What is it with humour? I must be weird to never find anything funny at all in books that people say are really funny. Hilarious? What are you talking about? I didn't find a single laugh in there and if I had I would have considered it a blemish. I appreciated the love of nostalgia this book indulged in. That seems accurate to me, people are hopelessly sentimental about the past and it is strange that such mawkishness hasn't been exploited and commercialised. I think you could get more from the book if you have experienced life in a number of Eastern European countries. - i don't know enough about the differences between Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian experiences of life behind the Iron curtain to have a feel for what the second half of the book is driving at, The first half dementia sanatorium aspect was easier to relate to.
The mawkishness you speak of is always on the pop culture front burner, examples too numerous to mention. And so is nostalgia - sometimes done well, as in the 1998 Japanese film After Life, or poorly, such as Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, or Trainspotting 2. This book reminds me of of all these.
