Customer Reviews

Lend Me Your Character

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Hey, postmodernism with chocolate biscuits ! Once upon a time, in Dubrovnik, Croatia, I woke up, washed my face, shaved, counted the pigeons sitting disconsolately in the rain on the house opposite, ate some bread from the pekarnica up the stone alley on the main road. Oh, yeah, I had some fig jam too. "Another day in old Ragusa." I thought. It sounded like an Italian dish to me. In the Stari Grad (old town), it was dripping rain. I didn't feel like visiting any more museums, so I walked into a book store. My wife, from a faroff land, decided to buy a book by Dubravka Ugresic. I'd never heard of her. Just then, a dog ran in with something in his mouth. It was a purple turnip in the shape of a zeppelin. I knew what that meant when I began to read LEND ME YOUR CHARACTER, though turnips never rated a mention. Neither did zeppelins, so you see... I happen to be a big fan of absurdist novels, or even novels with highly unusual plots---Lewis Carroll, Nikolay Gogol, Amos Tutuola, Milorad Pavic, and even good old José Saramago. Well, you know, Ugresic's sense of humor and absurdity didn't put me off. I don't like "guy" novels, though, never been any kind of fan of war, cowboy, sports, or Mickey Spillane type "my gun is quick" novels. Even Hemingway tires me out soon with his relentless machismo. So, tell me why I should fall in love with chick-lit. Nope, I don't. It's just a mirror image of machismo. The main novella in this book "Steffie Cvek in the Jaws of Life" was aimed solely at women. It's got something written all over it and that is "It's a woman thang, you wouldn't understand." Fair enough. I did read it, though, because I was looking for something Croatian and interesting. Sorry, maybe Ugresic is a very serious writer, but these stories are quite derivative. Humor---check, but I bet she could do better if she didn't imitate famous authors so much. I know I'll be upbraided by people, especially women, who will say, "Aw, Bob, you just didn't get it." But I DID get it, I just didn't think the book was very good except for the "Kharms Correspondence" which is all too accurate a picture of publishing and life, and for the writer's explanation of her work which I liked very much for its honesty.