The Museum of Unconditional Surrender [Hardcover]

Dubravka Ugresic (Author), Celia Hawkesworth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

This is a deeply East European novel in flavour reminiscent of Kundera and Borges. Through weaving together fragments, stories, and diaries Dubravka Ugresic, a prize-winning novelist in the former Yugoslavia, captures the world of a group of characters living in Berlin and Lisbon. Ugresic convincingly brings to life a world and characters preoccupied by questions of exile, nationalism, angels, parables, the Berlin zoo, the layers of meaning in one's past and future frozen by the camera. Underpinned by a calm note of tragedy. The Museum of Unconditional Surrender is a beautifully written novel, both bitter and funny in tone.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This unconventional novel by Croatian writer Ugresic is a collection of fragmentsAshort essays, journal entries, stories, factual items, descriptions of placeAthat combine to evoke the distinct "point of pain" experienced by a political exile. The book is divided into seven parts, four taking place in present-day Berlin, the unnamed Yugoslavian narrator's place of "temporary exile." The Berlin pieces consist of numbered sections, some only a few lines or a paragraph, which convey city facts ("Under the grassy surface of the hill pulsate 26 million cubic metres of rubble from the ruins of Berlin, collected and dragged here after the Second World War"); thoughts about exile; quotations about Berlin, exile and art; and descriptions of friends, many of whom are themselves artists whose works reflect themes of fragmentation and attempts to reclaim lost or scattered memories. Another series of fragments consists of six stories, some set in America, loosely connected by themes of rootlessness, memory, disorientation. "Part Six" of the novel is a tale about seven women friends in Zagreb who encounter a prophetic angel shortly before "the local apocalypse"; the angel allows only the narrator to remember the occasion and give testimony. Recurring images and themesAthe photo album or the museum, for instanceAdraw together the "bits and pieces," while the domestic detailsAmeals, meetings, shopping expeditionsAkeep the work anchored firmly in the realm of day-to-day existence. Complex, intelligent and challenging, this unusual novel is rendered impressively accessible by Ugresic's human, vulnerable voice. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Dubravka Ugresic's splendidly ambitious novel. . .is a brilliant, enthralling spread of story-telling and high-velocity reflections. In her indignation and in her sorrow Ugresic speaks for many people, of many experiences. She is a writer to follow. A writer to be cherished. -- Susan Sontag

The effect is stunning: Ugresic slowly persuades us that the Yugoslavia-rending war was not the singular event we deperately want to believe it is, but a cataclysm linked to all wars in Europe this century, from the Cold War back to the First World War, through which Yugoslavia was carved into being... If a book as purposely decentered as this can be said to have an emotional core, Ugresic has provided it in a funny and singularly fantastic event. -- The Women's Review of Books, Valerie Jablow, March 2000

There is much that is arbitrary and self-indulgent, yet Museum is a precious portrait of exile as internal displacement. -- The New York Times, Richard Eder

This astonishing novel deserves more than one reading...The narrator accepts the fact that she is a "museum exhibit," but she understands the secret harmony, the round logic of symbols. She thus places herself, and by doing so, she is able to create and offer to us this fictional treasure of startling beauty. -- Review of Contemporary Fiction, Irving Malin, Spring 2000

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: New Directions (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811214214
• ISBN-13: 978-0811214216
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,743,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sensitive and Moving Picture of Exile, December 24, 2000

By 

A. Anderson (Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Museum of Unconditional Surrender (Hardcover)

This book deserves high marks -- well written, well translated, it gives an unusual and sensitive picture of the life of an exile from the former Yugoslavia. But exiles are not always displaced people: they can be elderly, alone, disoriented, misunderstood -- all prey to an inner exile. Ms. Ugresic's intriguing juxtaposition of stories shows the many different ways in which people construct their own biographies or those of others, but ultimately share many of the same emotions and insoluble problems. There are a lot of wise and touching observations in this "collection" of pieces which ultimately form a moving and poetic whole.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretentious? Look who's talking., June 29, 2001

By 

An Mhuruch (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Museum of Unconditional Surrender (Hardcover)

I have become skillful at avoiding books written on the topic of my former homeland and its vicissitudes. After 10 years of exile and statelessness, a refugee is supposed to have grown a thick skin... Ugresic gets me. I cry and I shiver when I read her. I feel as if going through a dark tunnel while holding somebody's hand. However, I don't know (and I don't want to know)if a person with a permanent citizenship and a stable state of mind would like it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars History of a sickness, May 16, 2003

By 

Matko Vladanovic (Zagreb, Croatia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Museum of Unconditional Surrender (Paperback)

Umberto Eco once said (in his book called The name of the rose):"Only thing that makes a man different than the animal is his ability to laugh" Different author (which doesen't have anything to do with the literature, at least not in the one they call clasic), once said:"There is only one kind of sickness that only humans can suffer from, and it is called - nostalgia."
And this is the book, about it. This is the book, about the feeling you get when you lie at your bed late at night, thinking about all the places and person you have visited and got to know and like, this is the book about irreversibility of the time, and book about stupid mass making stupid mistakes.
Wraped in a form where exile is the main focus, with added retrospective of the war which held place on Balcan in the 90's, told with beautiful language skill (I read the book in the original language, wasn't to difficul considering that I'm native speaker of it :), so I cannot judge the quality of translation,) this book is a masterpiece.
Four stars because fourth part of the book is really bad when compared to rest, with flat prosaic skills, and simple sentences.