Our Circus Presents (Romanian Literature Series) [Paperback]

Lucian Dan Teodorovici (Author), Alistair Ian Blyth (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 24, 2009 | Series: Romanian Literature Series

The Birdman, narrator of Our Circus Presents, lives in a one-room apartment on the fifth floor of a squalid tenement block in northern Romania... Every day, the Birdman performs the same ritual: he climbs out onto his window ledge to see if he can manage to kill himself--and never does. The Birdman is a member of a loose-knit group of failed suicides, each pursuing absurd ways to end their lives: one saving up lost-dog reward money to buy enough good whiskey to drink himself to death, another hoping to contract a fatal disease by sleeping with as many women as possible. When it seems these routines will continue indefinitely, the Birdman meets a professional suicide: the dangerous and inscrutable man with orange suspenders, who makes a living by trying to hang himself whenever he sees a potential rescuer approaching. This chance encounter, which leads at last to a real death, will force the Birdman to confront the roots of his desire to escape from life, and to see first-hand that dying is more than just a rehearsal.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Romanian journalist Teodorovici's quizzical fable pursues the thwarted efforts of a couple of ne'er-do-wells to commit suicide. The narrator, having experienced his share of drunkenness and failure, no longer entertains hope for the future and contemplates jumping from the ledge of his fifth-story apartment building each morning. One day, he ends up saving a young man from hanging himself. The narrator soon learns the man (referred to only by his orange suspenders) frequently stages his hanging, only to be rescued by passers-by. Still, the narrator senses a kindred spirit and follows him to a bar, where the two become involved in a brawl. Later, they pursue then dodge the urge, and the novel allows the randomness of their actions to stand in for a kind of existential tension. In the end, though, for all its playfulness, there's no rhyme, reason or plot to this sadly inexplicable adventure. (Nov.)
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Review

There is much laughter in Teodorovici's novel, the uproarious laughter of characters faced with a ridiculous world, the healthy laughter of the reader, black humor, the absurd, self irony, linguistic humor, and situational comedy. But behind the scenes there is also enormous sadness. The sadness of the clown (the reader clown, the character clown), who is all the sadder the more acutely he understands his condition as a man who, after having failed at life, cannot help but fail at death. --Sanda Tivadar, Familia

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Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Pr; Original edition (November 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564785564
• ISBN-13: 978-1564785565
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,770,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lucian Dan TEODOROVICI (b. 1975) is the co-ordinator of Polirom's "Ego. Prose" series, and senior editor of the "Suplimentul de cultură" weekly. Between 2002 and 2006, he was editor-in-chief at the Polirom Publishing House, Jassy. He has contributed prose, drama, and articles to various cultural magazines in Romania and abroad, including "Suplimentul de cultură", "Timpul", "Dilema veche", "Dilemateca", "Observator cultural", "Familia", "Orizont", "Evenimentul zilei", "Cotidianul", "Ziarul de duminică", "Esquire Romania", or "Au sud de l'Est" (Paris), "Transcript" (London), "Lampa" (Warsaw), "Magyar Lettre Internationale" (Budapest), "The Guardian" (London) etc. Between 2005 and 2008 (7 seasons) he was a scriptwriter for the "Animat Planet Show", broadcast by the Antena 1 television channel in Romania, and has written screenplays for the feature-length film adaptations of "Our Circus Presents..." and "I'm a Communist Biddy", and the short films "Chocolates", "A Good Day" and "Goose Chase", which were financed by the Romanian National Centre of Cinematography. Published volumes: "Cu puţin timp înaintea coborîrii extratereştrilor printre noi" ("Shortly before the Extraterrestrials Descended Among us"), novel, OuTopos, Jassy, 1999, 2nd revised and expanded edition, Polirom, Jassy, 2005; "Lumea văzută printr-o gaură de mărimea unei ţigări marijuana" ("The World Seen through a Hole the Width of a Spliff"), short stories, Constantin Brâncuşi Foundation Press, Tîrgu-Jiu, 2000; "Circul nostru vă prezintă:" ("Our Circus Presents..."), novel, Polirom, Jassy, 2002, 2nd revised edition, Polirom, Jassy, 2007; "Atunci i-am ars două palme" ("Then I Clouted Him Twice"), short stories, Polirom, Jassy, 2004; "Celelalte poveşti de dragoste" ("The Other Love Stories"), novel, Polirom, Jassy, 2009. The collection of short stories "Then I Clouted Him Twice" has been published in Germany (Pop Verlag, Ludwigsburg, 2009). The novel "Our Circus Presents..." has been translated into English (Dalkey Archive Press, Urbana-Champaign, 2009) and Hungarian ("Cirkuszunk bemutatja:", L'Harmattan Kiadó, Budapest, 2009), and is due to be published in Italy (Zonza Editori, Milano) and Egypt (Sphinx Publishing, Cairo).
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