I truthfully don’t know how to write a review about a book like this. On the one hand, I feel compelled to defend my intellectual capacity to analyze literature, but on the other hand, I kind of just want to admit that I don’t get it. On the surface, there’s not that much to “get.” Nowhere Man is comprised of several stories at different times from different viewpoints that all describe the life of Josef Pronek, a Bosnian ex-pat who moves to Chicago in his third or […]
A Man and His Penguin
This is the strange little story of Viktor, an aspiring novelist in post-Soviet Kiev. He lives in a one-bedroom apartment with his pet penguin, Misha. He can’t get his stories published, but one day lands a job writing obituaries. The fact that he’s writing obituaries for people who aren’t dead yet doesn’t bother him too much–it pays the bills, keeps his fridge stocked with frozen fish for Misha, and, besides, he’s good at his job. But as you might expect, writing obituaries for the not-yet-dead in a planned […]