Nga jeta në jetë - Pse?!

by Sterjo Spasse

211 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

Born in 1914 in Gollomboç, Liqenas Municipality, Korçë District, Albania, Spasse pursued the elementary school in Korçë, and later, the Shkolla Normale e Elbasanit. He worked as a teacher in Derviçan, in the Dropull region, and then went to the University of Florence, Italy to study Pedagogy. He also pursued a master in literature in the Soviet Union. After World War II he worked as a literary critic and writer in the pedagogic magazines The new school (Albanian: Shkolla e re), and The popular education (Albanian: Arsimi popullor), as well as Our Literature (Albanian: Literatura jonë), and November (Albanian: Nëntori). He was a member of the Albanian League of Writers and Artists. Spasse died in Tirana, Albania in 1989.

Along his various contributions in the pedagogic field and translations, his main fieldwork was creative writing, which started in the 1930s. He published four collections of short stories and 10 novels.

Spasse's novel Why?!(Pse?!) is considered to be perhaps one of the greatest Albanian novels of the early 20th century.

Reviews

[Nora Jusufi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never read this book as a child or a teenager as I was always very sensitive and I heard an urban legend that a lot of people who read the book committed suicide. I am not sure how true that is, but that's beyond the point. The point is I finally read a scanned copy in a PDF format in my "Books" app of my phone, at the "ripe age" of 33.

I did not know what to feel about the book. I like a lot of the points that Spasse makes about societal expectations, doing what is expected of you, not having the freedom to decide for oneself as a man from an Albanian village in 1930s. However, I did find quite problematic his view of women as not fully human or not as complex as men. At certain points, his 'repulse' if I may say so of women or quite unnatural feelings (a heterosexual man being also an animal by his very nature should have sexual insticts to the very least) to "young love" with a woman, which implied obsession, sexual desire, intimacy, led me to believe that maybe "Gjon Zaveri" the main character who talks to the reader might have been a homosexual. He held men in much higher regard and seemed to enjoy only their company more. However, he did enjoy the company of Pola, the cousin of one professor friend of his, but never felt a physical attraction albeit mentioning her boossom and beauty. In that aspect, he might even have been an asexual which would explain his innate non-feelings towards women. He definitely had a case of disdain towards women, albeit I wound not call it misogyny. Yet again, many thinkers and writers and philosophers tended to describe women as a lesser human being throughout history

All in all, I do understand his nihilistic views about the meaning of life for which I have had an inclination myself although I try to view the world in different prisms and a lot of times it dependes on my mood. But, I actively try to work with myself to view life in a more positive light even if I ultimately don't understand it's point and yes, I too, mourn the fact that in the end we're all gonna die and rot in graves where dirt will be thrown on us. And then people will go eat lunch and talk about you for a minute here and there. But, that's it. Nonetheless, while we're here it's inportant to fill that life with things that are enjoyable that makes us feel things, because maybe the point of life is simply to live it, not to "exist" in it.

[Medina]

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