Manual de despedidas

by Jana Beňová

En una Bratislava en la que aún reverberan los ecos del socialismo, dos parejas de amigos –el Cuarteto– pasan las horas en el Café Viena –o Café Hiena, como ellos lo llaman– bebiendo vino y conversando sobre literatura, David Lynch, lo humano y lo divino. Pertrechados de una ironía irreverente, huyen de la seriedad fútil de un empleo estable, del sordo desarraigo que los atraviesa. Una de las integrantes del Cuarteto retrata sus vidas. Es Elza, un personaje fascinante atrapado en el barrio de Petržalka, ese laberinto anclado a otro tiempo, donde el absurdo y el sinsentido asoman entre bloques de pisos de hormigón y evocan heridas pasadas que determinan la realidad de su errático presente.

Ganadora del Premio de Literatura de la Unión Europea, Manual de despedidas es un caleidoscopio donde el humor, la confesión, el recuerdo y la digresión dan lugar a una narración alucinada en la que no caben certezas. Como si asistiéramos a una relec­tura fragmentaria y surrealista de La insoportable levedad del ser en pleno siglo xxi, Jana Be?ová retrata la vulnerabilidad de una generación que creció al albur del fin del socialismo soviético y se hizo adulta anhelando un futuro que nunca llegó.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Novella, Womens, Unfinished, 21st Century, Novels

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Jana Beňová (born 1974) is a Slovakian poet and novelist. She studied at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Bratislava, graduating with a degree in dramaturgy in 1998. She wrote for a number of local publications, including Dotyky, Fragment and Slovenské Pohľady. She also worked for the daily newspaper SME under a pseudonym. At present, she works at the Theatre Institute in Bratislava.

Her first book of poems Svetloplachý came out in 1993, followed by further collections Lonochod and Nehota. She wrote a novel called Parker (2001), and a collection of short stories, Dvanásť poviedok a Ján Med (2003). In 2008, she published Plán odprevádzania (Seeing People Off), subtitled Café Hyena. This book won the EU Prize for Literature. She has written another novel called Preč! Preč! (Get off! Get off!)

In 2012, she participated in the International Writing Program's Fall Residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA.

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Petržalka. An advent calendar full of chocolates. Window after window, with a common backstage. Common spaces, a common, never-silent choir."

This is a quick read, with what some people call minimalist prose. The story follows Elza and Ian, a couple who live in Petržalka, Slovakia. The place itself is very important - modern Slovakian life in close quarters with others. The stories go off on tangents with mixed feelings of reality. The fragmented prose was easy to get through but sometimes a bit choppy for me. Still, how many novels from Slovakia do I get a chance to read?

"It surprised her how quickly a girl can turn into an institution.

This novel is a 2012 winner of European Union Prize for Literature, and you can see a five minute video with the author winning the prize, followed by her discussion of the novel, here.

It is just now published in an English translation, which is part of the benefit of winning the prize.

I was able to read it from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review, but the book came out officially on March 14.

[Pedro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuatro jóvenes amigos -dos parejas-, van a la deriva por la vida, con imprecisas aspiraciones artísticas e intelectuales que comparten en el Café Viena (que denominan "Café Hiena"). Elza, quien tiene el mayor protagonismo, se ha ido a vivir con Ian a Petrzalka, una barrio suburbano fuera de Bratislava; un mundo totalmente nuevo.
La novela está narrada en su mayor parte, a través de párrafos cortos, a veces fragmentarios sin seguir necesariamente un hilo conductor, lo cual refuerza esta sensación de vidas fuera del tiempo.
Entiendo que presenta la vida de estos jóvenes sin proyecto ni brújula, propio de tiempos post-todo, aunque a mi mente un poco atontada se le escapen muchas cosas; exageraría si dijera que entendí perfectamente de que iba la historia. O tal vez sea simplemente una cuestión generacional.
A pesar de las limitaciones mencionadas, una buena novela: se lee de manera agradable, está bien escrita y en la que he encontrado algunas observaciones muy interesantes.

Jana Beňová (1974) es poeta, narradora y periodista eslovaca, y en caso de que a alguien le interesen estas cuestiones, Manual de despedidas ganó el Premio de Literatura de la Unión Europea en 2012, y además fue traducido a muchas lenguas.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seeing People Off is an unconventional, compelling narrative. The minimalist structure allows the poetics and meditations of the prose to give so much to the reader. I felt like I was in the room with the Benova.

There's a playful repetition throughout of themes--the achievement is in its seamless quality. You never feel like you're reading a novel of ideas with no blood.

There's also a lovely part that references Ginsberg's Howl--my favorite poem growing up.

What I like most about the book is how it is unapologetic in its unique view of the world.

I'm happy that Two Dollar Radio has translated and published jana Benova's English-language debut. Highly recommended if you want to travel to a different world for a weekend. It's short and sweet and sparky.

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Around the World Reading Challenge: SLOVAKIA
===
This was a very strange book. Clearly quite an experimental style, with aspects of magical realism and a general sense of unreality. I'm sure it was all very clever and smart, but it mostly just left me scratching my head. I'm starting to learn that I really don't connect much with these experimental books that don't really seem to be telling any particular story. Short and a relatively quick read, which is good, because I don't think I could have handled anything longer.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

lovely playful book about a quartet of artists/writers who meet at a Bratislava café. One of them works (they take it in turns with jobs like tennis line judges) and keeps the other three in coffee and booze etc. Charming. Will add some quotes (book not with me)..

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

via my blog https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
“Voices are so bewitching. They bore into the body. Gradually uncover all the paths. Some of them shut gates forever, burn bridges. Close openings.”

The voices in this novel are wonderful. I hated to hold off reviewing this book until closer to it’s release date, because it’s incredibly unique. Living packed in with your neighbors, where I know I’d go mad, it’s impossible to be private. “The neighbor is an emphasized character.” The novel centers around Elza and Ian living in an apartment complex outside of Bratislava. Why are the walls so talkative and musical, awwww the people… the people. The reader is a bit of a voyeur peeking at their neighbors, where Szegedin goulash can move a person firing off memories of their family, and rats have tasters assuring the survival of their “mischief” (group), some feel like they “stink of loneliness”, and some are spiritual hitchhikers. Through the walls, Elza hears the “agitated voices, political commentary..” within the already small space, Ian makes a smaller one for himself and so it goes.

Somehow the author slips in Carl Solomon, through her visits with Rebecca, “Ginsberg’s first born lunatic”, whom by the way helped Solomon gain his fame. These characters are ‘swallowed up by sadness’, terrible swimmers, filled with terror, marching on, bearing too much noise and closeness, stuck in old age homes or sick of old wartime memories, “The war ended a long time ago, today we can’t get anymore mileage out of it.” The best quote of the novel, “Youth camp for some people started again in old age. Elza’s aunt lived in an old age home in Budapest.” Just the idea of such homes, of living your last days stuck in such places, youth camps indeed!

This review is all over the place, and the novel bounces around beautifully. I wonder, as I always mention when I read translations, how different the novel reads in it’s native tongue. Two Dollar Radio publishes some of the most unique literature, so I am more than happy to review anything I can get my hands on. There is a dreamy quality to it, and the writing is humorous even when it seems the subject would be heavy. It’s different, and I welcome different. I am a hunter of novels from other countries, God Bless translators, I mean that. In a perfect world I would be a polyglot, but sadly I am not, I sit and grieve all the books that are out in the world I will never read, sigh…

Publication Date: May 16, 2017

Two Dollar Radio

[César Carranza · Rating 3 out of 5]

El libro está bien, se me figura mucho esos nuevos libros que son más como.un collage se cosas, tienen alguna unidad, en este caso los amigos, Elza y sus visitas al café, pero a partir de fragmentos uno se arma un contexto, no es que de la sensación de ir a algún lado, imagino que es parte del truco, jóvenes sin una dirección clara. Pero los fragmentos son buenos, se leen fácil y se agradece la brevedad del litro

[Angelina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up because I was looking for a book by a Slovak author and the choice in English really isn't that big. I gave up after 25 pages, because the purpose (or structure for that matter) totally eluded me. I couldn't make sense of what I was reading, although the writing seemed pretty good. Well, too bad, but life's too short for wasting time on books that you don't see the point of.

[Caro · Rating 1 out of 5]

No sé si es que no me enteraba mucho de qué iba o que yo no estaba en el momento adecuado para leerlo, pero no me ha dicho nada, una serie de pensamientos, vidas, parejas, inconexas y sin una finalidad, solo contar sus ideas, recuerdos, vivencias en un barrio de los suburbios de Bratislava que me ha dejado totalmente fría. Menos mal que es corto.

[Dani Dányi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pozsonyról közeli, sőt szuperközeli. Nekem ez jó, mert a szlovák irodalomról nagyjából annyit tudok, hogy „ümm, aha”, ami bár sziklaszilárd de mégis elég szubjektív egy szempont. Úgyhogy most beljebb vezetődtem a K-európai rögvalóságba.
A szöveg maga nagyon líraiprózás, úgyhogy annak minden pluszát és pár hátulütőjét is megülve végig sétagaloppozható, kicsit ötletszerű (na jó: nagyon ötletszerű) és lazán önmagához kapcsolódó, ironizáló és önironizáló, poszt-mindenféle és intertextuális, a visszatérő Pinokkió-refrén mellett jópár irányba kikacsingat. Kaland ez magyarul is, és nagy fordítói röszkírozás ilyesmi, hogy kísérletező és (szó-)vicces és egzotikus-de-mégsem szövegfolyamra feltenni a nevedet, szerencsére Mészáros Tünde egyáltalán nem fulladt bele a kétnyelvű Dunába, inkább lubickolt egy nagyot, és ez tényleg kiérdemli a címlapot*.
Néha énnekem sok volt az „élő petárda” Elza folyamatos teátrális sziporkázása, a lírai magátólértetődéssel közölt csapongó képtelenségek, másrészt jó is volt ez az iram és féktelen közléskényszer élmény. Energikussága mellett nagyon vicces is tudott lenni ez a Jana Benova, a hétköznapi életképek tényleg jók, a poénok repkednek, kicsit hatásvadász az egész de hát legalább jól szórakozunk (vagy néha szörnyülködünk, bosszankodunk, helyzettől függően). Talán legjobban a „komolykodó”, nem csak poénra és hangulatfestésre kihegyezett részek tetszettek, mint a nagymamával a vége felé. Móka és kacagás mellett bőven jut egzisztenciális abszurd és nihil-packázás, de emellett végig jelen van egyfajta szocio-kommentár is, már amennyire ilyen karneváli forgatagban ilyesmi szóhoz juthat.
Bevállalós, önazonos, jól irányított robbanássorozat ez a könyv, aztán meg jól vége van, bár ki tudja mi lett volna egyébként… Úgyhogy jöhet még szlovák kortárs, ilyen bevezetővel!

*Remélhetően nem csak divatot teremt ez a fordító-neve-a-szerző-és-cím-alá formátum, hanem szabványos lesz: mindenesetre a L'Harmattan jó utat mutat ebben is.

[Petra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kniha určená na pomalé čítanie. Na postupné vstrebávanie a vychutnávanie všetkých skrytých a neskrytých metafor, postrehov, symbolov, prirovnaní. Bravúrnych hier s jazykom. O samote a vzťahoch na ceste petržalským bludiskom. Ktoré sú však dávkované s takou rýchlosťou a intenzitou ako rútiaci sa vlak. Niekedy je ťažké zastavovať. A čítať pomaly.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

very obviously written by a poet, in that the clarity and delicacy of its images is often negated by an unwillingness to even approach cohesion.

[marsal · Rating 1 out of 5]

لم افهم اي شيء.. مجموعة من المشاهدات العشوائية المتداخلة بشخصياتها..من اسوأ ما قرأت في حياتي.

[Jessie (Zombie_likes_cake) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am reading a lot above my pay grade recently. Again, another book that I ultimately can say I enjoyed but feel like I cannot claim I really understood. Which makes it seem like it should get a lower rating but I guess it depends on what matters to you: the journey or the destination. Just roll with me, I am trying to make sense of my own reading experiences here.

"Seeing People Off" is a rather strange book, experimental is the word I am looking for. The portrait of a city, Bratislava and particularly its neighborhood Petrzalka, we follow a few artist friends who mostly hang out in Café Hyena (which is the original title of the book and in my opinion should also have been the title of this English translation) or go for walks. The way this is done is more important than the what, especially since there isn't much to the what. I really need to apologize to all other novels I have labeled plotless before: this is the ultimate queen of plotless as there is truly no arch or any action heading towards anything. There is also little depth or growth within the characters, those are mostly stand-ins for the author herself and experimental thoughts. This tiny novel explores said things in fragments and very brief vignettes. A bit surreal and metaphorical, poignant, and then also funny, critical on occasion, even meta. In fact this reads often more like a collection of poems than a novel, the way the short paragraphs depict their world affected me more in the way a poetry collection usually does: single lines and moments stood out but the whole of the novel is so blurry and nonpoint that I am not sure what to do with it. In fact I am already forgetting pretty much anything that there was of the little plot and (as you can tell from reading this review) I have not much to say about what happens in this book: a few days after finishing all that is left is this vague impression that it was quite good, kind of impressive, but I can't truly recall anymore why. There are themes and concepts that resonated strongly with me while reading but I think because of the lack of plot they are already disappearing from my mind.

So let me give you some lines that I liked:

"It's a small city. The minute you start off, you've already got most of it behind you. Someone who wants to stroll has to go in circles -like a carousel horse- and on his way he bumps into other merry-go-rounds. We stroll to avoid company and patiently, step by step, to evoke a feeling of freedom. In reality we are members of a carousel sect with rigid rules of the circle."

"What should I do if I love two men?" a young woman asked her girlfriend helplessly at the next table. "Write a novel" said Elza, turning toward her. "Make it a story where there is little talk and lot of sorrow."

"It's winter, December 25th. In front of the café a vagrant mother hugs her two children to her. She offers them cigarettes. A macho move instead of a coat. Steam and smoke rise from their mouths like columns to the sky. From time to time they cough. Deeply, as if they were about to begin a long speech."

See, isn't that stuff great? But also, what sense does it make to string more and more of it against each other? Is that a novel, a story? And more importantly: what should I do with it in the end? But I gotta mention how I love how the main character refers to certain people as pancake faces or just pancakes. Honestly, relatable.

3.5*

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

SEEING PEOPLE OFF by Jana Beňová, tr. from the Slovak by Janet Livingstone, 2008/2017 by @twodollarradio

#ReadtheWorld21 📍 Slovakia

"Bratislava. A city that grips you in it's clutches... Tied up in the rhythm of your own steps. The rhythm of the city. The rhythm of lovemaking, work, parties, earning and spending, gaining and losing. Are you making money? Combining ingredients? Time, men, and money? City, wine, song, and work? Friends, love, and idiots. Pancakes! The Bratislava alchemist.
Bratislava. A city that forces you to pounce on something, just as it has pounced on you."

Freestyle and fragmented vignettes, onomatopoeia poetry, laugh out loud and cringe a bit... The story opens with four people in the modern capital of Slovakia. The four take up residence in the local Café Hyena (an alternate title for the book, coincidentally) with one of them working at any given time to sustain the others.

Experimental, absurdist, stream of consciousness, and largely plotless, this is a novel of place and time with great descriptions of the Danube, and of attack dachshunds. Childhood memories, and how to exterminate rats from one's apartment. Of the old town of Bratislava and Allen Ginsberg's beat poetry. So you never quite know what's coming next, but ready for all the absurdity to wash over your brain and be cool with it.

I read Beňová's later novella Away! Away! last year, and it was the same experimental fun as this - I may have even enjoyed SEEING... a bit more. If you're into experimentation with form and storytelling, this one is worth a check out.

Another book I read that roughly compares is the Norwegian #womenintranslation title WAIT, BLINK: A Perfect Picture of Inner Life by Gunnhild Øyehaug, tr. by Kari Dickson - Free associations and unique forms, loosely following a group of people in a place.

[Harriet Springbett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetic, philosophical, surprising, playful - Jana Benova's EU Literature Prize-winning novel is a thought-provoking journey through the Slovakian town of Bratislava and its suburb of high-rise flats called Petrzalka. It takes a few pages to get used to the disjointed style, which shows glimpses of life in Petrzalka without following them through. Don't let this put you off! You'll soon understand what's going on. It's the kind of book you can read and re-read, and still find something new inside. I love the way it circles, coming back to key phrases, key ideas, key sounds. The bad news? It's only available in French (under the title 'Café Hyène: Un plan d'accompagnement'). The good news? It's due to be published in English (America) in May 2017 by Two Dollar Radio.

[Michael Toney · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has the worst first chapter I've ever read (which the author acknowledges in the second chapter). It is absolutely chaotic mess structurally with almost completely disconnected thoughts from paragraph to paragraph (the author acknowledges this on the last page).

A few of the paragraphs are good, there are a few nicely structures sentences.

It's possible I'm just too stupid for this book

[Belensays · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maravillosa novela con tintes surrealistas. Jóvenes que son eternos becarios, pisos minúsculos en barrios periféricos, infidelidades, amigos imaginarios, antidepresivos. Todo ello aderezado con la ciudad de Bratislava y su río que se encarga de dividirla en dos: por un lado, el centro con sus cafeterías bonitas; y por otro Petrzalka, que está lleno de señores tortita bien afeitados.

[Caroline]

Interesting. I liked how a sentence relevant to telling the story was echoed later as an image or observation about a wider sphere of life, or turned a bit ironic in its repetition.

[Bookish]

I’ll be returning to this slim, hilarious, acutely perceptive novel my whole life—it’s that good. Slovak novelist and poet Jana Beňová, winner of the European Union Prize for Literature, writes of four bohemian types—two couples—living a café- and apartment-anchored, coffee- and wine-fueled life in contemporary Bratislava. Plotless and postmodern, the book turns its unconventionality into as brilliant a meditation on life, place, culture, relationships, and love as I’ve read. Though there’s something of a poet’s obliqueness in the scene construction—“Tell all the truth but tell it slant,” as Emily Dickinson counsels—the novel is wondrously grounded in the ingredients of daily life, the language is clear and simple (you couldn’t ask for a better translation), and Beňová’s voice is friendly, funny, accessible, real. The magic of Seeing People Off is that the subtly angled clairvoyance of her rendering of everything in life, no matter how small, manages to be surpassingly insightful, deliciously comedic, and pioneering, all at once. That’s why I’ll be returning to it—the wizard’s light Beňová shines on things I thought I knew. Without making absolute comparisons to other books and writers, I’ll just say, as I’ve been reading, I’ve thought, happily, of Joy Williams, Lorrie Moore, Lydia Davis, poet Charles Simic, and, yes, Emily D. —Phil (https://www.bookish.com/articles/staf...)

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a deeply strange book. I'd never read Slovakian literature before, but at least now I can say I have!

In this slim little volume, the prose style is experimental, and there are many nice turns of phrase that catch your eye and ear. A few things make you think. But for the most part, the city is overwhelmingly bleak, the characters don't do anything other than walk around and drink, and the random elements of unreality and magical realism are more perplexing than charming.

This book lost me when the girl either murdered the dog she had as a child OR had it put down at the vet's office... we don't know, because reality is so obscured.

I'm not sure I ever really *got* this book, but I do feel like I learned something new by trying something new! Now I know where Slovakia is on a map, and that's something.

[Cris Rodríguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me ha gustado la sensación que te produce al leerlo porque es como de viajar en un tren de Renfe (pasan cosas muy rápido y muy despacio a la vez y vas cambiando de paisaje de una manera relativamente constante). No queda muy claro cuál es el objetivo o el point de la historia en concreto, no sabes muy bien qué te está contando, pero quieres seguir leyendo igualmente. Me ha resultado ciertamente tierno cómo trata a la ciudad en la que han vivido toda la vida y de la que no pueden escapar, pero realmente necesito que alguien me especifique si con "tortitas" está haciendo referencia a la presencia de nazis por las calles.

[K's Bognoter · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Seeing People Off” er en roman eksploderet til atomer, men fyldt med galgenhumoristisk ghettotristesse, sproglig kant og universel menneskekundskab.

Læs min anmeldelse på K’s bognoter: https://bognoter.dk/2019/08/23/jana-b...

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to have to read this again. It's more or less plotless, and is kind of about a place that, in this novel (Petrzalka, a borough of Bratislava), is plotless, or at least repetitive. But it carries you along with the force of the prose, its quirky digressions that turn into in-jokes, and its rather bleak comedy.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

As soon as I finished reading Seeing People Off today, I turned to Google to search for any reviews by book critics which might explain what I had missed. This book won the European Union Prize for Literature, yet I rated it as average. My timing was fortuitous because NPR had just posted Michael Schaub's review, in which he described Seeing People Off as a "slim novel told in a series of brief vignettes," in which "the transitions can seem jarring, although that may well be the point." Yes, the transitions were jarring, and if that was intended to be the point, that point was lost on me.

There are some lovely turns of phrase in Seeing People Off, where, in a store's checkout line, the codes "jump[] onto the receipts with a crackling sound [l]ike a fire" and the snow resembles "gray bony faces full of holes and hollows." Like Schaub, I enjoyed the dark humor evident in a taxi driver's droll commentary on the events of 9/11:

"It's really a bit too much, they've overdone it," commented the taxi driver who took us home from the Milan Rastislav Štefánik Airport. "If they blew up a bus or an embassy, I'd understand. That's OK. The Americans are up to their ears in it. Some two-story building or a train, that's one thing. But two skyscrapers, that's too much, they really went overboard."

I also appreciated the chapters entitled "Winter," in which Elza records snatches of conversations overheard from neighboring tables in a café, and "Seeing People Off," in which she traces Ian's mother's slow decline toward death.

In his 2010 review of Seeing People Off, Alexander Halvoník observed that "much will remain unread, the accent from some things will be transferred to others and many things will take on new dimensions." Although too much of Seeing People Off remained unread for my taste, its short length makes it easy for other readers to test the waters for themselves.

This review was based on a free ARC provided by the publisher.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’re looking for a story with a beginning, an absorbing middle, a tidy ending and maybe a bit of a moral tossed in for good measure this one probably won’t be for you. It’s basically a slice of life, a couple of years (or thereabout) in the life of a quartet or artists, Ian, Rebeka, Elfman and, predominately, Elza. One in the quartet works at a time and divvies up their salary so the other three can get on with their projects uninterrupted. They live in Petržalka, the largest borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, and meet twice daily (the ones with stipends at least) in the Café Vienna (which the quartet insist on still calling by its old name, Café Hyena) to discuss art, read from each other’s works in progress, strategise and drink too much:

They ate, drank, and smoked away all the money they earned. Like students. (Slogan: only genuinely wasted money is money truly saved) They joined that carefree class of people who buy only what they can pee, poop, and blow out—recycle in 24 hours.

[…]

Elfman claims that the genius loci of Petržalka is in the fact that, in time, everyone here starts to feel like an asshole who never amounted to anything in life.

Certainly most of the people the quartet encounter are difficult or eccentric. It’s an ideal place for artists looking for inspiration. Assuming difficult and eccentric people are what inspire you, be it the “tall and beefy [young men] with shaved heads, and their faces look like pancakes.” the gypsies, the “child führers” or the two deaf old women whose “never-ending conversation start[s] before sunrise.”

The thing is Elza, who’s our main character, still somehow finds a lot to love in Petržalka. She’s not a native but rather moved there to be with Ian but it doesn’t look as if she’ll ever leave:

Petržalka. An advent calendar full of chocolates. Window after window, with a common backstage. Common spaces, a common, never-silent choir.

In Petržalka apartments, all the walls play music and talk.

There are shingled roofs of houses, smokestacks, tops of trees, electric power posts, roads, hills, concrete apartment buildings. Petržalka instead of Atlantis.

History rushes through Petržalka. Ian and I live in the belly of Stalin just as Pinocchio did inside the whale. I hear every growl of the intestines.

I’ll never get away from Petržalka. Petržalka is my yoga, my zen.

I can only recommend Petržalka.

There’s a line in Hayley Dead Stahl’s thesis ‘The Tension Between Modernity and Nostalgia: New York City Through the Black-Rimmed, Rose-Coloured Lenses of Woody Allen’ that jumped out at me: “Though a seemingly modern space, Allen captures the city in such a way as to characterize its timelessness,” and which reflects something Beňová says, “Petržalka is a place where time plays no role.” When Woody Allen’s Manhattan came out more than one reviewer talked about the city as being “a character in the movie.” That said Woody Allen’s New York is unrecognizable to real-life-city-dwellers and I suspect the same could be said of Beňová’s Petržalka. Take this scene:

Today at the Hyena, Elza is reading aloud from Seeing People Off. The first ten pages. The air grows tense from the vulgar words and a pair of older women and two families with children rise from a table covered with desserts and leave. At the end, no one applauds. A lady in violet comes over to Elza. “I don’t easily go up to people and give them my opinion, but I have to tell you that Petržalka isn’t like that. I don’t know where you live—there are weirdoes everywhere, but this? Not like that!

Once we realise this is an idealised/caricatured place it’s easier to see what we’re dealing with. A picture in built up from brief vignettes. And they don’t always flow neatly from one scene to the next. For example:

        When Elza asked Ian why she had constantly felt like crying for three days, he said, because she’s grown up. Life isn’t only about putting on a smile, he smiled. The crying passed. The woman in the tram pulled a seated hood toward her. From it emerged the head of a black-haired boy.
         “Excuse me, where is the police station in this city? I need to go to the police. I saw something,” said the woman.
         “The police?” I don’t know. Really. I’m actually not from here,” stammered the boy.
         “You either? This is weird! Is there anyone here who’s actually from here?”

On Thursday, Ian and Elza received a Christmas card from Elfman. The envelope was covered with bells and stars. In the place where the return address should be was a stamp: Wolfgang’s Animals. And don’t call me! someone had written by hand.

Ian’s tooth hurt. He paced up and down the apartment all night. Once in a while he would lie down next to Elza only to find that he couldn’t stay lying down. The pain didn’t allow him to change from a vertical position. It kept him upright with his feet on the ground, his head just below the ceiling (like a balloon full of gas).

It can be a bit wearisome jumping all over the place but gradually the more important threads start to emerge. But to what point? A novel about pointlessness can’t really have one. I suppose that’s the point. As Bronwyn Averett puts it in her review for Necessary Fiction:

Much of the narrative seems to drift just out of reach, and scenes of probing intensity continually evade taking shape. Rather than a story, it is a detailed portrait of a city, of human relationships, and of a deeply complex emotional landscape.

I think that about hits the nail on the head but don’t let it put you off. There’s a lot to enjoy here and Beňová can be quite funny at times. And sad. And insightful. And even a bit silly. Reflective, too, even nostalgic, but rarely sentimental. As Paige Webb says in her review for Kenyon Review, “These stories, then, don’t culminate. They accrue, each in their own brilliance.”

[Losille · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elfman tvrdí, že genius loci Petržalky spočívá v tom, že každý se tu po nějaké době začne cítit jako kokot, co to nedovedl v životě nikam dotáhnout. Nedokázal se postarat o sebe a o rodinu. Neprosadil se, nebyl schopen vyšplhat nahoru do domů vypínajících se na kopcích a vrších města. Na svazích Palisád, na Kolibě. Tam, kde je jeho skutečné místo, domof.
– – –
Předem je třeba říci, že neznám Petržalku. Po dočtení mi ale připadá, že ji lze přirovnat ke knize samotné. Tajuplná, svérázná, spletitá. Pro leckoho cizí, nepřitažlivá, nepochopitelná. Pro jiné kouzelná a fascinující. Občas ji zbožňujeme, jindy zas máme pocit, že jsme ve snu, psychedelickém jako barvy přebalu.
Mrzí mě, že jí nejde přidat půlhvězdičku navíc.

[Ivana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touto knihou sa dá odprevádzať letom, jeseňou a zimou. Po viac rokov a v prípade núdze aj na jar, ktorá v nej nijak zachytená nie je. Vždy zo zákrut vystúpia iné dôležité príbehy. (Pre mňa tentokrát hľadanie správnych významov slov so svojím rodičom - hotovo verzus hovädo.)
Dlhšie rozmýšľam nad tým, čo vystihuje scéna s polohou novorodenca. Čakania a očakávania vo vzťahoch sú občas ako zablúdenie v Petržalke.
"Keď sa Elza spýtala Iana, prečo jej je už tri dni stále do plaču, povedal, že je dospelá. Život nie je len na škerenie, usmial sa. Plač ustal."

[Andrew Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated the experimentation in this novel, and so many of the vignettes are beautiful. That said, I finished reading it and wasn't entirely sure what I'd read. At only ~120pp it's a very fast read and worth giving a shot in support of experimental literature; but also, because the striking vignettes may well be just what you need to read.

[Tamara Leontievova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pár vtipných momentov, niekoľko ozaj super postrehov. Od polovice som sa nudila. Záver bol čudný.