Feb 10 2009
The Lazarus Project
The Lazarus Project -by Aleksandar Hemon
After enduring an extremely brutal reading list for a class on genocide, I declared January to be a “happy book only” month for me. But now it is February, and I can start reading about pogroms, political oppression, and mass graves again. The first book I read after my self-imposed “depressing book ban” was The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon, and it became one of my favorites overnight.
Hemon intertwines two intriguing stories about Lazarus Averbuch, a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe who was shot by a Chicago Chief of Police in 1908, and a fictional, present-day Bosnian immigrant named Brik. Officially, Lazarus was declared an anarchist assassin, but Brik wants to discover what really happened. Luckily, Brik receives a writing grant to research and retraces Lazarus’s life in Eastern Europe in present-day Moldova (where Lazarus had survived the pogrom in Kishinev), Ukraine, Romania, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
This is not a light book. It is filled with tragedy, despair, and loose ends, but Hemon uses Bosnian humor about Mujo and Suljo (two common characters in Bosnian jokes) to make situations particularly funny. As a writer he has the ability to infuse horrible situations with humor and hope. The Lazarus Project has been nominated for many awards and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2008, but I am not sure if this is a book for everyone. However, if you have an interest in Eastern Euorpe, Chicago in the early 1900s, or a really amazing use of the English language, be prepared to spend a sleepless night because it is really hard to put down.
Read more: Aleksandar Hemon, Author Crush, Book Reviews, Chicago, Eastern Europe, FictionLisa says "blah, blah, blah, Croatia, blah, blah, blah, Dubrovnik, blah, blah, red wine, blah." non-stop.
