Globe Corner Blogs

The Lazarus Project - by Aleksandar Hemon

Love and Obstacles, the new book of short interlinked stories by Aleksander Hemon, arrived just in time for me to browse it before I went to hear him speak at the Harvard Bookstore. These stories are linked by a common character: a young Bosnian from Sarajevo who leaves for the United States right before the war in Bosnia erupted in 1992 and ends up sort of stranded abroad. The narrator is a familiar voice, and it is very similar to characters’ in Hemon’s previous books, The Question of Bruno, Nowhere Man, and current Globe Corner Bookstore Staff Favorite and highly acclaimed The Lazarus Project. The books are not autobiographical, but Hemon’s biography and the character’s share many common traits so I kind of felt like I knew him–I was very curious to see what he was like.

I was a little shocked when he first came to the podium, as he looked a bit different from the author photo on the back page. But, soon I was laughing along with the crowd as he read the witty dialog from the final story, The Noble Truths of Suffering. I became completely charmed if not completely smitten with him. As he was reading a passage describing “his” Sarajevo (one of my favorite places in the world) I was lulled into a dreamlike state and started to think of one of my most favorite places in Sarajevo…the cevabdzinica. The sausage shop.

Continue Reading »

Fodor's Chicago 2009

Proper congratulations and looks of awe are in order: I flew from Boston to Chicago and from Chicago to Boston with no delays, no cancellations, and no angry TSA officials–in February. Quite a feat in my book, given Boston’s recent proclivity to sudden snow storms and O’Hare’s almost constant state of behind-ness.

I was in the Windy City (which is rather windy, no matter where the nickname actually came from) for a writer’s conference. Despite seeing such amazing writers as Marilynne Robinson and Alexandar Hemon read, it’s needless to say that most exciting part of this conference, like any, happened outside the actual conference hotel. And consistent with my usual style of travel, it happened inside restaurants and bars.

Continue Reading »