Hessler, Gottlieb, Hemon

At the library, I played hooky from Harper's Magazine and read about John Dewey's influence and Peter Hessler's twins in Chengdu, China as well as Robert Gottlieb's literary life and Aleksandar Hemon's variations in The New York Review of Books. The Gottlieb was the one I initially interrupted the Hessler for, and it appeared to be more than a coincidence when I learned within a few sentences that Gottlieb passed on June 14—a birthday Hessler shares with a certain former president.

Hemon on Handke; Hsu on Yang

Although I find the Asian-American politician in Chang Rae Lee's Native Speaker a far more compelling figure, I enjoyed Hua Hsu on Andrew Yang and his presidential candidacy. Also, Aleksander Hemon on Peter Handke's Nobel Prize in Literature is one you don't want to miss. Hemon, who had rich words after Bob Dylan's win, is fast becoming a leading commentator on the Swedish literary prize in addition to writing engrossing fiction. In local news, Saul Bellow's To Jerusalem and Back continues to impress me while a literary friend sent strong praise for "Over Fifty Billion Kafkas Served."

the fall of the Berlin Wall

The Lazarus Project includes an anecdote about rabbits finding love by overcoming the Berlin Wall despite trigger-happy East German guards firing eagerly during mating season (Hemon 103-4).

Anyway, by chance, it's the 25th anniversary of the famous wall's fall, and I've stumbled upon a couple postings noting this:

"The Berlin Wall, 25 Years After the Fall" from The Atlantic and an image gallery from Yahoo! Finance, "Human Wave of East Germans Surges Across Berlin Wall."

Another time, in another post, maybe I'll describe the refugee father and son who'd just escaped and wound up in the same bunk area as a bunch of us staying in a Swiss youth hostel. I remember well the father describing his escape story, again and again, throughout the night. I couldn't understand his German, or anyone else's, but I could hear the repetition of the words and some of the vigorous physical movements he used to support them. Again and again.

Hemon in Chicago

Because I'm teaching The Lazarus Project right now, I googled Aleksandar Hemon and arrived at an article on his love of his adopted city of Chicago. Although back in Sarajevo his parents were technical people, urban, affluent STEM-folk, Hemon had a humble start in America's "somber city":


With just $300 in his pocket, the young man was forced to scramble for odd jobs—waiter, Greenpeace canvasser—while managing his fear and longing for Sarajevo. He set about learning Chicago by walking its neighborhoods. “Pullman, Beverly, Lakeview, and then the Parks—Hyde, Lincoln, Rogers,” he writes in The Book of My Lives. “I began to sort out the geography of Chicagoland, assembling a street map in my mind, building by building, door by door . . . I was a low-wage, immigrant flaneur.”

A Joke? No Kundera's birthday is April 1

So Milan Kundera, author of The Joke--yes, you could add "among other titles"--was born on April Fool's Day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Kundera.

Tangential at best, but I'm reminded of the opening of Aleksandar Hemon's The Lazarus Project, where he informs us that Bosnian Independence is celebrated on its official February 29 every four years and on random nearby days for the other three.

Back to Milan, it looks like 81 is in his immediate future... unless I am counting incorrectly from April 1, 1929.

Well, happy birthday, Milan Kundera. Stay healthy and keep writing! If the truths or rumors about your informant youth are true, don't sweat it. People have all kinds of blemishes on their official, unofficial, and other dust-strewn records. A bit guilt or shame always beats a significant jail term in this regard. To make amends (if the informed upon is still alive), you could buy the guy a modest but well-crafted automobile; if he has passed on, then buy his descendants some shares of stock along with a long personalized letter. I've heard people do these things.

Indeed, my own motives for blogging could be seen as less than pure. Believe you me, I am counting on all of these people misspelling your name as "Kudera" for them to possibly learn of and purchase this book: http://atticusbooksonline.com/forthcoming-titles/fight-for-your-long-day-by-alex-kudera/ I suspect this occurs in 1000s of blogs and personal pages; yes, Milan, you are the second entry if one googles Kudera without the quote marks. So again, keep writing!

Peace.