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Overview
In this stylistically adventurous, brilliantly funny tour de force-the most highly acclaimed debut since Nathan Englander's-Aleksander Hemon writes of love and war, Sarajevo and America, with a skill and imagination that are breathtaking.
A love affair is experienced in the blink of an eye as the Archduke Ferdinand watches his wife succumb to an assassin's bullet. An exiled writer, working in a sandwich shop in Chicago, adjusts to the absurdities of his life. Love letters from war torn Sarajevo navigate the art of getting from point A to point B without being shot. With a surefooted sense of detail and life-saving humor, Aleksandar Hemon examines the overwhelming events of history and the effect they have on individual lives. These heartrending stories bear the unmistakable mark of an important new international writer.
Synopsis
In this stylistically adventurous, brilliantly funny tour de force-the most highly acclaimed debut since Nathan Englander's-Aleksander Hemon writes of love and war, Sarajevo and America, with a skill and imagination that are breathtaking.
Library Journal
Hemon left his native Bosnia just before the outbreak of the civil war, settled in Chicago, and soon after began rigorously studying English. Unsurprisingly, his debut has been compared to the fiction of Conrad and Nabokov icons who proved that the risky business of writing in an adopted language can produce admirable results. But Conrad s crowded, premeditated sentences and Nabokov s rhythmical and metaphorical prose are quite different from Hemon s clearheaded fiction, which centers on the unique political tensions of Tito s Yugoslavia. Hemon s writing is sensible, with a hint of satire, and is heavily based on wistful description rather than farfetched dialog. Although dissimilar in format, the seven stories here echo the same nostalgic voice and the theme of dealing with the sudden eruption of childhood memories and the shifting identities of a weary immigrant. This kind of fiction doesn t betray itself, but the author s bold experimentation with form easily outsmarts the reader. The Life and Work of Alphonse Kauders is actually highly suggestive of Donald Barthelme s clever symbolism, while A Coin reveals that Hemon can tell a war story in the tradition of Tim O Brien, combining magical realism with raw truth. This is the work of a rare talent who deserves our attention. Mirela Roncevic, Library Journal Mystery & suspense By Rex Klett Mitchell Community Coll., LRC,Statesville, NC Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Editorials
Library Journal
Hemon left his native Bosnia just before the outbreak of the civil war, settled in Chicago, and soon after began rigorously studying English. Unsurprisingly, his debut has been compared to the fiction of Conrad and Nabokov icons who proved that the risky business of writing in an adopted language can produce admirable results. But Conrad s crowded, premeditated sentences and Nabokov s rhythmical and metaphorical prose are quite different from Hemon s clearheaded fiction, which centers on the unique political tensions of Tito s Yugoslavia. Hemon s writing is sensible, with a hint of satire, and is heavily based on wistful description rather than farfetched dialog. Although dissimilar in format, the seven stories here echo the same nostalgic voice and the theme of dealing with the sudden eruption of childhood memories and the shifting identities of a weary immigrant. This kind of fiction doesn t betray itself, but the author s bold experimentation with form easily outsmarts the reader. The Life and Work of Alphonse Kauders is actually highly suggestive of Donald Barthelme s clever symbolism, while A Coin reveals that Hemon can tell a war story in the tradition of Tim O Brien, combining magical realism with raw truth. This is the work of a rare talent who deserves our attention. Mirela Roncevic, Library Journal Mystery & suspense By Rex Klett Mitchell Community Coll., LRC,Statesville, NC Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.David Utterson
The Question of Bruno's seven short stories and a novella provide the reader with a curious mixture of fact and fiction, which blends into a successful and mostly original whole...This is an impressive book, which manipulates language in a way that both chills and satisfies.,br>&3151;Times Literary SupplementRichard Eder
Several of the shorter pieces are so good as to make the reader feel certain of having discovered not just an extraordinary story but an extraordinary writer: one who seems not simply gifted but necessary. In retrospect, you begin to worry about what could so easily have been lost. What if Hemon had stayed in Sarajevo and suffered a momentary cramp -- nonwriter's -- crossing Sniper's Alley?—The New York Times Book Review
Sven Birkerts
The sound is ailing, so you wiggle knobs, jiggle wires, finally just smack the top of the speaker and—voilà—the air is suddenly full with the sound you wanted. I feel that way reading Alekaksander Hemon's new collection The Question of Bruno...The man is a maestro, and conjurer, a channeler of universes...As vivid prose as you will find anywhere this year, and as heartbreaking.—Esquire