"Vagabond in France and Belgium" -- Roberto Bolano

I must say that this was one of the most simply written yet intriguing short stories I have read in quite some time. This story takes a glimpse into the life of a man simply named B, who we find out towards the end of the story is a "...thinnish, middle-aged man..." The story follows B as he travels to France from Spain just because "France is not as dangerous as Spain." He then ends up in Paris, and while at a second-hand bookstore finds a magazine called Luna Park, number 2. While reading this, he comes across the name of Henri Lefebvre. This name goes off "like a match struck in a dark room," inside B. All of a sudden he begins searching, trying to find out just who this man was because he had never heard of him before. B ends up travelling to Brussels to meet up with a friend of his, named M. B and M then spend much time together, talking about their lives, as well as investigating into B's mystery man. Eventually they travel to Lefebvre's hometown and try to find the house where he lived, but are unable to. B leaves the next morning to go back to Paris. It seems to me that B's quest to find this man, this man that "he's so interested in..... because nobody else is," is a quest to find a part of himself as well. This middle-aged man has just traveled to France and Belgium in search of a man whose name he saw in a magazine just because he felt like doing it, makes me feel as though B was searching for some sort of confirmation for himself. I really enjoyed this story, and though I'm not quite certain of the meaning of this story, I really enjoyed the writing style and the simplicity of the writing.

Vagabond --


–adjective

1.

wandering from place to place without any settled home;nomadic: a vagabond tribe.

2.

leading an unsettled or carefree life.

3.

disreputable; worthless; shiftless.

4.

of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a vagabond: vagabond habits.

5.

having an uncertain or irregular course or direction: avagabond voyage.

–noun

6.

a person, usually without a permanent home, who wandersfrom place to place; nomad.

7.

an idle wanderer without a permanent home or visible meansof support; tramp; vagrant.

8.

a carefree, worthless, or irresponsible person; rogue.

The Lazarus Project -- Aleksandar Hemon

This section of the story starts off with a violent assault on Lazarus's family. Lazarus gets beat up severely, and everyone else in the family gets beaten as well. Olga blacks out, and when she awakens, she thinks that everyone is dead. Roza then gets up and resets the table with any unbroken dishes she can find, and sits down at the table. Olga thinks this is odd considering what had just happened. The next section begins with Brik conversing with a woman, Iuliana. They talk about where maybe Iuliana would go if she left, and then about the pogrom. Brik then recalls a time when Mary had had a gunshot victim die on the table during surgery. Brik questions her about what it was like when he died and how she felt. Mary doesn't respond and gets angry. Finally the apologize to each other, and Mary comments that "'When a patient dies,' she explained, rather unhelpfully, 'I feel that he is dead.'" Towards the end of that section, Brik and Rora beat up their chauffeur in the bathroom, and Brik breaks his hand.

Clemson Literary Festival

Last Friday, I was able to attend a reading by Mark Halliday for the Clemson Literary Festival. I actually enjoyed the event much more than I expected to. I am generally a fan of most poetry, and I thoroughly enjoyed the poems that Mr. Halliday selected to read. He started off by reading a poem called "The Case Against Mist", which envisioned his struggle with the mystery of reality, the fact that we really are here in this world, not just a "mist." The next poem was called "Parkersburg" which is a self encouragement poem written about a town 35 miles east of where he lives in Athens, OH. Mr. Halliday really showed his enthusiasm and spirit by singing a little bit of a Randy Newman song for this poem which really got the crowd cheering. Then a little bit of a funny thing happened; the speaker system and microphone being used for the event in McKissick Theater started picking up the frequency from the concert being held on campus, so there was a bit of a delay while that got sorted out. We finally got started again, and he went on to read some poems entitled "No Rescue Squad," "First Wife," and "The Beloved." These poems had the theme of love between men and women. Then he read several other poems, including my favorite called "Pathos of a Momentary Smile." This poem captures the feelings felt by two strangers whose eyes meet for a split second, and the awkwardness associated with that fleeting moment of connection. Overall I really enjoyed hearing Mark Halliday speak, and I would definitely be interested in hearing him again. It's amazing how much more meaning the poetry has when you actually hear the author read it exactly how it was supposed to be read.

The Lazarus Project -- Aleksandar Hemon

This is an interesting novel in that it follows two separate narratives that are at different points in time and run parallel to each other, never intersecting. Reading between pages 87-121, we read about Olga upset over the death of her brother Lazarus. Throughout this "chapter" she attempts to write a letter to her mother explaining that Lazarus is dead, but can't seem to find the right words to say. There is a huge storm outside, and Olga finds the dictionary Lazarus would read in the outhouse. While out there she finds her other brother Isador in the sewage under the outhouse. She is angry at her brother, saying his is the reason Lazarus is now dead. She eventually helps her brother out, and Isador spends the night in the outhouse. The next part of the novel goes to the more present time story. Brik and Rora find a taxi driver to drive them across the country. Along the way, Brik strikes up a conversation with Andriy about America and how wonderful it is. Andriy seems interested in this American life, but asks about the problems: "If you have family and house, you want to protect them. But this world is crazy. Homosexuals, crazy Muslim terrorists, problems." Brik avoids this questions and begins talking to Rora.

"She turns to the side, slips her right hand under the pillow, hears straw crepitating in it." --Page 95

crepitate -- verb (used without object), -tat·ed, -tat·ing.

to make a crackling sound; crackle.