The Physics of Sorrow - Gheorghi Gospodinov

An excerpt:

‘We look at each other. Between us there are 60 years and a man she remembers when he was 25, and which I just buried a couple of months ago, at the age of 82. And there is no common language we can speak to tell each other everything.’

Sadly, I have a scarce knowledge of the Bulgarian literature. Except for the name of Hristo Botev, whose poetry I have not read, I know nothing about the Bulgarian literature. Actually, this is why when I am on holiday I try to buy books from national authors. Unfortunately, in Romania, books of authors belonging to literatures less promoted are not published.

And I must admit, I bought this book not because I was interested in its subject but because it is written by a Bulgarian author. And the suprise was even bigger when I was enchanted by it, discovering an easy and simple style (the latter is the hardest to obtain in writing).

The starting point is the myth of the Minotaur and the writer weaves a lot of threads around it, more or less symbolic, with views from different realities someone can discover a myth from – family life, adolescence, first loves, disappointments, and expectations. But the greatest of these threads is the memory. I could not but think about the motto that ignited in me the will to write, that motto at the beginning of the O.K. novel by Maria Arsene – Please do remember that the memory must be given as a legacy. So that it does not die together with you. Please remember! Please remember!

The writer plays also with the mind of the reader; he provokes the reader to get out of the labyrinth that she/ he usually stays when reading a book and being blinded by the action while trying to make out the meaning (and thus the exit from the labyrinth).

When one finishes the novel, one needs a couple of moments to come back to one’s senses. One has met with the absolute and coming back to reality may be difficult. And if I ever had a doubt, the writer Gheorghi Gospodinov has just wrecked it – there are threads that we cannot see but connect us all to everything.