My Cat Yugoslavia
Ratings7
Average rating3.9
15
Ratings7
Average rating3.9
A love story set in two countries in two radically different moments in time, bringing together a young man, his mother, a boa constrictor, and one capricious cat. In 1980s Yugoslavia, a young Muslim girl is married off to a man she hardly knows, but what was meant to be a happy match goes quickly wrong. Soon thereafter her country is torn apart by war and she and her family flee. Years later, her son, Bekim, grows up a social outcast in present-day Finland, not just an immigrant in a country suspicious of foreigners, but a gay man in an unaccepting society. Aside from casual hookups, his only friend is a boa constrictor whom, improbably—he is terrified of snakes—he lets roam his apartment. Then, during a visit to a gay bar, Bekim meets a talking cat who moves in with him and his snake. It is this witty, charming, manipulative creature who starts Bekim on a journey back to Kosovo to confront his demons and make sense of the magical, cruel, incredible history of his family. And it is this that, in turn, enables him finally, to open himself to true love—which he will find in the most unexpected place
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Siento que'l conceptu tenía munchu potencial, que o l'autor nun supo aprovechar o que yo nun supi ver.
What a great way to round out a year of reading. Displacement and alienation, loneliness, trauma, love and war, absurdity and allegory, ritual and tradition, faith. It's terrifying, moving, and enlightening. Statovci repeatedly knocked the air out of my lungs. The translation is excellent—the language cohesive and economical. The more surreal moments reminded me of Bulgakov's [b:The Master and Margarita 117833 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327867963l/117833.SY75.jpg 876183], grounded in a more sinewy, visceral narrative.The cat wanted a story whose protagonist's life began from a set of impossible circumstances, a story that would be so heart-wrenching that it might make him shake his head at the state of the world. But he wanted the story to end in such a way that he was able to applaud the protagonist's ability to take matters into his own hands—despite the fact that the protagonist had learned that skill specifically so that he could shake off the burden of other people's pity—and in order to reaffirm his own beliefs. Anyone can change the direction of his life, any time at all, if only he has enough motivation: that was the moral of the story. The cat found it easier to believe this than to think about what it actually meant: that the word anyone actually referred to a very small group of people, that time has no direction, and that motivation is rarely the salient difference between people.
4.5 this book is a story full of rich emotions. It is heartbreaking and beautiful.
