In the title story,
Is There Anybody to Love You, the
narrator and his friend – both of whom are doctors – are at their work place in
an office chatting about trivial things, and soon their journalist friend becomes
the subject of their talk who has recently been left out by a girl. What
follows is a freestyle composition sharp with revolting ideas and views on the
personalities, way of life and fate of modern men and women. In the story with
social criticism, satire on elites and white-collars, and quirks of reason, all
with a blend of humor, the characters realize that in this intricate and
selfish out-of-control life, it is hard to realize a pure love from anyone. In
The Collector of Valuable things a man
assembles the junks and remnants from the street to create a collection in his
apartment and enjoys its value. In
The
Beggar a father and his daughter walk along a street and they come across a
beggar. The father’s charity to the beggar just to prove
1
himself in front of his daughter goes awry when he finds that the beggar is
nothing but a conman.
1. I
feel weak and dissatisfied that I can’t even influence my own daughter. I can’t
teach her what I think is good. She’s seven years old and already knows more
than I do. She’s prepared to argue with me. I don’t have the strength to argue
back.
There are stories where: A man
finds his joy in the company of a wisest man who has settled in a cave; An old
man and woman talk about their dissatisfaction and feeling of injustice and
anger against the people in their apartment who are irresponsible, in their
view, to the cleanliness, however what unsettles them in their bed is the
memory of their son who had suicided recently; A man strolls around in the city
in rain feeling lonely and miserable, and in his soliloquy, he reflects upon
the cause of his loneliness and all the trouble he has caused with his habit
and behavior – one of which was bringing drunk vagrants to his mother’s home –
and thinks that if he had enough money everyone would have loved him regardless
of his flaws, meanwhile the rain has inundated the streets and he comes across
a woman who’s drowning; The narrator searches for the hidden stories in the
decay, dismay and disorder just by mere observation in the Ladies’ Market in
Sofia, which is a conglomerate of ethnicities, and people gathered from every
walks of life – madman, prostitutes, drunkards, buyers and sellers. Meanwhile
he is critical2 of everything in desolation and disorder
amidst the animated surrounding.
2. Bulgarians
don’t have censorship anymore, and for that reason they don’t have any opinions
on anything. They’re not interested in anything, because nothing’s banned
anymore and they’re not interested in anything.
The author never forgets to throw
a bit of humor3, which are not mere decorative, but lifts the spirit
of the story, such as evident in the Fights
where a fight between a drunken husband and his wife turns bloody and then
settles in love. However, the jolliest is the story A Christmas Triptych about the adventure of two drunken men – who
are like angels or Santa Claus – who help people in desperate need on Christmas
Day. Two Specific Cases is a set of
two unusual stories which have to read to believe; they are almost like tall
tales. Most of the stories also deal with personal voyages – mostly internal – and
solitude of individuals – which are sad, unusual, transforming and even funny – like The Case of the Necktie, Christmas, Nevermore, Orange, Almost Brown. The
lengthiest story of the collection Tired
of Understanding is a story of a boy called Anton K., and it tells his
story almost in a bildungsroman fashion, from his early childhood, and the
shaping of his personality and understanding. As his curiosity grows and he
absorbs his surrounding, he disentangles the mysteries of understanding, and
his conclusions are philosophical and practical with which we can identify
ourselves. The trouble of dealing with ambiguity and perplexity, or even
oddities, is so palpable, that this story reminds us of our own development. However,
as the years pass, with a load of experience: love, fear, shame, hatred,
desperation, guilt, regret… he realizes, as he grows old, that he is tired of understanding4;
despite all the troubles he took to understand throughout his life.
3. He comes home at two o’clock in the morning and
he’s very drunk. No, he isn’t drunk. He’s just full to the top with alcohol. A
drunk is someone who has imbibed alcohol. He is just alcohol without anything
else.
4. More
years would have to pass for Anton k. to understand that senseless cruelty is
one of the main forms of enjoyment for people… He understood that when a
feeling is not reciprocated for a long time, it turns into displeasure, and
then into indifference… He also understood that such stupid things as pride and
honor are human inventions created to confuse the minds of idiots… He
understood that once you have taken the rough, cheerless road toward middle
age, you have no right to even a moment of relaxation.
We touch upon the stories that
have profound sense of distractions and disbelief surrounding individual lives,
and the sweet melancholy in the face of personal crisis. Even in the tense
turns in the story, the author is able to find a space for social satire and
humor, and the voice of the narrators is marked with perfection, so is their
mood, intensity and impact upon the story. The collection is definitely a blend
of ‘humanity and humor’ at its best! Stories are rich in voices and therefore, the world they represent, or precisely, the individuals and intricacies whom and which we don't understand much.
Author: Kalin Terziyski
Translator: David Mossop
Author's Photo Credit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalin_Terziyski
Review Copy Courtesy: Dalkey Archive Press
