Observer’s Comments (group member since Jul 28, 2010)

Observer’s comments from the And Other Stories Lithuanian-Language Reading Group group.

There are only few extracts by Pukyte in English, but probably the essence of what she does - a clever and important story in few sentences; funny observations on the British way of life; short and absurd Charms like dialogues; commentaries on corrupability and absurdity of the arts world. Laconic and honest. However, there are opinions that these stories are for the Lithuanian readers and would be not so relevant for the English reader. My question is - are they? Are they still interesting for the non-Lithuanian reader and does this perspective (of the East European / Lithuanian) interests the English language reader?

And another question: Pukyte is a master of various literary forms - short story, essay, commentary, dialogues. What piece you like most and why?

Almantas Samalavičius writes: „One of the most important texts in this respect is his [Herkus Kunčius‘:] novel Nepasigailėti Dušanskio (Don’t Pity Dushansky, 2006), in which the author employs a biblical structure to a story about the teachings of a ‘contemporary Christ’ – a communist functionary. Kunčius follows his career from a post-war executioner of anti-Soviet partisans to the highest ranks of the party and, finally, his removal to the margins of social life. The novel is a persistent, insightful and critical revision of Lithuania’s communist past.“

I think it is too soft to call this book ‚critical revision‘ of Lithuania‘s past. It is rather sarcastic mocking of anything related with this surreal time and its heroes. Is absurdity the only available idiom? Is it funny?

Read the excerpt here http://www.andotherstories.org/herkus... and let us know your opinion.

Sigitas Parulskis (1965) is a very prolific author, and I especially like his early prose – essays and his first novel “Three Seconds of Heaven” (2002), which is still a very experiential (existential) literature, related to his experiences, traumas, memories and possibly to the certain impossibility of ‘normal’ life.

For me the most beautiful moments of this literature are meeting points of his rough primordiality and human sensitivities, brutal reality and his soft only Parulskis’ owned irony, experience of loneliness of a human being, which create in his texts this unsurpassable space of depth. These universal things are striking and most involving, and not a ‘good story’ and things like that.

And Other Stories published on their website only small excerpt from this book (http://www.andotherstories.org/sigita...), unfortnately it is not translated into English.

But the book has been published already in German, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Albanian, Latvian, Swedish. It is actually the most translated to date Lithuanian novel. You can choose to read the whole book in any of those languages.

Thanks to And Other Stories for putting it all together. It looks like an exciting opportunity to get to know the writers, to discuss their books and to tell the things which seem important, such us: why there is no Lithuanian prose published in the UK? What is the reason: no exciting classics? no engaging contemporary writing? Too serious? Too difficult? Too local?

For your attention – four Lithuanian contemporary writers, at home aknowledged as some of the most exciting? Read extracts from their works and tell us what you think. They are small bits, but some people say powerful text you can recognize from the first page.

Here are links to all four authors as they are introduced by And Other Stories.

Herkus Kunčius: http://www.andotherstories.org/herkus...
Sigitas Parulskis: http://www.andotherstories.org/sigita...
Paulina Pukytė: http://www.andotherstories.org/paulin...
Giedra Radvilavičiūtė : http://www.andotherstories.org/giedra...

Enjoy!