Ordered by two mysterious men to "write a statement of about 100 pages", the narrator of this enthralling novel - who's not sure of his name, but calls himself Fritz - faithfully records the bizarre occurrences of his daily life: his absurd conversations with his mother who is abducted by slave traders, his visits to his friend who works in the hospital's autopsy room, and his sister's tumultuous marriage to the butcher's son, to name a few. Widely respected in Serbia, the term "Basarian" has been coined to refer to his unique writing style, reminiscent of the best of Samuel Beckett for its directness, existential pondering, and odd sense of humour.
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"Svetislav Basara has written a fragmentary book in which, despite lots of digressions, the central theme can be clearly seen - an uninterrupted dispute between, not quasi-philosophical, but quite existential terms of I and Nothing. Coming face to face with the wild emptiness in the world with no firm grounding is the characteristic of a whole trend in modern art - speaking 'about nothing' in a most convincing way, he writes about the status of individuality in this century." - Mihajlo Pantic'"
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The Wonderful work of Fritz, or someone
27 Mar 2010
By Reader and Writer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
If you think Existentialism is something better left to the 20th Century, take a lesson from Basara by reading The Chinese Letter. He'll quickly teach you the joys of prowling Zeitgeist ridden hallways of the mind where the dust of imagination coats all reality. Our narrator calls himself Fritz and speculates his name could be something else. If it's the self pondering notions of the self then how does the self know the conception is correct? So it is with his reality, events happen or he imagines they happen. He's forced to write and this in part is the result of his effort. It's a wonderful read, and it has probably one of my all time favorite lines of any novel. Like a Chinese box, the work is both beautiful and puzzling. You'll see.
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