This will haunt me for a while

Čak i internacionalna Bukerova nagrada retko promaši, a Gospodinov promašaj svakako nije. Iako je moooooožda promašaj čitati bugarina na engleskom, ali ajde sad, ne može baš sve biti idealno.

Vremensko sklonište je jedan čudan roman, koji istovremeno kanališe Saramagovu socijalnu metaforu, ali i introspektivnu autofikciju (na momente se roman srodi sa dnevnikom), no ipak ostaje začuđujuće čitljiv. S jedne strane, to je delom zato što mi nedostaje balkanski (u ovom slučaju, bugarski) haos na hladnom severu, ali i delom zato što Gospodinov ne davi, iako defitivno ne žuri. Uostalom, blago fragmentisana struktura romana mu daje da se vrati na nešto što je davno započeo - na neki način baš onako kako nam prošlost napravi sačekušu na autobuskoj stanici.

Kraj romana je međutim malo nagao, i uz (narativom opravdan, ali i dalje malo naporan) EU-centrizam, malo smanjuje moj ukupni lični doživljaj. Svakako vrlo vredno čitanja i siguran sam da ću proći gospodinu (HEHEHEHE) kroz bibliografiju kad tad.

4+

Not what I expected it to be. I can appreciate its merits and why it won the Booker, but from the uptake I was just not enamoured by it, it did not charm me, and so while the prose is easy enough to engage with I could not enjoy the reading experience.

The writing style itself feels old fashioned- I could hardly believe this was a book written and set in 2020, which is ironic given the theme of the book I suppose. But then on top of this, there is a certain quality in books that win literary awards that I do not always particularly like, and is hard to explain except that Time Shelter has it in abundance. A sort of vagueness, a distance from the reader, perhaps more of a focus on the prose itself over the integrity of the characters and setting. And then in the end, which is where I was particularly put off - in the middle I was beginning to warm to it -we have a sort of 'breakdown' in linearity. Ambling sentences, sentences that do not make much sense on first reading, mystic sentences. If this is what you're after it's tantalising I suppose, and maybe in reading a literary book you should expect it, but I just felt cut off. I have to trust analysis of the book would reveal depths to this that I had missed, rather than it just being a pretentious sort of affectation ... and I could believe that - there is meaning in the book and a deep, enthralling sense of nostalgia. It just didn't speak to me. Perhaps it would be a more impactful book to someone who has a connection to the topic - time, nostalgia, melancholy, etc - or has more life experience to feel a connection to those topics.

This is not a book just about time itself - though there is much meditation on the topic - rather I felt the focus was on history. The specific history of Bulgaria, its roots in the Soviet Empire, the communist hell of Eastern Europe following WW2, and the destructiveness of WW2 across Europe as a whole. Someone with experience of this would get more out of Time Shelter. It was interesting to read from a Bulgarian perspective (a first) and so this book in its meditations on Bulgarian culture and nationalism was an effective educator. Though again much of what it spoke of did not mean much to me personally.

Perhaps finally to mention, this book does take an unexpected turn versus the blurb. The time shelter itself is only the beginning, then the story dips into a sort of magical realism / post-apocalyptic scenario. This may have been part of the issue with it for me, as I was expecting a feel good book exploring people's individual life experiences through the clinic, but it was more about peoples' experiences. That is to say groups of people, communities, nations. So less about the tangible plot-centred action, and more the intangible prose-based rumination. It's quite a whimsical tale and the humour elements work (the fly on the aeroplane scenario about 150 pages in was lovely) so I can see its appeal to some.

Świetny początek, intrygujący środek i jakby na małym przydechu napisane zakończenie.
A poza tym, to Agnieszka bezbłędnie przeczytała moje myśli :)
Wracałbym do GG (no i samego G!) dla rozważań o przemijaniu, starzeniu się, zapominaniu, o fenomenie naszej pamięci i wybiórczości wspomnień.
Dzielę społeczne diagnozy ale i GG nie daje ni wskazówek, ni wielkich nadziei… czyśmy wszyscy zabrnęli w ślepy zaułek?

Damn. What a trip. Feels like multiple books somehow connected. I could not but feel lost and found throughout. Really interesting ideas and concepts around what is time, past, future and memory. And then completely unhinged narratives and a feeling that the author is messing with you, is lying to you or just simply is losing himself.

A complicated reflection on memory and time. Part science fiction, part history lesson, Time Shelter urges readers to look ahead toward the past so we may keep its beauty and terrors present in our minds while the future creeps out of sight, breathing down our backs. Forgetting is the antagonist of this story and, since we seem doomed to repeat the worst of history, of humankind as well. In that sense, the brain is a cohort of the enemy that is Forgetfulness, as it is liable to rob us blind of our personal history and we are completely powerless against it.

This was my takeaway from Time Shelter. I felt attacked by the chaos of its narrative, which was a feature Gospodinov intended. His fictional self (the narrator) and his secondary fictional self (Gaustine) weave a tale that his true self (the author) coalesce into a cautionary story that promises hopelessness over happiness. This bleak worldview is offered up as realism rather than pessimism with 50 pages of point-proving examples from European history.

I admit the end product was not what I expected, but that is to the author's credit as I was surprised by the course the story does not take and the way it all falls apart in the end, even though we're warned about this from the very beginning. If this review is as confusing as I think it is, it's only because I'm still processing the novel. I may have to revisit it in the future after learning a bit more Bulgarian history. Ultimately, this book made me want to read more translations of Gospodinov's works and that alone for me makes this a four star read.