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earwicker 's review for:
The Lazarus Project
by Aleksandar Hemon
At one point Hemon's narrator wonders if the biblical Lazarus might not have been better off without the assistance of Jesus. Maybe he was better off dead. That sums up the attitude of Vladimir Brik, and his angry despair pervades this novel. Part travelogue but mostly monologue, Brik muses endlessly on the bitterness of history as he retraces the life and death of his subject, the Jewish refugee and American murder victim, Lazarus Averbuch.
There is very little to like about Brik, but he is an intelligent and articulate guide through a world that is equally cruel and unforgiving. The auxiliary characters, seen through Brik's eyes, are either pathetic victims or brutes, with one notable exception. The only light moments are the Mujo & Sujo jokes. Fortunately Hemon's tremendous gift for prose vivifies this corpse of a book. It's not beach reading.
There is very little to like about Brik, but he is an intelligent and articulate guide through a world that is equally cruel and unforgiving. The auxiliary characters, seen through Brik's eyes, are either pathetic victims or brutes, with one notable exception. The only light moments are the Mujo & Sujo jokes. Fortunately Hemon's tremendous gift for prose vivifies this corpse of a book. It's not beach reading.