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Lazarus lives

October 24th, 2008 Jon - Central Library

I was happy to see that Aleksandar Hemon’s The Lazarus Project was nominated for the National Book Award. It’s easily the best book I’ve read this year. To begin with, the book is structurally interesting: it’s a sort of reverse immigration story in which the narrator wins a grant in order to investigate the 1908 murder of Lazarus Averbuch at the home of the Chicago Chief of Police, George Shippy. Shippy alleged Averbuch was an anarchist, and his version of events was widely distributed, but the facts of the case remain in dispute. It’s entirely possible Averbuch was only trying to obtain a letter from the chief, such as he would have needed in Russia, indicating that he was of good character. Regardless, it’s a 100-year old case, and Averbuch and Shippy are dead. The narrator of the novel, Brik, sets out to understand Averbuch not just through what happened to him (through the few known facts) but also through finding out who Averbuch was before he was a photograph in the Chicago Historical Archives. This means a trip to Eastern Europe with Rora, a photographer; together they visit run-down hotels, museums, and cemeteries, while the narrator digresses on his problems with his wife, with “Mr. Christ,” and with America. And while Brik may be angry, the book is not. Not only does Hemon use Brik to explore Averbuch’s “before,” but he also tells the story of Olga, Averbuch’s sister, and in this way explores Averbuch’s “after.” The alternating narratives combine in powerful and melancholy ways, finally ending in Brik’s—and Hemon’s—birthplace, Sarajevo.

The book is well-planned and well-executed, but Hemon’s style is what makes it more than academic. Gun smoke moves like a school of fish. Soldiers contemplate their “possible limb-by-limb entry into eternity.” Every other page has a memorable turn of phrase, and jokes and tales abound. We were lucky to have Hemon here at the Wisconsin Book Festival. As he read, photographs from his book played on a screen in the background, and he ended his presentation with a short film. For me, seeing Hemon was the highlight of the festival.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction