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Loading... Catch the Rabbit (2018)by Lana Bastasic
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Sara, a Bosnian writer and poet, has settled down in Dublin, and has more or less succeeded in forgetting her past, her country of origin and the uncomfortable memories of a fractured, post-war state. One day, however, Sara receives an unexpected phone call from Lejla, the best friend with whom she shared her childhood and coming of age. Even though they have not spoken for twelve years, the voice of Lejla, the special friend with whom Sara shared her childhood and coming of age, draws her back to the Balkans. Lejla’s brother Armin, who disappeared during the atrocities of the Bosnian war, has reappeared in Vienna and Lejla wants her friend to drive her from Bosnia to the Austrian capital to track him down. But what exactly are the two friends looking for? Is it Armin, or is it, perhaps, a better understanding of their shared past? Lana Bastašić’s debut novel, winner of the European Union Prize for Literature 2020, is being published in an English translation by the author herself. The novel’s title – Catch the Rabbit – is an homage to Lewis Carroll and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Like Alice’s surreal adventure underground, Bastašić creates a world which, although rooted in reality, is peopled by figures who are larger than life. Chief amongst these is Lejla, the real protagonist of this novel despite the fact that the narrator is Sara. The story does feature a real rabbit, which is a key element in Sara and Lejla’s shared memories. But it also serves as one of several narrative connections between Catch the Rabbit and Alice. Don’t expect, however, an entertaining children’s book. Like Carroll, Bastašić plays around with narrative logic but her themes and aims are dead serious. This is a novel around friendship along the divisive lines created by war, about adults rethinking and reinterpreting their childhood memories (and not necessarily liking what they find there). It is a book which can be uplifting, but which is equally painful in the realities it brings home to the narrator and, implicitly, the reader. Indeed, if I have a reservation about this English edition, it is the cover. While it brings out nicely the novel’s more fantastical, psychedelic elements, its garish colours also hint at a light-hearted female buddy road novel. Catch the Rabbit is much darker than that. https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2020/12/catch-the-rabbit-by-Lana-Bastasic.htm... Like Alice following the white rabbit to Wonderland, Sara can't resist the call when her childhood friend Lejla calls on her for a road trip to find find Lejla's brother, who had disappeared during the Yugoslavian civil war. Through a series of modern misadventures, Bastašić explores the two women's history, as they are forced to reckon with the people they were and the people they've become. Exploring themes of memory, identity and co-dependency, Catch the Rabbit is a story about women who desperately need each other, and in that need lose themselves. Sara, úgy néz ki, kiásta magát a gödörből. Meglépett Boszniából, otthagyta a Balkánt a zsíros burekszaggal meg a szerb-muzulmán vérbosszúkkal együtt, és most Dublinban neveli programozó férjét és szívós avokádócsemetéjét. Migrációs sikersztori. Aztán jön egy telefon Lejlától, hogy hopp, pattanjon repülőre, és irány Mostar, mert szükség van rá. Úgyhogy Sara hiába rágta el a köldökzsinórt, most húzhat vissza a fészekbe. Lejla miatt. A közös emlékek, a közös szerettek miatt. Lejla amúgy olyan, mint egy metafora: a szülőföld metaforája, aki nélkül meghalni se tudunk, de vele meg: élni se. Hiába akarunk neki tetszeni, le se szar minket, életrevalóbbak mutatja magát nálunk, mintha a puszta létével folyton figyelmeztetni akarna, hogy megfutottunk, hogy nem voltunk elég jók. Neki, nekünk. Frusztrálttá és ingerültté tesz minden szava, minden ócska trükkje, élethazugsága, balkáni durvasága. De mégis. Vele nőttünk fel. Közös a múltunk. Ez a múlt persze tört cserép csupán: kölcsönös sérelmek, félig elfeledett örömök törmeléke. Úgyhogy Sara és Lejla beülnek Mostarban egy fehér Opel Astrába, suhannak a gyorsan leszálló éjszakában, és megnézik, megragasztható-e, ami eltörött. Sara, a Bosnian writer and poet, has settled down in Dublin, and has more or less succeeded in forgetting her past, her country of origin and the uncomfortable memories of a fractured, post-war state. One day, however, Sara receives an unexpected phone call from Lejla, the best friend with whom she shared her childhood and coming of age. Even though they have not spoken for twelve years, the voice of Lejla, the special friend with whom Sara shared her childhood and coming of age, draws her back to the Balkans. Lejla’s brother Armin, who disappeared during the atrocities of the Bosnian war, has reappeared in Vienna and Lejla wants her friend to drive her from Bosnia to the Austrian capital to track him down. But what exactly are the two friends looking for? Is it Armin, or is it, perhaps, a better understanding of their shared past? Lana Bastašić’s debut novel, winner of the European Union Prize for Literature 2020, is being published in an English translation by the author herself. The novel’s title – Catch the Rabbit – is an homage to Lewis Carroll and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Like Alice’s surreal adventure underground, Bastašić creates a world which, although rooted in reality, is peopled by figures who are larger than life. Chief amongst these is Lejla, the real protagonist of this novel despite the fact that the narrator is Sara. The story does feature a real rabbit, which is a key element in Sara and Lejla’s shared memories. But it also serves as one of several narrative connections between Catch the Rabbit and Alice. Don’t expect, however, an entertaining children’s book. Like Carroll, Bastašić plays around with narrative logic but her themes and aims are dead serious. This is a novel around friendship along the divisive lines created by war, about adults rethinking and reinterpreting their childhood memories (and not necessarily liking what they find there). It is a book which can be uplifting, but which is equally painful in the realities it brings home to the narrator and, implicitly, the reader. Indeed, if I have a reservation about this English edition, it is the cover. While it brings out nicely the novel’s more fantastical, psychedelic elements, its garish colours also hint at a light-hearted female buddy road novel. Catch the Rabbit is much darker than that. https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2020/12/catch-the-rabbit-by-Lana-Bastasic.htm... no reviews | add a review
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Winner of the 2020 European Union Prize for Literature, Lana Bastašić's powerful debut novel Catch the Rabbit is an emotionally rich excavation of the complicated friendship between two women in a fractured, post-war Bosnia as they venture into the treacherous terrain of the Balkan wonderlands and their own history. It's been twelve years since inseparable childhood friends Lejla and Sara have spoken, but an unexpected phone call thrusts Sara back into a world she left behind, a language she's buried, and painful memories that rise unbidden to the surface. Lejla's magnetic pull hasn't lessened despite the distance between Dublin and Bosnia or the years of silence imposed by a youthful misunderstanding, and Sara finds herself returning home, driven by curiosity and guilt. Embarking on a road trip from Bosnia to Vienna in search of Lejla's exiled brother Armin, the two travel down the rabbit hole of their shared past and question how they've arrived at their present, disparate realities. As their journey takes them further from their homeland, Sara realizes that she can never truly escape her past or Lejla—the two are intrinsically linked, but perpetually on opposite sides of the looking glass. As they approach their final destination, Sara contends with the chaos of their relationship. Lejla's conflicting memories of their past, further complicated by the divisions brought on by the dissolution of Yugoslavia during their childhoods, forces Sara to reckon with her own perceived reality. Like Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend , Catch the Rabbit lays bare the intricacies of female friendship and all the ways in which two people can hurt, love, disappoint, and misunderstand one another. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)891.8336Literature Literature of other languages Literature of east Indo-European and Celtic languages West and South Slavic languages (Bulgarian, Slovene, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Serbo-Croatian, and Macedonian) Croatian and other Shtokavian languages Croatian fiction 1991–LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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During the journey, Sara is forced to confront her origins, her relationships (especially that with Lejla) and the past she so desperately tried to forget. The book is narrated by Sara herself, as if speaking with Lejla and alternates an account of their road trip with past episodes, slowly leading up to the events that led their friendship to fall apart. As a result, everything is filtered by Sara's perception, feelings, and faltering memory. Memories are notoriously unreliable, and Sara's is no exception. It becomes clear quite early on that she and Lejla have very different recollections of the same events, begging the question: where does the truth lie?
I was very much reminded of [a:Elena Ferrante|44085|Elena Ferrante|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png]'s books when reading Catch the Rabbit, both in the relationship between the two main characters (which strongly resembles that between Lenu and Lila) and the narration style, a game of mirrors where the truth is always hiding and individual desires shape the perception of reality. While I didn't particularly like Sara and Lejla as individuals, I did love them as characters. Both are deeply complex and masterfully drawn by the author, showing how the past influences present lives, expectations pollute relationships, and loss and trauma leave deep, often unhealing, wounds.
The writing is exceptional and the author did a wonderful job of translating her work into English. It's clear that every word has been pondered, every sentence expertly crafted, and nothing is left to chance. The circular structure of the book is highly original and clever indeed. It did leave me perplexed for a while when I reached the ending but, once I understood it, I definitely appreciated it. One negative aspect for me was that I struggled with certain passages throughout, and sometimes had to re-read them to ensure I had understood correctly, which slowed the pace for me and took me out of the story. The ending left me with just as many questions as I had at the beginning, and brought me to think about this book long after the final page had been turned.
Catch the Rabbit is a beautiful homage to Alice in Wonderland, where most things and words have multiple meanings, and truth and reality are as elusive as a white rabbit. Steeped in Balkan history and culture, this is a multilayered read touching on several themes, such as friendship, family, identity, diversity, loss, the effects of war and so many more besides - and I'm sure more still would emerge on a re-read. Well-suited to lovers of My Brilliant Friend and Balkan history and those who enjoy deep, complex and problematic characters.
I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way. ( )