Synopsis Of A Guide To Random Events

Ştefan Agopian | March 01, 2009

Critic: Florin Bican

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Agopian calls his collection of short stories a novel, the way Gogol calls his novel Dead Souls a poem. The events in each story resonate with events throughout the book, making up a consistent whole and a credible albeit unorthodox plot. It’s not only the main characters – Zadic the Armenian and Ioan the Geographer – that account for the overall consistency. The “events” they trigger or unwittingly get involved in merge with one other out of sheer randomness—and a very well-tempered randomness at that—until all the stories align in retrospect, from exposition to denouement. In crazily alternating bouts of zest and ennui, the two redoubtable characters vigorously set out to do things and then give up half way, only to spin off in a new direction with new gusto and redoubled energy. Their uneven progress unfolds against a myth-ridden background that contributes its fair share of legendary creatures– from anthropoid, armor-clad birds to affable demons and firefly-like entities conversant with Greek philosophy. The heroes interact uninhibitedly with them all.

About this issue

This July, The Observer Translation Project leaves its usual format to present a special CRISIS ISSUE. Things are tough all over. Hard Times suddenly feels like the book of the moment. The global economic crisis impacts life as we know it, and viewed from Bucharest the effects reverberate in domains that include geo-politics and publishing in Romania and abroad, with the crisis at The Observer Translation Project as an instance of a universal phenomenon. read more...

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