Standing Again by Dhimitër Xhuvani: How to stand up when life puts you down?
This is going to be the review of a book that unfortunately can only be found in the original language, Albanian. In my opinion, many of the excellent works of Albanian authors of the previous century have been left, forgotten, untranslated and isolated. One of the reasons, at least from my perspective, is the heavy socio-realism background, forced into these books by the communist regime of the dictator Enver Hoxha. I read Standing Again (“Përsëri në këmbë”) during my junior high school days, probably in seventh grade. It was one of those summers, when I used to live with my grandparents, who needed someone to help them in daily chores. They didn’t have a TV, so I spent my free time buried into the magical worlds of books (not necessarily age appropriate)....
Read MoreDan Brown’s Digital Fortress and my admission to a little bit of snobbery in my reading taste…
Recently, I found Digital Fortress in a lonely corner in a bookshop near Kasai station, Tokyo. Although I had decided, many years ago, not to read Dan Brown’s works anymore, my hand reached for it. See, I have been doubting my fiction taste recently, suspecting of snobbism. Now that I finished it, I would like to write down a couple of things on the book. First of all, it is a story that I would have loved to discuss with someone I had known ages ago. While reading, the memory of a cold December afternoon in the streets of Pristina, surfaced in my head. I was walking home from school, talking with this acquaintance of mine, probably debating something, fiercely. She was into science and science-fiction (her favorite movie was Avatar, 2009) and we often had...
Read MoreDear old friend,
You know, I’m not an equal parts naïve and shy teenager anymore. I grew into a man, with a backbone. I don’t idealize you, nor do I pretend to know everything there is to know about you. But I know enough. Enough to care, enough to love. If I give you different shapes, doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize the real you, the real deal. You were there for me when no one was. Beyond that, you were where no one could be, even if they wanted to. We are out of sync now, when you write long, I can’t put two words together, when I’m burning, you’re cold. Yet, I know, it cannot be a coincidence, the time we feel each-other, the time we write. I don’t harm myself on purpose anymore, I’m still hooked to hard medicine and...
Read MoreFever Dreams and Phone Conversations…
Just listening to your voice, from the other side of the world, makes me sleepless, nostalgic and turns me into a chronic smoker. How can none of them be healthy, yet then is the only time I feel alive!? Aren’t we taught that unhealthy -> less life!? I wrote you so often, but only in unsent papers Name(required) Email(required) Website Message Submit Δ . Sometimes, in tissues left behind on restaurant tables, served by Japanese smiling robots and self serving drink bars, when all human contact was devoid. Left behind, the tissues, smeared with ink and words of affection, looked like artefacts of lost times. As I closed the door to leave, I imagined the confusion on the virtual face on the robots’ screen. Sometimes I wrote in third person, not...
Read MoreLost & Found!
You are not lost, you are just misplaced! Sometimes we can’t find things and we start believing that they are lost forever, but one day we find them again and realize that we just changed their place. Similarly, we often feel lost in life. Our jobs, our lives, don’t seem to have much meaning. If you feel lost, I’m here to tell you that you are just misplaced and one day you will find yourself again. Keep searching for the light....
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