Book Review of The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov (trans Angela Rodel)

Name of Book: The physics of sorrow 

Author: Georgi Gospodinov trans Angela Rodel

ISBN: 978-1-324-09489-0

Publisher: Liveright 

Type of book: history, Bulgaria, maze, 1930s to 2000s, travel, deaths, Theseus and the minotaur myth, secrets, generational trauma, Soviet Union 

Year it was published: 2024 (original 2011) 

Summary:

The “quirky [and] compulsively readable” (New York Times) precursor to the 2023 International Booker Prize–winning Time Shelter.

Written with a “formal playfulness [that] suggests Kundera with A.D.D.” (illage Voice), Georgi Gospodinov’s The Physics of Sorrow became an underground cult classic upon its 2012 release. In a radical reimagining of the minotaur myth, a narrator named Georgi constructs the story of his life like a labyrinth, meandering through the past to find the melancholy child at the center of it all. Spanning from antiquity to the Anthropocene, he catalogs curious instances of abandonment, recounts scenes of a turbulent boyhood in 1970s Bulgaria, and even has a bizarre run-in with an eccentric flâneur named Gaustine. The result is a profoundly moving portrait of communist Bulgaria, in which the “real quest . . . is to find a way to live with sadness, to allow it to be a source of empathy and salutary hesitation” (Garth Greenwell, New Yorker).

Winner of the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature

Finalist for the PEN Literary Award for Translation and the Strega Europeo

Characters:

The characters were that from the myth of the Minotaur as well as our guide, the male narrator. The Minotaur and Theseus were portrayed in a lot of ways, but Minotaur was incredibly sympathetic to the reader. Theseus it varies. But yes, the story was not big on exploring characters personality. 

 
Theme:

What is the point of it all

Plot:

The story is written in first person narrative and it explores the maze of history in Bulgaria using the myth of Minot air as well as the boyhood and modern history. The novel covers up things from time capsules to childhood history to family history as well as cultural history. In truth you don't know where will the author take you. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads) 

Georgi Gospodinov is a writer, poet and playwright based in Sofia, Bulgaria. He studied Bulgarian Philology at Sofia University. Later he defended a PhD on New Bulgarian literature with the Bulgaria Academy of Science's Institute for Literature. He is one of the most translated Bulgarian authors after 1989. He published the first Bulgarian graphic novel The Eternal Fly (Вечната муха).

Opinion:

From prologue I had an impression that we would be traveling through multitude of lives (in fact I was wondering which part of prologue will focus on which chapter?) While in a way we do, but it wasn't as varied as I had hoped. I definitely wouldn't describe this as a novel because it felt very autobiographical to me and it weaved in and out a lot. It definitely felt as if the author and I are in a maze of history, trying to figure out an exit, except a question: what will we gain from being in a maze? 

This was given for review 

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)