Klara Buda’s Chloroform, the book we were all missing

| 15/11/2009

Chloroform, the first novel of gifted author Klara Buda, makes us believe that the Albanian novelists are the latest promising phenomenon in the literary revival of our small Balkan country.

Her novel brings back memories of Kundera’s books or Migel Angel Asturia’s El Senor Presidente. The book is an autopsy of a totalitarian system and the reproduction of a rough reality that turns into a macabre one more than once.

However, the totalitarian reality, as described by a female author, is a monochromatic sketch that hides all the warm and nuanced undercurrents of impressionism permeating it. The way this book is written allowed for it to be read in one sitting. The readers believe in it, because they can feel that the author believes in it too. Sincerity in literature is not a moral category but is expressed in the combination of style, rhythm, syntax and structure.

Klara Buda belongs to that category of writers who do not pander to the reader. Her tone is rough, but gently convincing; she writes macabre prose using a poetic pen. The novel is titled Chloroform, but its contents do not lull the reader to sleep at all. Rather, the style and creativity of writing kicks their amnesiac memories awake by speaking to the readers of a reality invaded by amnesia.

For all these reasons, Chloroform is the book we were all missing in Albanian literature.

Shekulli’s title  Klara Buda’s Chloroform, the book we were all missing

Original language of this post is English, traslated from albanian by Blerta Alikaj