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1001 book list, Albania, book review, Feud, Fiction, ismail kadare, Kanun, spring flowers spring frost
Just because a book is part of the 1001 book list, doesn’t guarantee that it will be a good read. Kadare’s ‘Spring Flowers, Spring Frost’ is testament to that. Despite the gushing reviews and the generous comparisons to Gogol, Kafka and Orwell, I found this story to be extremely confusing. The aim of the novel was always a little bit out of my reach. I didn’t quite understand the structure of the ‘chapters’ and ‘counter-chapters’. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough to make sense of it all, but I was expecting the story to have a sound direction at least, a place it was going or taking me. I am afraid to say, Kadare’s characters were uninspiring, I simply wasn’t interested in their wellbeing, which I have found to be absolutely crucial if a story is to at least keep my attention.
There are, however, pockets of brilliance, but these are few and far between. When Kadare is writing about the strange ritualistic laws of the Kanun, it gets exciting. The story about the virgin who married a snake was engrossing, but I was quickly disappointed when Kadare didn’t follow this up. The account itself stood out as a stand-alone piece of information that had no bearing on the reflections of Mark or the inhabitants of the town.
Another thing I have noticed is this edition is translated from the French, which is translated from the original Albanian. This may also be the reason for the negative experience I had. If you are fluent in Albanian, or even French, I guess you my have a better chance of enjoying this short novel. I wouldn’t recommend this book at all, purely because I think a better translation is desperately needed.
I give this book 1/5 stars. I left it half-finshed, which says a lot!
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It was only when I finished reading this novel did I grasp the story, depth of symoblism and absolute beauty of its structure. I am still struggling to understand the symbolic connections in the later part of the book.
The first story of the bride and her snake is reversed with Mark and his girlfriend. Mark destroys the good snake (his girlfriend) as the bride destroyed her beloved snake. Mark does not demonstrate absolute faith in his girlfriend as the wife does not in her snake husband, hence the final disaster of the snake and the girlfriends family.
The Albnian culture and the Karun is represented by the iceberg. Only a small part of the iceberg is visible and the truth is hidden below. As to the cave which holds the secret papers or the book of the karun. The cave is similar to a dark female womb, entombing the darkest truths of Albanian history and culture.
I am sure there are even more deeper levels and symbolic connections to this novel. Indeed, I am in awe of Kadare as a writer. His writing is intellegent and I struggle with its complexity but also am delighted by it.