#ReadAroundTheWorld. #Moldova

This is a tragicomic novel written by Moldovan author Vladimir Lorchenkov about the plight of his country. Moldova is the poorest country in Europe, and in this story, the entire population, including the President, dreams of escaping to Italy. The book uses dark humour to relate the crazy schemes the villagers of Largo instigate in their attempt to reach the promised land of Italy. Serafim has spent years researching and studying to create his new life in Italy, unfortunately, as the library book had no cover, he has been studying the wrong language. Vassily works to turn his tractor into a plane, and the villagers train to become a competitive hurling team.

Although this book relates the tragedy of Moldova and is clever and satirical, the humour is just not for me. It is often grotesque, frequently involves death, and just feels ludicrous to me, like a Moldovan version of Waking Ned Devine, although far less pleasant. I’m glad I persisted but if there was a sequel I definitely wouldn’t sign up. ( )

This is a satire about life in Moldova. As one of the poorest nations in Europe, everyone is looking for a better life – mostly in Italy. Even the more well to do are trying to get out, as are the politicians.

Lots of silly and sillier attempts to escape, including a religious crusade wandering from town to town.

At one point a law is passed that it is unlawful to speak of Italy as a real place. When one character’s daughter comes home to Moldova for a visit from Italy where she is a nun …. Well, there’s only one solution.

Unfortunately, satire isn’t my favorite genre. After a few chapters it can feel like the same joke is being told repeatedly. Still, there were some chuckles. And now, I can (probably) find Moldova on a map as well as having read a bit of its history from online sources. ( )

I enjoyed this book a lot, but I would have enjoyed it more if it had been proofread more carefully. There were a lot of careless errors that distracted me from the story, which is a shame, because it was a fun read otherwise.

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: The Good Life Elsewhere is a very funny book. It is also a very sad one. Moldovan writer Vladimir Lorchenkov tells the story of a group of villagers and their tragicomic efforts, against all odds and at any cost, to emigrate from Europe’s most impoverished nation to Italy for work. The Good Life Elsewhere aims to present the complexity of a new Europe, where allegiances shift but memories are rooted in place. The book integrates small-scale human follies with strategic partnerships, unification plans, and the Soviet legacies that still hang over the former Eastern Bloc. Lorchenkov addresses the vexing question of what to do when many formerly pro-Soviet/pro-Russia countries want to link arms with their Western European brethren. In this uproarious tale, an Orthodox priest is deserted by his wife for an art-dealing atheist; a mechanic redesigns his tractor for travel by air and sea; thousands of villagers take to the road on a modern-day religious crusade to make it to the promised land of Italy; meanwhile, politicians remain politicians.

Like many great satirists from Voltaire to Gogol to Vonnegut, Lorchenkov makes use of the grotesque to both horrify us and help us laugh. It is not often that stories from forgotten countries such as Moldova reach us in the English-speaking world. A country where 25 percent of its population works abroad, where remittances make up nearly 40 percent of the GDP, where alcohol consumption per capita is the highest in the world, and which has the lowest per capita income in all of Europe – this is a country that surely has its problems. But, as Lorchenkov vividly shows, it’s a country whose residents don’t easily give up.

Russian critics have praised Lorchenkov’s work, calling this novel “a bleeding, wild work, grotesque in every twist of its plot and in every character, written brightly, bitterly, humorously, and – paradoxically, as we’re dealing with the grotesque – honestly.” In The Good Life Elsewhere, Vladimir Lorchenkov shows himself to be a fearless critic, an enduring optimist, and a master stylist. And he does it all “in vivid colors, with a pamphleteer’s spite, and a good-humored smile.”

My Review: When I was a tot, I loved the Warner Brothers-Merrie Melodies cartoons. My mother, vigilant on the subject of what and how much TV I could watch, wrinkled her nose and pursed her lips like last night's prune whip was disagreeing with her, but ultimately gave in.

Joy! Unrestricted access to the Meep-Meep Duck!

"...the...Meep...Dick, what have you been telling the boy? And what does that mean?"

As everyone my age knows already, it was the Roadrunner, and how I loved those gravity-defying falls Wile E. Coyote took, the razzberry the Roadrunner invariably blew at him, and of course MEEP MEEP!!

The entire book, I felt like the Moldovan people one and all were the collective reincarnation of Wile E. Coyote. "All the poor bastard ever wanted was some lunch," was my father's summation of the cartoons. Yeah, I thought every time another hare-brained scheme to get to Italy failed, all the poor bastards want is some food!

And somehow, through some collective karmic deficiency, not one success story leavens this heavy dough. But the icing of absurdity and dreamy impracticality kept me smiling and turning pages.

I wanted to send the poor guys contact information for the Acme Corporation, but couldn't figure out how. ( )

** spoiler alert ** What a hoot! The Good Life Elsewhere is an excellent example of the well established satire genre of the Balkans. Mostly concerned with the good citizens of the Moldovan village of Larga, the novel chronicles the various attempts of Moldovans to "make it." For most, this means somehow immigrating to Italy. Just how this can be done is the crux of the whole thing. Largans, and Moldovans in general, try many inventive and hilarious methods to reach the paradise known as Italy, including bribing the Italian Consulate in Romania to give them visas, flying a tractor, making a submarine, forming a curling team, not one but two crusades, and faking their own death in a plane crash... Lorchenkov brings these madcap stories together with biting satire and absurd humor, never losing touch of the human suffering and melancholy.

Laughter aside, the novel lays bare a desperation and a yearning for the better that is laced with violence, poverty, ignorance, and corruption. Moldovans are seriously criticized for being loafers, while their government and the Soviets are criticized for being corrupt and opportunistic. The EU is portrayed as the paradise of the elite at best, and slavers and crooks feeding on the helpless immigrants at worst. Needless to say, among the hilarity and the political criticism, most of the stories are actually very sad and poignant. Perhaps the one story that is told throughout the book, for which the reader has the most complete picture, is that of Serafim, whose obsession with Italy costs him and others dearly.

Interestingly, there are a few voices of reason in the novel, and they seem to all be hardworking, honest men of their trade. There is Eremei the stovemaker, who is an expert at his job and a smart man who uses his oratorical gifts to try to convince the villagers that Italy does not exist (though he is well aware that it does). There is the goldsmith who is the best in his trade in Ungheni, who explains to Father Paisii the true nature of freedom in Europe (that the crusaders will be allowed to do whatever they want, of course, unless they want to do it in EU territories, which the EU won't allow). Perhaps most touching are the words of the hardworking farmer, Old Man Tudor, who gives an impromptu sermon at the church due to a broken heart and tells Largans that "Italy-the real Italy-is in us ourselves!"

Lorchenkov pokes fun at almost everyone in the novel, including Americans, Soviets, Russians, Romanians, Albanians, Italians, and of course, Moldovans. But in the end, there is hope. This hope comes at a very high price, and perhaps that's what's sad about it.

Highly recommended for those who like world politics, walnuts, and curling. ( )