Bulgaria: Party Headquarters (Georgi Tenev, trans. Angela Rodel)
I picked up this book in one of my favorite bookstores, The Seminary Co-op, of which I have been a member-owner for nine years. (Shameless plug: they are an absolutely fabulous independent bookstore, and will ship anywhere, so please consider buying your books from them! https://www.semcoop.com/). Published by Open Letter Press (the subject of a later post), the translation was only published in 2016, although the novella was originally published in Bulgarian in 2006. The book won the Vick Foundation Novel of the Year Award in 2007 as well as the 2015 Contemporary Bulgarian Writers Contest.
Some background: After World War II, Bulgaria's monarchy was abolished, and in 1946 a one-party people's republic came into being. Under Georgi Dimitrov (1946-1949), Bulgaria came under Soviet/Stalinist influence, resulting in both increased industrialization and political repression. Between the '50s and '80s, things did generally improve; standards of living got better, society was slightly more open, however the planned economy still left some periodic economic difficulties. On November 10, 1989 the Communist Party gave up their political hegemony as the Eastern Bloc fell, and Bulgaria transitioned to a parliamentary democracy. In June of 1990, during the first democratic elections, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (basically just the renamed Communist Party) won, and the weak government led to lower quality fo life than under communism existed more or less until 2001.
Told from the perspective of the son-in-law of one Bulgaria’s Communist Party bosses, who is currently dying, the story focuses on vignettes in which the nameless son-in-law talks of his need to deliver a suitcase of one-and-a-half million euros for his father-in-law, the Chernobyl disaster, the arson attack that took place on the Communist Party Headquarters, his many relationships with prostitutes and the party boss’s daughter (I think? unclear), and his personal and political feelings about the current state of Bulgarian politics. Quite short, I have somewhat mixed feelings about it. On one hand, the writing style is fun, and a bit postmodern. It jumps around in short bursts, and I enjoyed the quick switches to different topics, but it is very very hard to follow. There is no clear plot as far as I could tell, and the total lack of names makes it uncertain if characters come back or are different (especially in regards to the protagonist’s sexual partners). I decided early on to abandon any attempt to make a timeline in my head, and rather just immersed myself in each section individually. Of particular enjoyment was the section on the Bulgarian Space Program. Would I recommend this book? I am not sure; if you really enjoy reading different types of writing styles, I think it is a worthwhile read, especially given how short it is (123 pages), or if you are looking for a bizarre, broken-glass view into the Bulgarian political situation after the fall of Communism. Not terrible, not amazing.
