RaveThe Arkansas InternationalDoesn’t read like a translation at all. Nor does it read like anything you’ve ever perused ... takes readers on a wild romp through a kaleidoscope of postmodern fairy tales ... might not seem to lend itself to translation, so bursting with slang, neologisms, tongue-in-cheek zingers, and off-the-cuff historical and literary references, yet one cannot deny the sheer Dadaist power and Seussian flare ... Bán’s humor transcends language barriers, and Tucker’s translation never leaves us wondering what we’ve missed out on by not speaking Hungarian. A must-read for anyone who needs a break from the grim currents of contemporary literature, yet still craves the heady thrill of a really smart book.
Dubravka Ugresic, Trans. by Ellen Elias-Bursac and Celia Hawkesworth
PositiveThe Arkansas InternationalUgrešić’s American Fictionary displays the darkly comic, genre-bending prose that has long established her as a commentator on the breakup of Yugoslavia, the rise of mass consumerism, and the plights of displaced persons. Celia Hawkesworth and Ellen Elias-Bursać, established Ugrešić translators, offer English readers a deft rendering of her prose, marked by wry observations and a dizzying associative capacity ... Ugrešić presents each essay as an entry in a fictional dictionary, but her organizing principles are poetical, not alphabetical ... In the years since Ugrešić penned these essays, they’ve only grown more relevant.
