Atdtda34: Details one had simply ignored, 954-956 #1

[Joseph Tracy]

agree. Ljubica (meaning love or kiss)seems a very natural person born in a very human and simplified landscape of Bulgaria, the  oddly still center of the coming storm  where most of the weirdness is gone or external.The Balkan folk are aware of what is moving all around them but are settled into treasuring their own lives, roses, food, babies, song. Cyprian seems utterly wearied with desire, lusts, games, the great game, wars, maybe even deeper things like time or individuality.  
On Jan 21, 2012, at 10:31 AM, Paul Nightingale wrote:

> Ljubica's freedom is Reef's "second chance", another reminder of Jesse. The
> current chapter has featured several such reminders, or repetitions, for
> both Reef and Cyprian. For Cyprian, the text recalls his career to date:
> "old Ratty McHugh" (932) and the narrative that opens up thereafter, "the
> moment in Salonica ..." etc (939), Gabrovo Slim (947), the introspection of
> "the only thing he could be certain of ..." etc (949), the recognition of
> Vamos (951), the final paragraph of 64.12 (954). However, Reef has
> frequently provided repetition-as-translation: "[k]ind of like Omaha" and
> "five dollars" (945), "holding Jesse the first time" (950), the reference to
> Kit (950), the "second chance" (954). For Reef, then, these moments do not
> advance the narrative as they do for Cyprian. In particular, Cyprian is
> isolated by introspection (949, 954), even though the narrative has been
> driven by the characters that he (re)introduces. Cf his perspective on the
> Halkata (955). Here, wandering ("as if blindly obeying a compass fatally
> sensitive to anomaly") is juxtaposed to the certainties of fate: the
> "raptors" that presage "what was soon to break over [the country]", followed
> by the "local curse" that hastens Cyprian's recollection of "[t]he last time
> I was out here". If Reef resists transformation, Cyprian sees local culture
> as an alternative to the past: "Details one had simply ignored at Cambridge
> or Vienna ..." etc.
>