Vilnius Poker

by Ricardas Gavelis, Elizabeth Novickas (Translator)

Overview

A dark, enigmatic, and visceral examination of the psychology of repression, Vilnius Poker dives into the minds of four narrators whose contradictory memories challenge the very idea of truth. In this masterpiece written "for the drawer," Vilnius itself becomes a presence possessing a will, a consciousness and, worse, an intent. First published in 1989 when Lithuania was on the verge of breaking away from the Soviet Union, this book raised a firestorm for its brutality, frank sex, and its destruction of the myths of Lithuanian history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780996630429
Publisher:	Pica Pica Press
Publication date:	10/08/2016
Pages:	438
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.89(d)

About the Author

Ricardas Gavelis was born in 1950 in Vilnius, Lithuania. He finished his studies in theoretic physics at the University of Vilnius in 1973, the same year his first published stories appeared in the journal Nemunas. He worked at the Institute of Physics and Mathematics for several years before publishing his first book, a collection of short stories, in 1976. He has written seven novels and five short story collections; in addition, he worked at various cultural journals from 1978 to 1982, and as a columnist for a daily newspaper and a newsmagazine from 1992-2002, writing on politics and economics. His work has been translated into French, Polish, German, Latvian, Swedish, English and Finnish. Vilnius Poker, considered by some to be his masterpiece, was a best seller in Lithuania and has gone through six editions. He died suddenly in 2002.

Elizabeth Novickas is a translator and critic, a graduate of the University of Illinois, with a B.A. in Rhetoric from the Urbana campus and a M.A. in Lithuanian Language and Literature from the Chicago campus. She has worked previously as a bookbinder and fine printer in Urbana, Illinois; as a newspaper designer and cartographer in Springfield, Illinois; and as editorial system administrator at the Chicago Sun-Times. Besides translating Lithuanian into English, she has worked as editor of the journal Lituanus. Elizabeth was the recipient of a 2011 translation fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for the translation of Frank Kruk (Pica Pica Press, 2016). In the same year, she won the St. Jerome Prize from the Association of Lithuanian Literary Translators.

Stasys Eidrigevicius, a prolific prize-winning photographer and artist in numerous mediums, was born in 1949 in Lithuania and moved to Poland in 1980. He has exhibited all over the world, including Japan, France, Italy and the United States. His awards include the Grand Prix Savignac '93 at the International Salon of Poster in Paris and a Gold medal from the Society of Illustrators in New York.

Editorial Reviews

"Gavelis's first novel to be translated into English is philosophical, symbolic, and full of imagery that is both disturbing and beautiful. ... Keep reading and you will be rewarded with a provocative and chilling narrative, one that suggests Joyce, Kafka, and Camus." -Library Journal. "Narratives and divergent timelines collide in apparent chaos, without losing the thread of the story for a second. We finally understand: this is a fractal epic, very cleverly put together, where the smallest anecdotal detail refers to the macrocosm of history as a whole. ... Terrifying and awesome." -Mehdi Belhaj Kacem, Philosophie Magazine. "At times shocking, at times depressing, Gavelis's Vilnius bursts with intensity and purpose, demanding that attention be paid to it. This novel is not for the faint of heart; it is a forceful statement that is on its way towards becoming a touchstone of 20th-century literature." -Andrew Wessels, bookslut.com. "Gavelis's urban grunge and his portrayal of the bleakness and absurdity of Soviet life provide the perfect backdrop for what, at times, is a curiously hilarious novel. ... Uncertainty reigns in Gavelis's Vilnius, and the novel challenges its reader with the simple question: who's crazy now?" -Julija Sukys, Lituanus.

From the Publisher

An assemblage of troubled grotesques struggle to retain identity and humanity in an alternately menacing and mysterious Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, under Soviet rule in the 1970s and 1980s. The late Gavelis's first translation into English centers on Vytautas Vargalys, a semijustifiably paranoid labor camp survivor who works at a library no one visits while he desperately investigates the "Them" or "They" responsible for dehumanizing and killing the humans around him, including his wife, Irena; his genius friend, Gedis; and the young siren, Lolita. Meanwhile, failed intellectual Martynas chronicles Vargalys's struggle and the city's mysterious energy in his "mlog," library worker Stefanija Monkeviciute dwells on her wavering faith and personal humiliations, and the city itself speaks in the voice of a dog, claiming that Vilnius can't distinguish dreams from reality. Wrought-and fraught-with symbolism and ennui, the oppressive internal monologues of the characters and the city show the intense importance and equal absurdity of life. (Jan.)

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Publishers Weekly

This is a dark, complex novel about the tragic relationship between Lolita and Vargalys, one of four narrators. He is twice her age and her supervisor at the National Library in Vilnius, Lithuania, where they are building an electronic catalog of a collection that nobody is allowed to access. Of the other three narrators, one is struck and killed by a car mid-thought and another, Vargalys's best friend, renders his version of events after he drowns and his soul transmigrates into a stray dog that roams the streets of Vilnius. The important subtext is the city and its equally tragic history. Garvelis's first novel to be translated into English is philosophical, symbolic, and full of imagery that is both disturbing and beautiful. The novel is so dark, in fact, that readers might despair and stop reading after several dozen pages. Keep reading and you will be rewarded with a provocative and chilling narrative, one that suggests Joyce, Kafka, and Camus. Highly recommended to academic libraries for its scholarly value and to large public libraries.
—K. H. Cumiskey

Library Journal