About a book

Original title: Venussha(Ťažký týždeň)

Genre: novel

Slovak edition: Edition Ryba

Foreign editions: Czech (Albatros Media 2013)

CONTENT

The book with the subtitle Comic novel for teenagers and their regretful parents from the author of ​the successful book When the dog laughs with humor captures the "trouble" of the thirteen-year-​old heroine. The book is an original combination of ordinary text with comic pages. Venusshe (Perný ​týden), This time we watch the story through the eyes of a girl. In it, Lucie experiences a difficult ​week in which she celebrates her thirteenth birthday, but which is also full of questions: Will her idol, ​Lukáš, who is a year older, finally decide to do something? But there are also others... Merkucio from ​the dramatist, Tibi... and that boy from the park, what's her name? And what about classmates from ​an enemy gang? Can you live without television? And how can you at least escape from parental ​attacks for a while? Will the father finally find a job? An unconventional novel with comic strips that ​earned inclusion in the prestigious catalog of important children's books White Raven 2013.

REVIEWS


"...parents become people," we can also find such a teenage saying as a motto in ​the new (second in order) novel (not only) for young people by Juraj Šebesta ​with the subtitle Comic novel for teenagers and their regrettable parents. The ​protagonist is a thirteen-year-old girl, but let's not expect a conventional girl's ​novel. The book goes far beyond such a genre by taking in the reflected social ​issues: there are not only worries about love and peers, but questions of ​generational relations (parents struggling with how to understand the world of ​today's teenagers; teenagers trying to understand themselves and accept the ​"deadly" world of their parents). , but also the question of the social status of the ​family (in which the unemployed father is a housewife and the mother earns ​money) or images of various absurdities in private and social relationships. ​Naturally, the dog has its role in the family this time as well. Simply: Šebesta has ​created a social novel for young people par excellence: funny, thoroughly original, ​unusually faithfully absorbing the characteristic symptoms of contemporary ​social and linguistic practice, extremely attractive to the reader. Where do these ​values come from? Of course, also from the authenticity of the processed ​material of life: the seven chapters of the novel are actually seven days of ​Lucia's life - in a week that is "difficult" because the thirteenth birthday ​celebration has to be prepared - to decide who to invite or not to invite; one ​must experience the first date; survive the consequences of parental ​association; to exist without television and computer; keep your fingers crossed ​for your father so that he finally succeeds in getting a job... However, the novel is ​attractive and innovative, mainly due to its expedient procedures and the ​narrative perspective realized more or less on the principle of multiplex ​switches: sometimes an objective narrator is used, other times a direct ​statement of individual characters is used, or a personalized narrator with an ​inner monologue, there is also an imitation of a dramatic dialogue or a short ​flashback, or a reproduction of "face" communication.

Slovak Literary Center

Narrative procedures make the events special and dynamic, they model the ​character of the characters and their mutual relationships in a more detailed ​way, they also allow a deeper insight into the depicted issue (than the choice of ​an exclusively thirteen-year-old narrator would allow) and create an ​unobtrusively comic dimension to it. The line of the narration is modified by the ​comic passages: sometimes they complete the sequence of the story from the ​point of view of another character, other times they make a problem ​understandable and tolerable, far from the spontaneous interest of teenagers, ​sometimes they move the plot into a slightly parodic position, they underline the ​drama of the situations (exchange of opinions between parents and children), ​they help adults understand the well-observed (and consulted) language of ​teenagers and their style of expression, etc. The comic thus became a ​functional and thoroughly organic compositional component of the novel, as well ​as its building principle. Juraj Šebesta's novel speaks to teenagers with their ​problems, their perception and language, their communication methods and ​channels. It offers adults the opportunity to look into the world of young people, ​which is quite different from the world of their youth.”


Slovak Literary Center



EXTRACT


Even though I returned, my parents were sitting in the living room, as if they had been silent for a while. It seemed to ​me that my mom had reddened eyes, probably from crying. I don't know if she's been staring at the computer for numbers ​and tables all day.

They looked puzzled. It surprised me, but I still didn't engage with them. "You were the last to leave the apartment," ​she added. I shrugged. The fact is, I had enough on my plate with drama class...

"They didn't open by themselves. You should lock and close them," I just shrugged again. "There's still Gismo here, in ​case something happens, we thought. But how cuddly that tvymahacum was, a mischief-maker."

"So you won't communicate with us... That's a disaster, how forgetful you both are. One day we'll be robbed or something ​will explode here." I preferred to retreat to my room, but hunger drove me to the kitchen. In the fridge, I found ​grandma's bryndza spread, which I love, and I also found a piece of bread that was only two days old. I'll survive! I ​hate pork dishes, whatever she cooked again, I can't stand it, I developed an allergy from school cafeterias. Did I ​really forget to close the door???

"I knew it would end up like this," I heard my mom say. "We should have borrowed from someone in the family."








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