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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