4 out of 4 stars
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By Kolya S.
Suckers, as I will be calling this book throughout this review, tells the story of one man, Peter. As we begin the story, Peter is a depressed middle aged immigrant from the former Yugoslavia living in London. He is married to a woman he has little concern for and has two sons of whom he questions paternity. He feels isolated from the London in which he lives and spends his time wallowing with long sessions of YouTube, watching old music videos and speeches from his home country.
Today, Yugoslavia is no longer a country and has dissolved into many smaller countries divided on ethnic and religious lines. But it is in the not-as-of-yet dissolved Yugoslavia that the story takes us next.
Peter is born in Bugojno in the country now referred to as Bosnia and Herzegovina. Interestingly, although he spends all of his childhood in this city, he always feels that his time there is temporary. He likens it to a gay man always having known he was different even before he knew exactly what it was. Peter knows he is going to leave even before he understands entirely what that means.
As he grows up, Peter becomes interested in girls, develops a serious love affair with cigarettes, and goes off to university a few hours’ drive away from his hometown. He is not a perfect student, and eventually opts instead for an offer to get him into London. There, he deals with being an immigrant, finding jobs, and meeting new people.
Suckers is not a plot driven book. It is more of a biopic, albeit perhaps a fictional one. This is the story of one man’s life: Peter’s. The author, Kolya S., is not interested in making grand statements or generalizations about larger issues, but rather he is content to simply allow Peter to be. We see the breakup of Yugoslavia and the conflict associated through Peter’s eyes, the eyes of someone living in a different country who seems to have little personally invested in his home country.
Peter is a lovably superficial character. He is a delightful contrast to the ‘strong, silent’ cliché so frequent in literature. Lacking any sort of introspection, he simply does what he can with what he has and doesn’t waste time thinking about what isn’t. If something gets beyond his control, he tries his hardest to simply adapt and move on. Peter doesn’t dwell on being an immigrant, and in fact about the only things he ever does dwell on are women’s breasts. He has lots of thoughts about those.
There was a moment, early on, when I realized that this book was written specifically for me. I don’t mean that literally, but every single element of Suckers attracted me and kept me reading and hoping it would never end. It started with a description in which the formation of Yugoslavia and its major players (Tito being the most significant) are metaphorically related to players in a soccer game. I have read many books about the subject and take quite an interest, but this metaphor was simply the best and most concise explanation of what actually happened I’ve ever read.
All of the characters in Suckers feel like real people. They are not necessarily relatable or even likable, but they are always three dimensional. The style of writing is deliberate and clear. Kolya S. doesn’t use unnecessary adjectives or other adornments. He does frequently include pop culture references. The music that is popular or the movies people were seeing, all of these additions give substantiation to these characters actually living in the real world. There are a few typos in my copy, with one huge example being in a chapter heading written as “Weding Suit.” These never distracted from the story and were infrequent.
I found very little information about the author in my research for this review, but I suspect many of the experiences are based on real events and people. Many of the details are just too sharp to have been created solely by imagination.
Finally, I would like to end this review with a caveat: Suckers is not for everyone. It is slow and requires that you like spending time with Peter, the main character. It is also one of the best books I have ever read. I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars.
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Yugoslavia and London for immigrant suckers
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