COVER STORY

Zift by Vladislav Todorov translated by Joseph Benatov

For When: The reds want you dead

by Matt Jakubowski

Published: Jun 16, 2010


(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Potent stuff distilled from ugly memories, already a cult movie in Bulgaria, Zift is like a flaming shot of rotgut smuggled in from the old country.

In this 2006 novel now available in English, local Bulgarian prof Vladislav Todorov adroitly uses the American genre of noir to excoriate the political villains of his homeland's past. Even Todorov's opening quote from Stalin, "Death solves all problems — no man, no problem," proves a dictator's rant can make for great pulp fiction.

Thanks to local translator Joseph Benatov, under local publisher Paul Dry, Zift is gritty and brisk. It's narrated in savage, haunting tones by Moth, a bookish scrapper put in prison for murder when the fascists took power in 1944. Cut to 1963, Moth is welcomed to now-communist Bulgaria by being stripped, tortured with a crowbar, poisoned, half-frozen, then chased across the socialist ruins of the capital Sofia by an evil military goon named Slug.

Two subplots hinge on a black diamond and Ada, a femme fatale whose name means "hell" in Bulgarian. Amid the bullets, sex and betrayals, a few scenes suffer from obvious social commentary and weak political jokes. ("What's two stakes, a rope, a saw and a hammer? A Siberian toilet.") But there's plenty of stylish gloom and lasting imagery, like Moth's mentor with "a glass eye that would often pop out, especially when he was boxing."

History's demons get the last laugh in this noir fantasy. They stick Moth with a real-world choice: "the forced-labor madhouse" or the grave.

Paul Dry, 200 pp., $14.95, July 1

Comments

... an inebriatingly delightful first paragraph.
by Anyah Manya on June 27th 2010 12:58 AM

Whoa! This is a long one! I'll have to read the whole thing when I finaly get home because the topics seem interesting.
by clip in hair extensions on May 10th 2011 9:33 PM



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