Lazurus Project: the ending.

The beginning of this last section is a gruesome telling of what the pogrom was like in what I believe is during Olga's daydreaming--"they ripped out Mr. Mandelbaum's beard" and "I heard his bones breaking" (241) were just a few sentences that left me shaking. Roza sat throughout the first section hungry while Papa stretch[ed] on the floor to reach his yarmulke, as though something depended on it" (242). I love this. Obviously in times of panic or chaos, people reach out to their religion, even if it is something they often keep in the back of their minds. After the raid upon the house was over, Roza picks up the table settings, puts a few items back where they originally were, and seated herself, again hungry. After something like that, "nothing would ever be the way it used to be. It was impossible to remember what it used to be like at all" (245). Olga snaps out of her daydream when Taube calls her name and finally gets her to take the deal of coming to a funeral for her brother.

In present day, Iuliana, the tour guide at the museum, helps Brik and Rora find a ride. This was a very strange ride that I'll comment on later.

"Silence terrified me--whenever I stopped talking, the possibility of never saying anything again was horribly present" (250). Wow. That's scary to live like this. To live in a constant state of fear. After talking about war crimes for a minute with Iuliana, Brik starts talking a little crazy, saying how he wishes he could break some people's kneecaps. Then Iuliana says: "You are strange. I thought you were from America (251). This is a weird statement. Basically, it means that from a foreign point of view, Americans cannot be violent or used to violence, which is false.

Brik asks Iuliana how she feels about the pogrom and then thinks back to when he asked Mary about one of her patients that died. Iuliana, on one hand, says she feels great love for those people; but, Mary, a neurosurgeon that probably sees death everyday, has no real reaction to the question and simply says: "When a patient dies, I feel that he is dead" (252).

I cannot finish the ending of this book without commenting on the relationship between Azra, a surgeon, and her husband. I can't help but think if this somewhat mirrors the future of Brik and Mary. Anyway, Azra's husband had loyalty to the Serbs and when the shooting started he joined his Chetnik brothers to aim and fire at families like his own. I cannot wrap my head around this situation!! This is craziest thing I've read since the first few pages of the novel.

I love how this book talks about common things in not so common ways. The breakdown of how conversing works: "I could not stop listening, and after I listened I had to speak, and so it went on" (253).

Did I mention somewhere in this blog how I didn't like Rora. Here again it has been confirmed. "He paid some of the kids to run back and forth under fire so [someone] could take a perfect picture" (255). These little kids don't know better, but Rora wants to risk their lives in order to have a good picture. Unbelievable. One of my favorite phrases of this sections follows after: "Nobody deserves death, yet everybody gets it. This reminds me of something I saw on a billboard the other day. It read "why do we kill people that kill people to teach people that killing people is wrong?" So true.

In lament terms, the driver is crazy. Brik is having some interrupted thoughts about Lazurus, some random girl is picked up along the way, and the driver is falling asleep. The poor girl, Elena was obviously not taken anywhere by her choice, or maybe she knows where she was going. Brik isn't very sure. But he knows that he shouldn't judge her, that "each life is legitimized by its rightful owner" (260). At this point where Rora taps the driver and he pulls over to the gas station, I get lost. I don't know what was going on. But, I am pretty sure Rora and Brik beat the driver up. But I don't know why they did and with that much force. At the end of that section, it flashes back to when Lazarus just landed in America and the stories continue to become more and more intertwined.

After the funeral where so called Lazarus is buried for the second time, it is written in the paper that Olga says "Let us return to peace now", which I doubt she says. Especially knowing her brother is not at peace because his main organs were not with his body. I feel awful for Olga who is now in a foreign land all by herself. She finally sees that "dusk obscures the shapes of things". At the end of the day, "she will sit at the table, say nothing to no one, let nothing settle all around her like falling snow"(274).

The very last section of the book is great.

"Nobody seemed to remember me" (278) is followed by a phrase that I remember seeing earlier in the novel: "Home is where somebody notices your absence". So obviously he feels like he could call Sarajevo home. But Azra encourages him to stay and marry one of the women from there. She tells him "there is no life for you in America" (281). I realize that near the end of this book, Brik says "That's me" a lot. He sees himself manifested in everything.

The most beautiful thing is when Brik realizes he could never really be there for Mary, because his heart was elsewhere, and then he goes on to mention all the little tidbits about her which is truly love. It's always good when guys know and remember the little things.

And then Rora is killed in broad daylight. It had to happen. He knew way too much. Ironically, as he lay dying a phone kept playing "Staying Alive". Creepy. Seven bullets. The same amount as Lazarus. Summing it up: "sometimes you have non control over life and i keeps you far away from who you love" (288). Wow. Azra knows a lot of information too, but the book finishes too soon with her fixing Brik's hand, saying that he'll need it for writing since he now has been on one hell of a journey.

Starting and ending with a murder?
Great story.