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Biała Gorączka (2009)

by Jacek Hugo-Bader(Favorite Author)

4.24 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Czarne

review 1: This wasn't what I expected - it's less a travelogue than a collection of essays and interviews. Nonetheless, it's interesting stuff. Large parts of it are really, really sad - segments about indigenous Siberians and alcohol-induced suicides; a couple of interviews with people who have AIDS. Still, it's fascinating and the writing - spare and bleak - is evocative. The author's Polish perspective slips in and out of the narrative, and it's a new angle on this stuff for me, so that's worthwhile.
review 2: The book is interesting not only because of its content, but also thanks to the style in which it is written (it's colloquial, sometimes vulgar as the author's subjects which make reader's reception of the story very real). I have no doubt that it's the most in... moreteresting reportage I've ever read. Yet I disliked a bit its chaotic chronology (can chronology be chaotic?), it distracted me as I was forced to check the year certain chapters were written in before starting reading them in order to place the story in appropriate time slot of my mind. Also, some sentences were redundant (e.g. when the author interrupted his interviewee just not to make the paragraph in the book too long; why did he do that, was it a joke? It wasn't funny to me) and I even spotted two contradictory sentences in one chapter (the author was telling two separate stories, calling one the saddest story he have ever heard and the other the saddest story he have heard in Moldavia. Both stories were told in that country, so wtf?). Such negligence make me doubt the thoroughness of the author. In case of reportage it's a lot bigger drawback than when you deal with fiction. Finally, I found the stories of people from Tyumen quite boring when compared to the most stories presented in the book. Nevertheless "The White Fever" is amazingly interesting and inspirational as a whole. Big thumb up to Jacek Hugo-Bader for his courage and the way he used his talent. less

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