One of the better writers in
the field of American immigrant fiction, which is a term I have made which
includes any writer who writes about the experience of moving to America from another
country, would be Aleksandra Hemon, and his second novel, The Lazarus Project,
is a good example of why he is a step above many other writers in this field. I
have said in the past that these kinds of stories are really more hit than miss
for me most of the time because it has, as its focus, something that has been
done so many times before, and it is so difficult to make it work and be fresh
and new. Luckily, Hemon is able to do that most of the time with this novel,
even if you get lost in details and obscure history. This is quite the
departure from his first novel Nowhere Man, which really acted as his
introduction to the fiction world. The Lazarus Project is a more
straight-forward novel compared to Nowhere Man. Gone are the funny ways he used
his newly found grasp of English to overcompensate for his lack of experience,
but he does have two different stories being told at once, that overlap quite
intricately. The first one deals with a young immigrant named Lazarus who is
shot outside the chief of police’s house in Chicago and is labeled an anarchist
assassin, and how this event affects the life of his sister. The modern day
story deals with a writer named Brik, travels with a friend to Bosnia to
research Lazarus life for a book. Both storylines are quite interesting, with
enough action to counteract some of the confusing historical details and
blatant symbolism (one character is literally named Bruno Schulz, which made me
laugh). You could read worse, and for the most part I’d suggest you read it.
Rating: 4/5
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