One of the strangest texts I've encountered. The book is a series of reports and interviews and stories told by anonymous victims and survivors of some unnamed police state bordering on martial law. The pastiche would be odd enough, structurally, even without the book's main conceit. Which is: these accounts all appear in "translation" (though the translator is not identified, and plus there seem to be multiple modes of translation, suggesting a small army in charge of these accounts), and the translations are often very bad, as if manufactured by individuals with only some vague inkling of the English language. The effect is really chilling. Most remarkably, Kelman ends up creating something like STORY from this insane morass. I think the book is brilliant, and sui generis. The only thing keeping me from that fifth star, is the fact that the work I put in was a little bit in excess of the reward I ultimately received. Anyway, I'm a weirdo. Not too many people would enjoy this, I'll bet.
What do You think about Translated Accounts (2002)?
