Product Description

From one of Serbia's greatest contemporary writers, this novel opens with the narrator finding a mysterious, blank envelope stuck in his front door inviting him to a private showing of a movie. Things get more mysterious when the cinema is empty except for a single woman and the movie' includes a scene showing himself sitting in a park. Believing he is an unwitting participant in a hidden camera show, he goes along with the variety of setups he's faced with, which continue to get more and more absurd - but he keeps up the ruse to its thrilling conclusion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #377036 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 217 pages

Review
"Ž ivković does a superb job of communicating the befuddlement, confusion, and awe of individual characters as they wrestle with mysteries that exceed the understanding that their time, place and intellectual capacity permits."

Customer Reviews

Part thriller, part morality play
‘HC’ follows a surreal evening in the life of a rather starchy undertaker. He receives a mysterious invitation to attend a local cinema and , assuming it is some sort of promotional event, goes along. He is surprised to find he is almost alone in the cinema, even more so when the film that starts playing shows him eating his lunch on the park bench he goes to every day. Another mysterious invitation follows, inviting him to be at a bookshop an hour later. As the evening progresses he is lead, via these notes, on a trail around his home town. He never meets the people leading him on, and assumes that he is taking part in some reality TV show. As the evening progresses however, we (and he) begin to realise that he is being forced to address life and death (literally) issues by his enigmatic hosts.
‘HC’ was very easy to read, and a well put together modern morality play. It has been compared to (and also reminded me of) the rather oblique sci-fi of Calvino. However, it was a bit too silly for my liking, and compounded this by appearing to take itself very seriously. The undertaker’s attitude and behaviour were irritating and unlikely. Zivkovic perhaps needed a protagonist like this to make the storyline work, but I quickly found that suspending disbelief was difficult. Nevertheless, I read this book quickly, and did enjoy it, but think that I will forget about it equally quickly. I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from reading this, but I also wouldn’t suggest that anyone rush out to get it.

paranoid fantasy.
i really enjoyed this book. its not exactly your average tale. the main character is a man who cant eat a sandwich on the train in front of others, and spends his nights watching his tropical fish because they calm him..and yet he ventures out all night through some of the most bizzare places in the city because of an anonymous letter and notes which appear in his pockets. throughout the book he is convinced that 'they' are trying to get one over on him, so, as you would, he breaks into the zoo in the middle of the night..and watches a couple (who he is convinced are the same people he has seen in some of the other strange scenarios, despite having nothing even slightly similar) playing and singing, in the monkey cage, music so amazing (which he has heard earlier on the radio in a taxi..sort of)that he is entranced and cant leave. the thing i liked about this book is that i so much would like to hear that music..in fact i almost could hear it...and i wanted to know what the end of this nightmarish and paranoid night would yield. i thought it was amusing in a slightly jittery way, and certainly interesting..and i liked the fact that you are never quite sure what is really happening, if, in fact anything is. do 'they' exist or is he just having a paranoid psychotic episode..well, you tell me..i have no idea.