The Lazarus Project is a 2008 novel by Bosnian fiction writer and journalist Aleksandar Hemon. It features the true story of the death of Lazarus Averbuch, a teenaged Jewish immigrant to Chicago who was shot and killed by a police officer in 1908. It was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as, the winner of the inaugural Jan Michalski Prize for Literature in 2010.[1][2]
 First edition cover design | |
| Author | Aleksandar Hemon |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Riverhead Books |
Publication date | 1 May 2008 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 304 pp |
| ISBN | 978-1-59448-988-4 |
| OCLC | 183267842 |
Reception
editAccording to Book Marks, the book received a "positive" consensus, based on eleven critic reviews: five "rave", five "positive", and one "pan".[3] Culture Critic assessed critical response as an aggregated critic score of 78% based on press reviews.[4] On July/August 2008 issue of Bookmarks, the book received a 
(3.5 out of 5) based on critic reviews with a summary saying, "Hemon’s prose and wit keep The Lazarus Project lively, and the story is no less compelling 100 years later".[5]
The Lazarus Project received starred reviews from Booklist,[6] Kirkus Reviews,[7] and Publishers Weekly.[8]
Kirkus called the book "[a] literary page-turner that combines narrative momentum with meditations on identity and mortality."[7]
Glyn Maxwell with London Review of Books commented, "Stories. True stories, false stories, good stories, rotten stories. Everything in Hemon’s beautiful new novel trembles within this matrix, where a story’s force or charm is at least as significant as its veracity."[9]
Numerous reviewers highlighted Hemon's prose. Publishers Weekly said, "Hemon’s workmanlike prose underscores his piercing wit, and between the murders that bookend the novel, there’s pathos and outrage enough to chip away at even the hardest of hearts."[8] Booklist's Donna Seaman agreed with the sentiment: "Hemon’s sentences seethe and hiss, their dangerous beauty matched by Velibor Bozovic’s eloquent black-and-white photographs, creating an excoriating novel of rare moral clarity."[6] Carol Anshaw, writing for Los Angeles Times added, "Hemon is immensely talented-a natural storyteller and a poet, a maker of amazing, gorgeous sentences in what is his second language."[10]
In Literary Review, John Dugdale wrote: "Aleksandar Hemon is essentially a miniaturist with a flair for stylistically striking description, at his best here in passages evoking Olga’s apartment and neighbourhood. On this evidence he should stick to the sketches and short stories at which he excels, rather than acceding to the familiar pressures to produce long-form fiction."[11]
Writing for the New York Times, Cathleen Schine says the book is "a remarkable, and remarkably entertaining, chronicle of loss and hopelessness and cruelty propelled by an eloquent, irritable existential unease. It is, against all odds, full of humor and full of jokes."[12]
Writing for The Guardian, James Lasdun provided a negative review, noting
The Lazarus Project is one of several recent books that orbit these subjects. Its sentiments are all very correct and laudable, but as a novel it seems to me largely a failure. It opts, initially, for the oblique angle... Period reconstruction clearly isn't Hemon's game... What seem to interest him more are the various practical and metaphysical questions raised by his own desire to tell the story. The result is a familiar postmodern construction: a novel about the writing of a novel ...Lacking the pressure of a plot, these passages stake everything on their pure interest as writing.[13]
| Year | Award/Honor | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Booklist Editors' Choice: Adult Books | Selection | [14] |
| Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Fiction | Winner | ||
| National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction | Finalist | [7][15] | |
| National Book Award for Fiction | Finalist | [7] | |
| 2009 | Society of Midland Authors Award for Adult Fiction | Winner | [16] |
| 2010 | Jan Michalski Prize for Literature | Winner | [1][2] |
See also
edit- Isaiah Eleven (2008) novel set in Chicago
References
edit- ^ a b "Le bosniaque Aleksandar Hemon reçoit le 1er prix Jan-Michalski". LivresHebdo (in French). 2010-11-18. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ a b "The Jan Michalski Prize for Literature 2010". Foundation Jan Michalski. November 2010. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ "The Lazarus Project". Book Marks. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
- ^ "Aleksandar Hemon – The Lazarus Project". Culture Critic. Archived from the original on 27 Dec 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
- ^ "The Lazarus Project By Aleksandar Hemon". Bookmarks. Archived from the original on 10 Sep 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
- ^ a b Seaman, Donna (2008-04-01). "The Lazarus Project". Booklist. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ a b c d "The Lazarus Project". Kirkus Reviews. 2010-05-20. Archived from the original on 2022-02-06. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ a b "Fiction Book Review: The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon, Author, Velibor Bozovic, Photographer, Chicago Historical Society, Photographer . Riverhead $24.95 (294p) ISBN 978-1-59448-988-4". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
- ^ Maxwell, Glyn (2008-10-23). "Miracle in a Ring-Binder". London Review of Books. Vol. 30, no. 20. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
- ^ Anshaw, Carol (2008-05-04). "'The Lazarus Project: A Novel' by Aleksandar Hemon". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
- ^ "John Dugdale - Everything Is Replicated". Literary Review. 2023-10-05. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
- ^ Schine, Cathleen (2008-05-25). "Raising the Dead". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
- ^ Lasdun, James (2008-09-05). "Book review: The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
- ^ "Booklist Editors' Choice: Adult Books, 2008". Booklist. 2009-01-01. Archived from the original on 2022-02-06. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ "2008". National Book Critics Circle. Archived from the original on 2022-01-25. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
- ^ "Past Winners". The Society of Midland Authors. Archived from the original on 2022-02-06. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
External links
edit- "Raising the Dead", book review by Cathleen Schine, May 25, New York Times Book Review.