Vacant Lot

by Oliver Rohe, Alexis Gallissaires (Illustrator), Laird Hunt (Translator)

Fiction. Translated from the French by Laird Hunt. Set in a city much like Beirut in the aftermath of bloody civil war, a former mercenary relates his fate and that of others of his kind after the peace. The world is rapidly healing itself--people getting back to their lives, the city being rebuilt. But he is unable to leave the site his crimes. Rohe's narrative is striking in its understatement: much of the work's power lies in what's unsaid, what's hinted and inferred. Sentences run on and on or stop short as if they've reached a dead end. Repetition is a kind of entrenchment, a being stuck, perhaps in the density of poetry.

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[lauren :p · Rating 4 out of 5]

english version has awkward translation at times. concept is refreshing as it is from opposite side of war; the despair and frozenness is relatable

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

"What good does it do me to describe the sea? its colors? its movements? It doesn't do anything. It's always the same."

The protagonist of Oliver Rohe's Vacant Lot is a former functionary of an ousted regime who struggles to come to grips with the changing times. The violence of the city under reconstruction mirrors the violence of the state-sponsored crimes he participated in and bubble up out of his memory. All he can do is sit and watch the sea, but as his memories mingle with and participate in his surroundings, is it already too late?

A short, highly engaging and occasionally harrowing read in the mold of Beckett. Includes a fascinating interview with translator Laird Hunt.