Asja Bakić on Mars

Mars: Stories
by Asja Bakić, Translated by 
Jennifer Zoble

I happened upon this book by accident. I was on the Louisville Free Public Library website and decided to see what e-books were available (as if I needed another book to read right now), and narrowed it down to science fiction just for the heck (and love) of it. Then the cover picture for Mars caught my eye...for one thing, because it was green, not the color you'd normally associate with The Red Planet. And when I saw the name of the author, Asja Bakić, I was pretty sure that she wasn't from Iowa, and I like to get a little un-provincial every little once in awhile, so I felt compelled to take a look beyond the cover. This led to that, and venisoon after I had finished the baffling first story, "Day Trip to Durmitor," I was hooked. 

In fact, it hooked me pretty much at the start with this little exchange on the first page of that first story:

“Everyone wants to go to heaven,” I said. “It must be too crowded there.” 

“It’s not,” said one of them. “Most people are so unimaginative that they simply stay wedged in the ground, like a potato.”

Part of the attraction is the unexpected prosaic phrase "like a potato," of course. It's not what you expect from a metaphysical exchange. And part of it, I am sorry to confess, is the implicit condemnation of the mass of humanjty as kind of el stupido. I really try not to think ill of my fellow 🚹 and 🚺, but...well, you know. I mean, look who's president of the USA, for fuck's sake.

ANYway...

There are ten stories in this collection, and every one of them is at least a bit baffling. I don't know if they're what I would call science fiction, as they don't tick off any of the usual boxes for that genre, but they certainly are otherworldly, and there are occasional dabblings in space travel and stuff. But what I liked best about all of these stories was that they didn't give you typical "everything snaps together like a cheap plastic lock" endings. And they didn't give you those Bad Saturday Night Live Sketch endings where things just grind to a halt because there's nothing more to do, either. When they ended, they left you some room to swim in. 

As soon as I finished the last story, I went on a hunt to see what else I could see about this Asja Bakić. I found a little bit.

There's some poetry she translated here:
https://www.versopolis-poetry.com/poet/24/asja-bakic

And there's some information, including a video interview, with her here: https://www.lit-across-frontiers.org/profiles/asja-bakic/

I've also found a website where you can read one of the Mars stories ("Abby"), so if you want a taste, "go here: https://www.guernicamag.com/author/asja-bakic/

And there's a nice Author Profile to be had here: https://www.thegazette.com/subject/life/books/author-profile-asja-bakic-not-lost-in-translation-20190310

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find an English translation of her first book (of poetry), It Can Be a Cactus, as Long as it Stings. But I'm still working on that. If you search her name on Amazon, there is a listing for a forthcoming book, Europa28: Writing by Women on the Future of Europe (to be released on March 12, 2020), so I'm supposing that that will have at least one story by her. ($9.20 on Kindle, $19.95 in paperback). So at least there's that to look forward to.

Meanwhile...I might could just go back and re-read Mars. I am often pulled into a book by a line that strikes my fancy (see above), so in the hope that your brain works in a similar manner, here are some of the (no spoiler) reasons you should join me:

"A world that can imagine only the material shouldn’t exist,”

from "The Guest"

"The rocks were beautiful, but with no one to throw them at, they too had eventually become unbearable."

&

 "I’d lost all faith in my urinary, nervous, and endocrine systems."

&

 "I’d been happy, constantly laughing, when we first met; now I needed a two-hour pep talk just to make it from the bedroom to the hallway."

from "The Underworld"

I mean, SERIOUSly, what more are you looking for? $10 on Kindle, less than a dollar more in paperback. RIGHT HERE. 
I'm going to buy a couple of copies to give out as presents for those I Have No Idea What to Buy You But I Don't Want You To Think I Don't Love You people. 

You come too.