U kvaru
Aleš Čar, one of the most respected contemporary Slovenian prose writers, in his collection of stories In Disrepair portrays the contemporary "ordinary man" – the Jederman or Jederfrau – at the crossroads of youth and maturity through fourteen short stori
The main characters are mostly people in their early thirties: young enough to still have a chance for change, old enough to carry the burden of trauma, failed marriages, disappointments, memories and existential "breakdowns". The stories describe everyday, but deeply disturbing situations – failed relationships, business frustrations, family tensions, Balkan habits that plague urban "yuppies", the feeling of being trapped in a routine and the inability to break out of a vicious circle.
Čar writes precisely, cynically and with a touch of black humor, without pathos, but with a sharp insight into human fragility and the absurdity of modern life. The characters are realistic, often passive, caught in a web of habits, social expectations and internal conflicts. The collection is an existential satire on a transitional society, where the "breakdown" manifests itself as the impossibility of an authentic life.
This is superb short prose – introspective, bitter and universally recognizable, which shows Čar as a master of minimalism and subtle irony. The book was welcomed as an important contribution to Slovenian and regional literature in the 2000s.
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