Name of the Book: Time Shelter
Author: Georgi Gospodinov
Language: Bulgarian (Translated to English by Angela Rodel)
Year of Publication: 2020 (trans: 2022)
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (Hachette)
‘The past is not just that which happened to you. Sometimes it is that which you just imagined.’
‘Time Shelter’ by Georgi Gospodinov is a book that explores a unique theme- time and memory. This book was originally written by the author which was then translated by Angela Rodel and the work finally went on to win ‘The International Booker Prize’ in the year 2023.
Memory is the conduit through which we travel to the past- our childhood, our youthful days; times lost in the mists of the past. Every decade, every time period is a perfect amalgamation of sights, sounds and smells of an era. Materiality remains specific to certain time periods as well the economic condition (a rich person living in a particular country will have a very different experience compared to a poor person living in the same country. The permutation and combinations can be varied). The author introduces the central character of the book, his friend Gaustine, who remains partly shrouded in mystery himself, slipping between time and memory, surfacing again and again in the novel along with the nameless narrator (a semi-autobiographical take on the author himself). The duo decides to open a clinic for patients of dementia. The narrator is given the responsibility to gather ‘tons of everyday life, smells, sounds, silences, people’s faces; in short, all the things that crack the memory open, mixing memory and desire.’
Some of these poignant stories are a recurrent theme throughout the book. For example, a man, politically famous and sought after, loses his memory and seeks out the agent who had shadowed him. There are more stories that the narrator keeps encountering as more people start appearing in the clinic. An elderly lady was brought to the clinic by her nephew who had lost her speech to old age. But as she comes across a radio, her memories start flooding back. The 1940s become her present, when she starts living her childhood, the trauma of World War II and how she escaped alive. She starts speaking in her mother tongue, the language she had rarely used.
The clinic which the narrator and Gaustine plan slowly transforms into floors- with each floor dedicated to each decade. This helped the people visit the era they would like, returning to those times which they found conducive; linking directly to old memories, people and stories. Gradually, Gaustine’s clinic becomes so popular that it started having a number of branches. These places begin to act as ‘memory places’ (Pierre Nora, 1989) where one could return, a sort of museum that is preserved as it was in the past.
The book progresses as slowly countries try experimenting and adopting the past. The narrator flies to his hometown in Sophia, Bulgaria to find the city at the centre of turmoil as different groups pf people try to fight for the year the country would like to revert to. There are agencies who work with the groups and the government to help achieve this through props and costumes. Soon the production process of the countries falls into place, adopting the same lines of thought (toilet paper gets replaced by newspaper as Bulgaria shifts back to the 1960s). The imitation of the past continues to be such an obsession that soon the European Union decides to disintegrate, each country wanting to return back to a glorious decade in their country’s history. This is called the ‘Referendum of the Past’ with a new map of Europe emerging as each country lives out different timelines.
The author tries to express his pessimistic voice, speaking about the negative aspects of nostalgia. The forced entry into the past is not exactly the same, it is a charade that has consequences as the narrator muses ‘So what feeds on time, then? Or time feeds on us.’
‘Time Shelter’ contains beautiful references to instances and associations which people have with memory. ‘…the recollection of scent is the last to leave the empty den of memory.’ Though essentially a work of fiction, it dwells on a theme that is both unusual yet very common. In our present world we often recreate the past: museums, light and sound show, photographs, films, architecture or any object from the past. Yet to be swallowed by nostalgia and memory, a complete immersion seems like a new concept to the reader.
The book tries to draw no conclusion, leaving the reader to perceive and reflect if they would like to travel to the past. It has no central plot, the stories emerging in the form of sections and chapters that can be considered as individual stand alone reads. However, Gospodinov has geographically limited his novel to Europe, considering memory from European perspectives, ignoring the larger context of the world. The idea of nations returning to the past also seemed to be idealistic, ignoring international politics, economy and diplomatic relationships. Would the younger generations want to travel back in time, who are usually forward looking rather than backward, remains a question to be pondered upon. Will the new normal be a sustainable one?
‘We are the factories for the past…Does the past disintegrate, or does it remain practically unchanged’. The statement Gospodinov makes leaves one with a deep lingering afterthought. The book is a slow read that requires several revisiting in order to understand the true meaning of the author’s writings. Infact, it would not be unusual to suggest that one needs to revisit the book at different points of time in one’s life as the words, the phrases and the memories would hold different meaning to the reader.
Reference:
Nora, P. (1989): Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mʼemoire, No 26, Memory and Counter-Memory (Special Issue), pp. 7-24.
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