BETWEEN TWO HOMELANDS AND A LOVE
Dimitar Atanassov
Dimil Stoilov has noticeably approached the writing of the novel “The Long Love-Distance Runner” with a preliminary shaped concept. The runner, with a remake of Alan Sillitoe (“The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”), just like Smith is a misfit, who roams between his two homelands, his family and his love. The Arab Bassam, of Syrian origin, at the end loses all – his love, his family, even his friends.
Yes, this kind of person may become a terrorist indeed.
And Stoilov lays down just this lure for the reader – he sets up a bomb at the beginning of the contexture. And even though it does not explode to the end of the narration, in fact it goes off inside the reader, giving rise to partial destruction in his soul, as a consequence of the evoked compassion to the character – due to his failure in life, the lost love, the dissolution of his family, the frivolously wasted friendship…Anyone may suffer all of these losses, regardless of faith and language, of national, tribal or social affiliations… This is what contributes to the convertibility of the novel.
The inception of the action is the date March 11, when four of the Arab terrorists who blasted the underground in Madrid, were arrested. Bassam resembles each one of them – with a beard and a black woollen hat, sparse moustache, sharp cheekbones and piercing almond eyes. This is the moment when the story unfolds, at whose center is the Syrian, and the narration is related by his fellow-student and friend Ignat, while it is not difficult to distinguish in him the storyteller. This identification, in turn, suggests an utterly high degree of autobiography, and this does not damage the story in any way. On the contrary, it raises abruptly the level of authenticity, which inspires mutual trust between the reader and the storyteller.
All the things that happen pass through the mind of the second protagonist – Ignat, who is not only an eyewitness and storyteller, but an active participant in the action, as well.
Besides discerning a resemblance of his character with each of the four killers, the novelist detects a Bulgarian trace – at the drugstore near the underground, the terrorists had introduced themselves as Bulgarians. Ignat identifies in them a cloning of the same person – his friend, fellow student from the university and roommate in Sofia – Bassam Al Nasser Muhabad Ibn Kalaun, born in Homs, Syria.
The start of the imaginary marathon is on the day of the terrorist attack in Madrid, when the alarm gun shoots, while the athletes are the long-love distance runner Bassam, his friend Ignat, and the student Ann…
After the introduction in the action, reminiscence follows, which turns back the time to the first encounter of Bassam and Ignat, i.e. to the beginning of the story. From this moment on, the solution of the contexture is realized in eight conventional tracks or eight corridors, in which the athletes in the marathon mark their life and love experiences. The first corridor shifts the reader in the years of the training at the university, the coexistence of Ignat with the Syrian guy and the growth of their friendship. The second corridor uncovers Ignat’s childhood, his school miseries, and his first love thrills. The third corridor – their acquaintance with Ann, the fourth – the big love of Ann and Bassam – through the military service, the wedding, the frustration and the separation… To the eight corridor, which brings about the finale of this heart-breaking love story of the Socialist times.
Life is waves, either sweet, or bitter. The runner is an amiable misfit. After losing his heart, follows the sobering up, then Ann withdraws. That is when the drama of the Runner begins…
A testimony of the vigorous presence of the autobiographical and its masterly implication in the thread of the novel’s plot, is the bloody event at the halls of residence at the Student Town, which shakes the society in the 1970s. in Bulgaria. The image of the hothead killer, dressed in a black jacket, the live shooting of the students at the Christmas party, the murders, the countless corpses, some shot dead, some stabbed with a knife, the shrieks and wails of the wounded, the fear and horror, the alarm and anxiety, which benumb the onlookers, the crowd’s thirst for lynch of the freaks, the mob attack…All this evokes a mood of terror and cuts deeply through the consciousness of the reader, leaving a long-lasting scar, an accent from the things read, from which he suffers for days on. The novelist, who was subjected morbidly to this nightmarish massacre, reproduces it in a vivid and verisimilar picture, bordering on pure naturalism, which in some way corresponds to the deadly attack in the underground of Madrid. A parallel association, which is not bloody although, instigates the revolutionary “Green Book” of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, which is furtively disseminated by Bassam among the students. It becomes a prerequisite for the revelation of a rather dissimilar political view of the totalitarian Gaddafi, who is a supporter and a guardian of terrorist groups and movements, and who years ago perceived undoubtedly the falseness of the Western European democracies, with devastating insights about the freedom of the individuals and other nationalistic ravings about the role of the tribe, which he sets up above the political parties.
After all, the common focal point of the plot, as well as of the composition of the novel, is the big love between Ann and Bassam. The revelation of their feelings, the flaring love and its development in time, the overcoming of domestic, social, religious and other obstacles are depicted not only with fascination, but in an authentic manner, as well. The shades of moods and attitudes in various situations, in which the characters are caught. The young people face alone the challenges of the mixed marriage, against the reactions and the disagreement of their parents, against the political system, against the religious prejudices. It is not easy for Bassam to choose between two homelands, but if he holds his family dear, he has to make his choice. On the other hand, the shock that Ann suffers when she faces the living conditions, the clan interactions and the religious limitations n the Arab country, chills her ardour for the Syrian guy. All these negative experiences, the conflict with her expectations burn her love to ashes, degrade it to a casual adventure, lead her to the greatest disappointment and instigate her to the only salvation for her – the escape with the child. The agony of their love follows – the separation, the divorce.
The Syrian’s big drama, otherwise thirsty for great deeds, is in the total failure – in love, in the professional fulfillment, in life. The rupture of the friendship with Ignat is not accidental, besides his notorious empathy. Torn between two homelands and a love, between the struggle for self-fulfillment and the impossibility to realize it, he turns into a misfit indeed. Finally, he is thrown out of Bulgaria for political reasons.
So, how such a person may not be transformed into a terrorist?
The plot comes to an end with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the arrival of democracy. And the deadly blast in the underground of Madrid. And thanks God, Bassam is not between the arrested Arab terrorists. He is stricken by a heart attack in his native town of Homs, Syria. This is how his entangled life ends, while in his friend, and respectively, in the novelist, remains the slowly smoldering feeling of guilt, that he has allowed the thought of a terrorist action, which a man like Bassam may not commit.
Ultimately, unlike Smith – the Sillitoe’s character, Bassam is lucky in defeating the system. It breaks him down. He leaves the meat-chopping machine by losing his character and unable to continue with the marathon of life.
The prose of Dimil Stoilov in “The Long Love-Distance Runner” is dense and plastic. I am fond of the shades of self-irony, the subtle sense of humour in some scenes and comments, of the invention of the characters. The novelist employs a rich armory of his own personal stocks of knowledge, especially in the areas of mathematics, physics and chemistry, which are masterfully entangled with philosophical judgments. These are not diversions from the plot, but a cohesion of its separate elements. And it is well-built.
The novel is planned and realized very intelligently, and I would add professionally. What remains is for the reader to appreciate it.
* Dimil Stoilov, “The Long Love-Distance Runner”, novel, Hermes Publishing House, 2010