Šis un tas
Ethnic relations in fiction
Gina Ochsner's short story about a Latvian family appears in the Aug. 22 edition of The New Yorker. (Photo by Robbie McClaran)
August 19, 2005
The latest fiction offering in the weekly magazine The New Yorker is a short story, “Thicker Than Water,” by Gail Ochsner. The story examines ethnic relations in modern-day Latvia through the experience of one family. Even the country’s much-debated language law makes an appearance.
Ochsner, whose work often features Eastern European settings, won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction for her 2002 collection of stories, The Necessary Grace to Fall. Her most recent book, People I Wanted to Be, was published this May by Houghton Mifflin.
The short story about the Latvian family appears in the Aug. 22 edition of The New Yorker.
— Andris Straumanis
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Comments about this article
Anita Liepins
If ever there was a racially motivated piece, this is it. Latvians are ignorant drunks, eat eel and overboiled cabbage. They are only fit to be menial laborers - cleaners and grave diggers for the more refined, Russian speaking segment of the population who commit suicide in droves. The story is cleverly written from the point of view of a Latvian 14 year old girl. No one can argue with her perception. But this tack is not new. In Nazi Germany ugly stories and films were circulated about Jews, who could not defend themselves. It was a miracle that after more than 1000 years, the Jewish people were able to return to their ancestral land, found the state of Israel, and revive Hebrew as the official language of Israel. The Lanaguage Law in Latvia attempts to do the same thing - revive Latvian as the official language of Latvia, ancestral land of the Latvians. During 50 years of Soviet occupation the official state language was Russian.
10 Sep 2005 (Canada)
Astrīda Andre
Smieklīgs stāsts - latviešu mājā nav grāmatu, un latviete apskauž kaimiņieni, ka viņai ir divi pāri kurpju! Jāšaubās, vai autore Latvijā ir bijusi. Interesanti, kas viņu konsultējis.
16 Sep 2005 (United States)