http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1949924

Have a nice day from the Balkan war to the American dream

This is not a novel, a travelogue, or a memoir; it is not a volume of short stories, a diary, or a war report. It is simply a remarkable book. Dubravka Ugresic is one of the finest living writers to emerge from the former Yugoslavia. Invited to the United States as a lecturer, she finds herself in Middletown, Connecticut, a world away from the brutal Balkan war. In the form of a personal "dictionary," under headings like "Couch-Potato," "Coca-Cola," "Refugee," and "Harassment," Ugresic allows us to see American culture through the eyes of a writer whose country, culture, and identity are being destroyed by war. Dubravka Ugresic subjects the absurdities of our time to deadly, deadpan analysis in a tone of voice that is at once wry, sad, ruthlessly honest, and perceptive. Since Theodor Adorno and Vladimir Nabokov, few European writers have contrasted the two parts of the Western world to more intelligent effect.

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