Finalist for the NBCC award for Criticism.
Ugresic is sharp, funny and unafraid. . . . Orwell would
approve.--Times Literary Supplement
Over the past three decades, Dubravka Ugresic has established herself as
one of Europes greatest--and most entertaining--thinkers and creators,
and it's in her essays that Ugresic is at her sharpest. With laser
focus, she pierces our pop culture, dissecting the absurdity of daily
life with a wit and style that's all her own.
Whether it's commentary on jaded youth, the ways technology has made us
soft in the head, or how wrestling a hotel minibar into a bathtub is the
best way to stick it to The Man, Ugresic writes with unmatched honesty
and panache. Karaoke Culture is full of candid, personal, and
opinionated accounts of topics ranging from the baffling
worldwide-pop-culture phenomena to the detriments of conformist
nationalism. Sarcastic, biting, and, at times, even heartbreaking, this
new collection of essays fully captures the outspoken brilliance of
Ugresic's insights into our modern world's culture and conformism, the
many ways in which it is ridiculous, and how (deep, deep down) we are
all true suckers for it.
Dubravka Ugresic is the author of several works of fiction and
several essay collections, including the NBCC award finalist, Karaoke
Culture. She went into exile from Croatia after being label a witch for
her anti-nationalistic stance during the Yugoslav war. She now resides
in the Netherlands.
David Williams did his doctoral research on the post-Yugoslav
writings of Dubravka Ugresic and the idea of a literature of the Eastern
European ruins. He is the author of Writing Postcommunism.
