A Close Reading of chapter 41 in Lorchenkov's The Good Life Elsewhere

 In my World Literature course, for my master’s degree, we as a class had to read The Good Life Elsewhere by Vladimir Lorchenkov. This was an interesting novel. While it did not have an overarching plot about one character doing one thing, it had many different small plots of many characters doing things, but with ultimately the same goal. Leaving their depressing, poor country of Moldova, and immigrating to the heaven like the country of Italy. And none of them really succeed. Though there is this one character, his name is Vasily, he does succeed in his own way by finding happiness and home in death, but I don’t think that counts. 

Let me give just a bit more background. Through the story, we follow about four main characters. With different feelings towards Italy. Two (Serafim and Vasily) want to go to Italy for a better life. Another one wanting to go to Italy to find his wife who left him (Father Pasaii) and one who doesn’t really believe Italy exists (Old Man Tudur). And before you think that this book was set somewhere way back in the day where people were not sure if the earth was round, no this was set in the late 1990s to early 2000s when google existed. (Though Old Man Tudor is not the only one in their village that thinks this) And the passage (chapter 41) of when Old Man Tudor (OMT) talks to the rest of the villagers about how Italy does not exist is what I am in the mood for today. 

So by this part in the novel, OMT had his bike stolen by his good friend Serafim and he just found out after months of thinking he misplaced it. (Because OMT is you know old and he probably thought dementia was setting in. )Anyway, he finds out that Serafim stole his bike to use it to make a submarine (yup) to go to Italy. This mental break down (or so we think) that OMT has in this passage is so interesting to me because throughout the novel everyone in Moldova, even the president of Moldova, wants to go it Italy because they see the country as a place where they can live happily ever after and make a lot of money doing menial labor. Once OMT  finds out that his dear friend stole his bike for a scheme to get into Italy, he goes to the local church, pushes the priest out of the way, and makes a grandiose speech to his fellow Moldovans. He starts off with:

 “I greatly wish to tell you my thoughts about Italy, listen and remember well Italy:...                      DOES NOT EXIST..” 

He is yelling this to a group of people who harbor the hope of Italy being this beautiful place they can move to. He yells this to people that receive money from spouses or children that have moved to Italy. One can assume the crowd is confused. As the reader, I am surprised that he is saying this. Throughout the novel, OMT has been a kind old man, but then again he is betrayed by his dear friend. At this point, I am unsure of what Lorchenkov is wanting to do with this character. He moves on in his speech saying:

“Italy is an old wives’ tale, and pretty soon they’ll have you chasing your tail, while they’ve got your four thousand euros. Italy doesn’t exist. When the priest took you on that holy crusade to Italy, he fooled you. There’s no such thing as heaven! There’s no blessed earth where you get honey from the tap instead of water, where people breed big fat carp fish in their bathtubs, and where the housemaids get paid a thousand euros a month. None of that exists.” 

To be clear, many Moldovans have been approached by conmen and human traffickers who tell them that if they pay them four thousand euros they will get them to Italy. So OMT is now blaspheming in church, yelling to his fellow people that there is no better life, no better place they can fantasize about. Because many in this book used that fantasy of going to Italy as something to help make them through the day, and OMT is dousing their dreams in gasoline. OMT goes on to say in his speech: 

“Open your eyes, people! They’re leading you by the nose with their fairy tales about Italy. You leave behind the place where your ancestors settled, you discard your homeland in order to travel to God knows where and do who knows what. And you flocks grow sparse, your earth wastes away, your women and children wither without you”

OMT calls Moldova “homeland” in this part of his speech. He is beseeching the congregation to see that this is their home, their earth and that their families are here. He beseeches them that this is their ancestral grounds to which they should take some pride in. And the Moldovan’s do not, they take no pride in their home and treat it like garbage. This congregation has not treated Moldova like home, but more as their own personal hell. They see their earth as dead and nothing grows, they are not a part of the EU and they are living in poverty. But they see Italy as prosperous and gilded with the money they lack themselves. After OMT says this he goes on ignoring the voices that tell him otherwise: 

“And it’s all because you leave this place, quit your inheritance, and don’t maintain order in your homes!” howled Tudor. “They feed you these cock and bull stories about some Italian paradise. They distract you from your pain, from what really needs to be fixed. People, open your eyes. Italy doesn’t exist.” 

Again OMT says the dreaded words that "Italy does not exist." It was here that I finally understood that OMT did not think the country of Italy did not exist but he was saying that the idea of Italy that the Moldovans had did not exist. He is trying to make them see that the paradise they were fed and that they fantasize about is farcical. As I read this I also understand that this is not just for the people of Moldova, this speech is for Serafim. His dear friend who betrayed him for his obsessive dream of Italy. Since Serafim is no longer in Moldova but somewhere in the ocean, OMT has to give his speech to the congregation. In this part of the speech, he is starting to get to the meat of things. He says that the swindlers who try to get the Moldovans into Italy are distracting them from “what needs to be fixed”. He admits Moldova's brokenness but insinuates that the people can fix it. He finishes out his speech with: 

“Understand, you wretched of the earth, we should strive to improve what we can. Here. Right here, in Moldova. We can clean our own houses; fix our own roads. We can trim our own shrubs and work the fields. We can stop gossiping, drinking, and loafing. We can become kinder, more patient, more tender with each other. We can stop ripping pages out of library books and spitting on a cleanly swept floor. Quit deceiving. Start living honest lives. Italy- the real Italy- is in us ourselves.”

Here it is the good stuff. OMT, who has never fantasized about Italy like everyone else does, now speaks the truth. That their idea of heaven, of a clean beautiful place to live, can be achieved if they just tried to do it there. If they actually tried themselves to make their own lives better in order to be happier, instead of spending money they don’t have in order to be smuggled into Italy. He implores his congregation that “the real Italy- is in us ourselves”, this meaning I can only interpret as true happiness can be found in oneself and not in a pretty lie. He puts the blame of their strife on the people, giving examples of the things that they do that make their lives worse. And he says that they can do better and be better and basically says going to Italy will not make them better people. It will not make them happier, only they themselves can make them happier.  After this lovely speech, one hopes the people might take his words to heart. They do not. Once OMT declares himself the new priest they burn him on a stake and declare him a heretic. 

Perhaps declaring himself part of the clergy was a bit too far. But this speech and the consequences are steeped in religious allusions. It was the betrayal of a dear friend that got him killed, similar to Jesus being betrayed by one of his apostles. And many of those throughout history are burned for being heretics, those who did the burning thinking that the cleansing of fire would clean his soul and help those who heard the blasphemous words stay pure. And Old Man Tudor did the most blasphemous thing, taking away the idea of heaven and putting the blame of their hell on the people.