Marriage, suitcases and other burdens
2025-08-19 11:52:23
Manjola Lloja Bushati
I had an aesthetic treatment appointment today, I arrived 10 minutes late. This has never happened to me before. Organizing my time so that I can do everything I have planned is my superpower.
However, since I would have about an hour free at the appointment with the esthetician (meaning she would do the work... but like anything handmade, it takes some time) I would sit and wait for the result.
So, at the last minute, I turned my way towards the "Onufri" bookstore.
This "me time" that I'm mastering finding every day, I said I'm making it 100% like that by reading a new book.
Since I didn't have much time, but not only for this reason, I went to pick up Vlora Konushevci's new book "Marriages, suitcases and other burdens" from the bookstore owned by the work's publishing house. I don't know why, but if you want a new book quickly, it's best to go directly to the bookstore owned by the publishing house, or to their office if you know someone. Distribution through bookstores usually takes a while, either because the employees of all parties don't really enjoy that job, or because they know very well that there aren't many people in a hurry to buy a book.
No, that's another topic.
I started to say that I was 10 minutes late because...let's all be surprised together...there was a line at the bookstore.
I forgot that I was late, out of joy that about 5-6 people were in the bookstore, ahead of me.
To preserve this joy, I'm not telling you that if they weren't tourists, they were Albanians living abroad...they stand out, damn it, even if it's just that they come in, buy books, smile and don't complain even though it's hot.
So I bought the book, 800 lekë. First thought: how well the market understood what we want...I'll pay almost 8-10 times more for my aesthetic treatment today...
I couldn't wait to have the opportunity to start reading.
The stories of Vlora are a mirror placed against reality. Simply, with language that flows clearly and thoughts that only want to be told, without being burdensome, even though reality is often heavy enough on its own. Or maybe that's why.
The first time I had enough time to read 4 of them. How good they are stories, that I manage to read them without being distracted too much... it's a big hassle when you read a novel, interrupted by 100 things of the day.
Now I'm going back to the stories. I don't want to say anything about them, because I really want you to go and get this book and read it. I want to tell you that for a long time, I don't know if I've read a book by an Albanian author, who makes this description of the times we've lived in so easily and realistically, and at the same time makes you feel like a cohabitant of times that are not at all ordinary, that are not easy, that are not.
We know the characters of Vlora, we have met them, we have been there ourselves... and to me this seems to be one of the most interesting and courageous forms of art these days.
While everything tries to show the extraordinary, the unattainable that surprisingly everyone manages to find if they follow the steps suggested by the influencer (where is that icon that shows that you are about to vomit?)... making art in Albanian with the everyday, reflecting it without filters, is an effort that deserves all my appreciation, modest but completely sincere.
So perhaps it would not be excessive for it to be mentioned by critics in these times... the author writes with simplicity about the everyday, becoming its conductor, giving readers doubt, insecurities, the need for freedom, shyness, humanity.
So far, the book seems like a hymn to women's lives...without any effort, I fell into the trap of consumer feminism...and it reminds me that many people manage to defend people's rights so well, their own and others', so well and so simply, just by writing about them.
My session is over. That's all I was able to read.
The next part to follow...now I have shopping to do, cooking, some work material to close on my laptop...and 100 other daily tasks.
I can only say that I can't wait to get back to reading, just as I couldn't wait to say these thoughts...so I wrote this note #truthsonly, limited edition😁, while I'm walking... on my cell phone's notepad...Later I'll complain that my neck hurts...but there's nothing new here...in my time to myself, I'm finding a little space to do those muscle relaxation exercises again... ps
In the accompanying photo, the cover of Vlora's book, and Vlora herself...not just so you can find the book more easily, but also because she's a pretty woman, and because posts with beautiful human faces have higher visibility! (!)
