The ending of the Lazarus Project

I thought that the last section of the book was straight out of a crime show, like Criminal Minds. It involved a lot of gory details, fights, and murders. At the beginning of this section, the novel is the Lazarus /Olga half of the divided plot lines. At this point, they are describing a brutal murder is painful details. My stomach got queasy at one point when the author described “Seryozhka Shipkin held up a blood-dripping tuft of Mr. Mandelbaum’s beard in his hand” (page 241) and when he was describing hearing bones breaking and hearing Mr. Mandelbaum’s skull crack. I couldn’t imagine how Lazarus felt to watch this all occurring.

In the next section about Brik and Rora, they are planning on returning to Brik’s hometown of Sarajevo. While they are in the cab on the way to the train station, they get stuck with a creepy cab driver that Rora describes as “I think he is planning to murder us” (page 257). For some reason, I can relate with being in a situation like this, where you don’t know what could happen because anyone could be a murderer. It is scary to think about all the times I get into a taxi or bus and all the while I am just hoping to be alive when I get off. I am just a worry wart in this sense though. I thought it was bold that Brik and Rora knocked the driver unconscious after they got out of the car though so that his “girlfriend”, the sex slave could be free. In this fight, Brik breaks his arm.

The novel then goes to Olga’s part and then part to Brik and Rora’s section before ending. Again, this section involved a murder that luckily was not as brutally described. Rora was killed at a café while waiting for Brik to arrive. Brik and Rora had been separated for a few days because Brik wanted some time alone in his hometown. One quote I liked from Rora’s murder scene though was when the author said “as the café disintegrated into panicked particles” (285). I thought this was a neat way to describe the scene and I am a biology major so I liked the use of chemical terms in the description. I also though it was humorous for the author to add in that someone’s ringtone went off playing “Staying Alive” which shows the cynical nature of this book. The book finished almost without explanation of what Brik plans to do after his hand is healed. In my own mind, I think he stays in Sarajevo because he seemed happier to be there.