Complete the gestalt

"Completing the Gestalt" by Max Shchur is an attempt to look at Belarus through the prism of Europe, to compare and analyze the myths that have long shaped the consciousness of Belarusians. In the form of an intellectual journey from Prague to Amsterdam, the author shows modern Europe and Belarus in mutual reflection: from museums and kitsch souvenir shops to meetings with ghosts of the past and spontaneous loves. This book is a discussion about identity, history and the search for oneself in a broader cultural context.

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In his book "Completing the Gestalt," Max Shchur examines Belarus from Europe, comparing, destroying, and creating. This book is a monument to the myth of Europe, which many Belarusians have lived and still live by.

“A few days in Holland were enough for me to conclude that the two most important characteristics of civilization are the attitude towards garbage and towards money.” — Conclude Gestalt

This is a true Euro-novel from a first-wave Belarusian emigrant who, in pursuit of abstraction, embarks on an odyssey from Prague to Amsterdam, along the way dismantling modern Europe, Belarus of that time, and, of course, himself. Along the way, he will encounter museums, ghosts of the past, spontaneous lovers, and communists, whom the author will fend off with a sharp pen and a well-aimed photo gun.

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“Europe is depicted here not as a grandiose monolith that needs to be pushed off its pedestal, but as a series of absolutely singular phenomena united by some rather virtual connections. The diversity of Europeanness, which includes “Eurofascists”, migrants and volunteers who help them, Russian tourists and the Van Gogh Museum with its kitsch souvenirs, cannot be reduced to a single diagnosis or prognosis.”