The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric. Classic work of post-WW II Yugoslav fiction. Literature as chronicle. The bridge is the master symbol of the cultural and historical territory it links, ripe, of course, for destruction. This work contains one of the most brutally graphic scenes of torture in all world literature. But shame on the University of Chicago Press for not making it clear on the cover, on the first page, somewhere, whose translation this is. As if it dropped into somebody's lap from nowhere.
A Tomb for Boris Davidovich by Danilo Kis, translated by Duska Mikic-Mitchel. Unsurpassed experimental novel composed of seven related stories. Kis was put on trial because of the work in his home country. The fallout caused him to emigrate. The book was championed by Susan Sondag, Joseph Brodsky, and others. Partly on its basis, Kis was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature (the same year as Brodsky). But other fine works by Kis have been published in English, for instance, The Encyclopedia of the Dead (translated by Michael Henry Heim) and Garden, Ashes: A Novel (translated by William J. Hannaher). Both are excellent.
Materada by Fulvio Tomizza, translated by Russell Scott Valentino. Tomizza's first novel (1960) and part of his "Istrian Trilogy," chronicles the exodus of ethnic Italians from Istria following its formal annexation by Tito's Yugoslavia between 1947 and 1954. Tomizza, who died in 1999, authored some twenty novels, many of which received considerable critical praise. He lived in Trieste for most of his life and wrote his works in Italian. Yet another talented and prolific European writer whose work remains largely unknown to English-language readers. The degree to which Tomizza's work might be considered part of "Yugoslav" literature brings up the question of regional identities in regional cultures, an especially trenchant problem in an ever expanding Europe. It also brings up the topic of food, for what is more regional and more culturally marked than that? For Istrian food (couched as Italian recipes), see especially the first cookbook of Lidia Bastianich, La Cucina di Lidia. The introduction details Bastianich's background, which is as Istrian as they come.
In the Jaws of Life by Dubravka Ugresic, translated by Celia Hawksworth and Michael Henry Heim. Ugresic has a light touch, a rarity and a delight in contrast to much of the literature from the region. Some of these stories are hilarious. All of them are worth reading. The title story was adapted to the screen by director Rajko Grlic in his 1984 film In the Jaws of Life, a consummate Yugoslav comedy that plays up the story-within-a-story aspects of the novella and manages to cover all the Yugoslav male stereotypes of the various republics. If you like the book (which is likely), you'll also want to read Ugresic's Fording the Stream of Consciousness (translated by Michael Henry Heim), which chronicles the antics of East and West European academics at a late-Yugoslav literary conference. A little more specialized subject matter, but just as funny, even more so if you're an academic.
The Question of Bruno by Aleksandar Hemon. This book is not a translation; it was written in English by the author, who moved from Sarajevo to Chicago in 1992, found he could not write in his native Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian) and resolved to learn to write in the language of his adopted country. This he does masterfully. The book is a collection of stories about, among other things, the trauma of war and relocation, the making of a new life for oneself, espionage, beekeeping, assassination, and the art of dodging sniper fire. Very funny and very serious at one and the same time.
Sarajevo Marlboro by Miljenko Jergovic, translated by Stela Tomasevic. Certainly one of the finest books based upon the seige and its immediate aftermath, just as Jergovic is clearly one of the best authors to emerge from it all. While the book has a factual, sometimes matter-of-fact tone (think Vonnegut, not Hemingway, or better yet, Danilo Kis), it is filled with portraits drawn with great care, even love, from all angles inside and out. These aren't quite lyric essays — they are too character specific. And in any case, the war is too present to allow anything like a narrative stroll through Venice. The language of Tomasevic's English translation is snappy and precise. It's all highly quotable, excerptable, and memorable.
Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation: Literature and Cultural Politics in Yugoslavia (Cultural Memory in the Present) by Andrew Baruch Wachtel. Innovative scholarship on the question of Yugoslavia's demise. Wachtel eschews simple political or economic explanations to explore the meat of cultural politics. The final chapter offers comparisons between the solutions to such questions offered by Yugoslav political leaders and those proposed by American political and social leaders in the culture wars of the 1990s.
The Balkans : A Short History, by Mark Mazower. This is the best short history work on the region as a whole. Mazower's scope is wide, from Thessaloniki to Ljubljana, from the murky origins of the term "Balkan" itself through the decline of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, and the horrors of the twentieth century. He is probably strongest in the period between the 17th century and early 20th. He is one of very few scholars who can handle the sources in the multiple languages of the region.
The Old Bridge: The Third Balkan War and the Age of the Refugee by Christopher Merrill. The first of two insightful works by Merrill on former Yugoslavia. The second, Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars, chronicles the author's ten journeys to the troubled region during the 1990s. The title is drawn from an eerily apt poem by the Slovene poet Tomaz Salamun.
Eastern Approaches, by Fitsroy Maclean. A memoir by the supposed prototype for James Bond. Only half has to do with Yugoslavia, but the first half (which chronicles Maclean's travels in the USSR during the 1930s) is also quite interesting. The Yugoslav portion deals with commando Maclean's activities as the British liaison to Tito's partisan forces during WWII. This book has been in and out of print for many years, so if you can find yourself a copy, it's probably a good idea to buy it.
If you enjoy long reads, Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia, which chronicles her 1930s journeys through the various territories, remains the quintessential work of travel literature on the region, the prototype for Merrill's Only the Nails Remain and many others.
We really don't like Robert Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts : A Journey Through History, so this is a recommendation against reading it. To us it is built on stereotypes (about Yugoslavs, about "East Europeans") and doesn't do much more than perpetuate them, without providing the kinds of in-depth, real portraits of people that works like Gray's or Merrill's do, and without the humor of Grlic. But people have told us they liked it, so make up your own mind. To learn about the origins of the myth of Eastern Europe as backward (it's rooted in the 18th century), try Larry Wolff's Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment.
The Other Venice, as seen from any side that isn't fit for a postcard, including the opposite shores of the Adriatic. Yugoslav public intellectual Predrag Matvejevic is a master of the short form. Matvejevic's "other" Venice is contained in the so-called pietre, the intricate stone sculptures on the sides of buildings, the wooden emblems at the bottoms of posts driven into the lagoon waters, the weeds that grow from beneath the walls of palazzi, courtyard gardens, old photographs, kinds of algae, bread, rust. The book is a poeticization of the minute, everyday, and marginal aspects of the city, the Venice of small vistas and apparently unimportant, mundane details. It manages to remind us of the mystery and beauty of a city that has long seemed utterly familiar.
Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (1996), directed by Srdjan Dragojevic. Not for the faint hearted. Treats the war in Bosnia from the standpoint of a small band of Serbian paramilitaries, trapped inside a mountain cave. Well done and effective, with plenty of Balkan (raw) humor. The rap on this film is that it's blatantly pro-Serb, though none of the paramalitaries (except maybe the colonel) has anything even remotely justifiable as a reason for joining up. In fact, they all seem motivated by fantasies and fictions, which suggests there is something more complex at issue than mere pro- or anti-Serbness. Did we mention that it's not for the faint hearted?
Underground (1997), Emir Kusturica's masterful, wild marathon about two blackmarketeer friends making their way through the rubble of WWII, or the destruction of Yugoslavia -- how can one tell, after all? If you see no other film from the region, see this.
In the Jaws of Life (1984), directed by Rajko Grlic and adapted from the novella by Dubravka Ugresic (see book described in fiction section above). Note that this is the only comedy in this list. Well worth seeing for that reason alone.
Before the Rain (1995), directed by Milcho Manchevski. A lyrical, visually stunning work set in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Tragic story of the return of a native son who attempts to bring peace. Some really fine music sequences, beautiful cinematography, an eerily constructed plot, and excellent acting (the hero is played by Rade Serbedzija, who appears in In the Jaws of Life as the drunk Croat). Unfortunately, this film doesn't appear to have been released on DVD yet.
Tito
and Me
©2008 Autumn Hill Books, Inc. All rights reserved. P.O. Box 22, Iowa City, IA 52244 phone/voicemail: 202.580.8429 info@autumnhillbooks.org