#MILJENKO JERGOVIĆ

[majestativa]

Gently stroke your books, dear stranger, and remember they are dust.

— Miljenko Jergović, Scar on the Stone: Contemporary Poetry from Bosnia, (1998)

[radiogornjigrad]

Velimir Visković: Prije 83 godine rođen je Tonko Maroević.

Vidjeli smo se zadnji put u mojem uredu u Leksu, nekoliko tjedana prije njegove iznenadne smrti. Tonko mi je tada rekao, komentirajući tegobno umiranje zajedničke prijateljice Mani, kako bi više volio živjeti nekoliko godina kraće, ako bi ga to spasilo od dugotrajnoga bolnog umiranja. Ni slutio nisam da će mu se želja ispuniti. Umro je samo nekoliko tjedana kasnije od infarkta. Bio je inače u…

[faustandfurious]

I do realize the impossibility of creating a "one size fits all" list of "classics everyone must read before they die!" but if you felt like listing a few authors or books you think are basically always left off those lists in favour of some american or english book, i would be interested! i have the same complaint abt anglocentric "classics lists" but to find these books that are neither my own literary culture or English Classics, I am just sending out blind feelers

With the disclaimer that I have seen some of these books on the lists you mention (but infrequently, and often ignored in favour of mediocre Anglo literature), here are a few of my (non-Anglo, but unfortunately still very European skewing) recommendations. To be honest, these are just intended as starting points for dipping your toes in various countries' literary canon.

The Book of Disquiet - Fernando Pessoa

I'm reading this right now and it's so full of sentences I want to serve with tea and biscuits on a Sunday afternoon while watching the snowfall outside, I'm not sure how else to convey the deep sense of contentment I get from reading this.

Kin - Miljenko Jergović

Based-on-true-events family saga about Yugoslavia through the 20th century, and I'm honestly annoyed that Jergović is still relatively unknown in the English speaking world. Personally I think his collection of short stories, Sarajevo Marlboro, is even better, but Kin is more books-to-read-before-you-die material due to its scope and length.

The World of Yesterday - Stefan Zweig

Zweig is fairly consistently left off the lists, even the better ones that actually include German language authors like Goethe and Mann, which is a shame because The World of Yesterday is the memoir of a man who had a front row seat at pretty much all the important events in Europe in the first half of the 20th century. He knew Freud. He knew Rilke. He knew a guy who knew Lenin. He had opinions on everything. In addition to being beautifully written, it's such a good way of learning history through immersion.

Danton's Death - Georg Büchner

Due to personal reasons I really vibe with this. Also a must-read if you're in any way obsessed with the French Revolution.

Journey by Moonlight - Antal Szerb

Really famous in Hungary ever since its publication in 1937, but it wasn't translated into English until after 2000, which explains its relative lack of popularity outside Hungary. If I could scrub every book recommendation list clean of Harry Potter and put this there instead, I would.

Victoria - Knut Hamsun

Look, I've had tough dudes admit to me that they cried on public transport while reading this.

Kristin Lavransdatter - Sigrid Undset

Undset wrote historical fiction about medieval Norway before it was cool, but she rarely or never seems to make it onto the rec lists, which is a shame. To be fair, even in Norway her reputation seems to have suffered a bit from the fact that she converted to Catholicism, which was considered at best a bit unfashionable, at worst outright scandalous, at the time. At any rate, Kristin Lavransdatter is well worth a read.

The Makioka Sisters - Jun'ichiro Tanizaki

I feel like the vibes here are similar to Tolstoy (there's even, funnily enough, a minor character called Vronsky), and it's a very good portrait of Japanese middle class life in the 1930s. An overarching theme in Tanizaki's works is the ongoing conflict between Japanese tradition and the more westernised lifestyle adopted by the younger generation, which has the added benefit of giving a Western readers something familiar to hang on to while reading, so why Tanizaki is left out of those rec lists is honestly beyond my comprehension.

[de-dijon]

“Ona je živjela u stalnom strahu da će nešto važno i lijepo u životu propustiti. Često je putovala a još češće patila jer ne putuje. Smatrala je da su pravi povod i sreća uvijek negdje drugdje, stalno je bila puna planova kako da ih uhvati za rep, kako da u stalnom gibanju pronađe onaj kristalni trenutak kada se, barem tako kažu snovi, život pretvara u bajku.”

– Miljenko Jergović

[satanscutestdaughter]

tagged by @gvrlmeat (thank you💖)

3 ships: Ava Silva & Beatrice from Warrior Nun, Rukia & Renji from Bleach, Gabrielle and Xena from Xena: Warrior princess

Last song: Mantissa by Marina Satti

Last movie: Space Sweepers

Currently reading: Dvori od Oraha (The Walnut Mansion) by Miljenko Jergović

Currently watching: Warrior Nun + The Glory

Currently consuming: Kvas

Currently craving: some good pasta

tagging @balkanica @propalitet @paintalyx @sarmaenthusiast and whoever feels like it

[nikysavi]

I haven't finished it LOL but here's the stuff I've written down

1. For now – around 83 books

2. I've reread Wilimowski by Miljenko Jergović (bc I wanted to write an article about it but then I've decided not to) and Migrations, the book 1, by Miloš Crnjanski (I did write an article)

3. I. Interview with the vampire by Anne Rice (and now I try to read all the books and I used to be a huge fan for a couple of months before I got into Pathologic; I like it partially bc I'm queer and its my home, partially bc its a really good book); II. Dnevnik o Čarnojeviću/Čarnojević's Journal by Miloš Crnjanski (First of all, I've had a Crnjanski fase this summer until I learned that Crnjanski was a Nazi, so, keep this in mind and Miloše, nek' crvlja pod zemljom ti; Second of all, I still love this book bc how sorrowful and personal it is, so I recommend you ti give it a try; also, he wrote it before he found out about Nazism; TW war) III. Tempo di uccidere/Time to Kill by Ennio Flaiano (its similar in a lot of ways to Čarnojević's Journal, but more brutal and from the perspective of a fascist Italian soldier; TW fascist Italy, murder, colonialism, misogyny, war), IV. Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos (it was WILD; TW French aristocracy and their shenanigans, including pedo stuff and forced abortion); V. Неспящие by Барбара Морриган (I hate to like it and think about it occasionally to this day bc there's a lot of homophobia in this book & from the author herself (and a lot of other things I hated). Abeo didn't deserve the treatment he got. Also the main character is an assole and he doesn't change in the end. And there's a lot of stupidity. But I liked it a lot as well as the author is talented and writes well)

4. As I said, I try to read all VC, so I must say I really enjoy Anne Rice this year.

5. I can't say, bc I read a big variety of genres. It would be easier to count what genres I read the least

6. A majority of my bookshelf. Проклятье Жеводана by Джек Гольб, Табак by Димитр Димитров, Сиротки series by Мария Вой, The Imitation of Christ, Going Postal... It's like 1% of what I was intended to read

7. 4.3 and I think it's accurate. I'm usually generous with my ratings. It's hard for me to focus so if the book was well-written/interesting, I will most likely give it 5 stars.

8. Nah:D I only have a goal of 85 books this year

end-of-year book ask

How many books did you read this year?

Did you reread anything? What?

What were your top five books of the year?

Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

What genre did you read the most of?

Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

What was your average Goodreads rating? Does it seem accurate?

Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

Did you get into any new genres?

What was your favorite new release of the year?

What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

Any books that disappointed you?

What were your least favorite books of the year?

What books do you want to finish before the year is over?

Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?

What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

How many books did you buy?

Did you use your library?

What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

What’s the longest book you read?

What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

Did you DNF anything? Why?

What reading goals do you have for next year?

[manitat]

Miljenko Jergović: Novak Đoković je najveći svih vremena, jer je od početka do kraja ostao autsajder

[kommunalka-blog]

EUROPA CENTRO-ORIENTAL. ESCRITORES.

POLONIA

Adam Zagajewski Zbigniew Herbert Wislawa Szymborska Józef Czapski Józef Wittlin Olga Tokarczuk Marek Byenczyc Andrzej Stasiuk Sergiusz Piasecki Ida Fink

REPÚBLICA CHECHA (o CHECOSLOVAQUIA)

Arnost Lustig Jirí Weil

HUNGRÍA

Laszló Krasznahorkai Szilárd Borbély György Spiró Magda Szabó

ROMANIA

Mircea Cărtărescu Ana Blandiana Gabriela Adamesteanu Tatiana Tibuleac

BULGARIA

Angel Wagenstein Georgi Márkov Alek Popov Kapka Kassabova

SERBIA (o JUGOSLAVIA)

Danilo Kis Goran Petrovic David Albahari Dragan Velikić Svetislav Basara Aleksandar Tišma

ESLOVENIA

Maja Haderlap (idioma) Boris Pahor (idioma) Goran Vojnović

CROACIA

Dubravka Ugrešić Daša Drndić Miroslav Krleža

BOSNIA

Ivo Andrić (serbobosnio) Meša Selimović Faruk Šehić Velibor Colić Miljenko Jergović Aleksandar Hemon Saša Stanišić Lana Bastašić (serbobosnia) Selvedin Avdić Teodor Cerić

MONTENEGRO

Mirko Kovač KOSOVO Pajtim Statovci ALBANIA

Ismail Kadaré

UCRANIA

Andréi Kurkov Yuri Andrujovich Serhiy Zhadan

[faustandfurious]

I tried asking a chatbot for books/authors similar to Miljenko Jergović, and it gave me Jodi Picoult based on some vaguely phrased thematic similarity about family and history. Then I asked it to list Jergović’s most famous books, it gave me a list of four titles of which “Ruta Tannenbaum” is admittedly real and written by him, but in no way his most famous work, “The Book of My Lives” is by fellow Yugoslav author Aleksandar Hemon, and the remaining two titles were straight up invented, complete with fake ISBNs.

Yes, I deliberately asked about an author who isn’t all that well known in the English speaking literary worls (but whose works are still available in English translation), because that’d give the AI a much smaller body of online litcrit to draw from in the first place, and that’s when the cracks really start showing.

I tried talking to an AI chatbot for the first time today because I was looking for book recs with quite specific criteria and I thought, maybe an algorithm can help, by combing through every library database on Earth to find exactly what I'm looking for? Can they do that now?

I explained to the AI what I was looking for and it gave me a list of 5 books, all of which I had read. I asked if it had any other titles and it gave me 5 more books, which I had also read.

I said I hadn't enjoyed such-and-such books from its list, and mentioned a book I had enjoyed more, hoping to gradually orient it towards more accurate book recs.

The AI said "This book sounds good. I'm going to ask you for more recommendations and I'll put them on my to-read list"

...

The AI is now asking me for book recs. This is the opposite of why I'm here!!

Doggedly I rephrased my initial request, brought up some more books and said I was looking for something similar, and it gave me a new list of 5 titles. All of which I had read.

There are millions of books out there, please make an effort...?

I tried to encourage it by saying books 1 and 3 of its list sounded good and did it know of any more books like these? And it gave me another 5-book list—and I didn't know any of them!!!

Victory!

I went on goodreads to look them up. And couldn't find any of them. I tried google, and it didn't know these books either.

... did the AI grow so desperate it invented some titles that sounded like what I wanted?

I went back to the chatbot and said, I can't find these books anywhere, are you sure you didn't invent them?

The AI said "..." for much longer than usual. Like, five minutes. In the meantime I texted a friend about all this and was like, is AI always this useless? Did I have too high expectations? And do they just make stuff up when they don't have an answer? My friend said, "I can't believe you've successfully crushed an AI's will to live just by asking it to find books you haven't already read."

And then the AI came back to life and said, I didn't invent them! These books are just quite obscure; better contact the author or publisher directly to find information about them.

Okay, but do you have the books' ISBN?

The AI then gave up on lying, hung its head and said, I do not have these books' ISBNs and have not been able to find them with any search engine. I tried Google, the publisher's websites, Goodreads and other online platforms, and I can find no trace of these books anywhere.

At this point I felt like I was persecuting a poor, browbeaten algorithm, but I was a bit sad to learn that these cool-sounding titles were most likely imaginary, so I said "Why would you lie about this?" and the AI crashed. The answer I got was "An error has occurred; please try again later."

...

Me: I'm going to go talk to a robot so I stop bothering my friends by constantly giving them & asking them for book recs!

The robot: Deactivates itself after talking about books with me for 5 minutes

[knjigeobradovic]

NEZEMALJSKI IZRAZ NJEGOVIH RUKU - MILJENKO JERGOVIĆ

[majestativa]

That Sarajevan authors and bibliophile who, instead of using expensive firewood, warmed his fingers last winter on the flames of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Cervantes… As a result of so many deliberate and accidental fires, a new kind of person has been created, a person who has come bitterly to understand how things go and who, as a result, would coolly watch flames rising from the Louvre and not even reach out for a glass of water. There’s no point in not letting a fire swallow up things that human indifference has already destroyed.

— Miljenko Jergović, Scar on the Stone: Contemporary Poetry from Bosnia, (1998)

[radiogornjigrad]

Nera Karolina Barbarić: KAKO JE HRVATSKI BUREK ZAVADIO NOTORNE PISCE

Foto: Zvonko Alač Eto nama naših pisaca, pilaca i jelaca, znalaca i mudrijaša koji se dohvatiše jedne ne manje nacionalističke teme nego što to jezik jest – nacionalnoga kulinarstva. Pa kaže Mate Kapović, hrvatski lingvist: „Burek u Hrvatsku nije došao iz BiH, nego, po svemu sudeći, u 20. stoljeću s albanskim pekarima’ (M. Kapović: Jezični savjetnik za 21. stoljeće, Sandorf, 2024.) I točno i…

[faustandfurious]

«He stubbed out his cigarette and licked his forearm. It seemed like the thing to do. In the midst of a real panic attack it’s best to have a completely imaginary one»

Miljenko Jergović writes some of the most unhinged sentences, and I love it

[mentalnahigijena]

Nedostojni pad Mome Kapora Tih sedamdesetih godina sam sa velikim zadovoljstvom čitao Momu Kapora. Njegovi “Foliranti”, “Provincijalac” i drugi romani govorili su o Beogradu u kome sam i sam studirao. Pisao je i po novinama, pitko, lako, činilo mi se da je to dio naših doživljaja, našeg života. Miljenko Jergović u “Jutarnjem listu” piše u martu 2010. u povodu Kaporove smrti: “Momo Kapor bio je gradski i građanski pisac iz posljednja dva jugoslavenska desetljeća. Pritom, bio je i izvanredan novinski pisac, sigurno jedan od najboljih koje je ta zlosretna zemlja imala. Sve što bi napisao, oživjelo bi i progovorilo. To je bila bit njegova talenta.“ A onda se krajem osamdesetih godina Momo Kapor otisnuo niz maticu nacionalizma, da ne upotrijebim težu riječ. Iz njegovog pera počele su izlaziti stvari za mene neočekivane, uvredljive. Bio sam iznenađen, uznemiren. To nije bio moj Kapor. Jergović kaže: “Vrag se počeo uvlačiti u njega potkraj osamdesetih. Kada se zarati, izvještavat će s hrvatskih i bosanskih ratišta, u vrijeme međunarodnih sankcija protiv Beograda grmjet će protiv Amerike – koja mu je u prethodnome životu bila kulturni i identitetski Jeruzalem – psovat će i kleti nezavisne medije, Žene u crnom i borce za drukčiju Srbiju, svjedočit će u Haagu u korist Miloševića, bit će u nekakvom odboru za zaštitu lika i djela Radovana Karadžića… Sve je, nesretnik, učinio da od građanina postane seljak. I pritom je žrtvovao tri svoja grada, rodno Sarajevo, Zagreb i Dubrovnik.“ A Damir Pešorda kaže: „Momo Kapor je bio takav kakav je bio. Odan velikosrpskoj politici, opsjednut mržnjom prema Sarajevu, opčinjen Radovanom Karadžićem.“ Predrag Matvejević u eseju „Naši talibani“ piše:“ Ljudi od pera snose za sve to golem dio krivice. Bilo bi dobro kad bi postojao poseban sud, ne samo onaj u Haagu, jedan još viši od njega, bolji i stroži od sudova časti što su poslije Drugog svjetskog rata u nas i u Evropi sudili kvislinškim piscima. Da takav sud osudi pred javnošću sve one koji su krivi za ovo što se dogodilo i da im prije svega navede imena: onog tko je od početka pripremao i poučavao “vožda” (Dobricu Ćosića i njegove skutonoše), onog koji je podržavao “vrhovnika” i upregao svoje tupo pero u opravdanje agresije na Bosnu (Ivana Aralicu, na primjer), onog tko je držao mikrofon pod bradom guslaru i veličao njegove podvige dok je tukao po Sarajevu (Momu Kapora)“. Kap koja je prelila moju čašu bila je knjiga “Poslednji let za Sarajevo” napisana 1995. U njoj je prikazao nas Bošnjake, posebno Sarajlije, kao izdajice, asasine, murtate, ljude koji ti jedno govore a iza leđa ti drugo rade, jednostavno ljude bez dostojanstva. Tu se prekinula nit koja me je vezala sa Momom Kaporom. Opet Jergović: „Momo Kapor, rođeni Sarajlija, autor je najstrašnije knjige o tom gradu. Posljednji let za Sarajevo roman je destilirane mržnje, kakav je mogao napisati samo rođeni Sarajlija, netko tko u suštinskome smislu poznaje plan grada, zna sve njegove sentimentalne adrese i legende. I što je bilo najneugodnije: jezik i mentalitet Sarajeva Kaporovi su kost i meso, jer Beograđanin on nikada nije sasvim postao.“ U Banja Luci je postao član Senata Republike Srpske i član Akademije nauka i umjetnosti Republike Srpske. A u Beogradu? Predrag Matvejević u „Danima“ govori o Kaporu sa kojim je nekada prijateljevao i branio ga: „Kad su krenuli napadi na Bosnu, čuo sam da je stao dušom i tijelom uz Karadžića, da ga hvali i slavi. Došla mi je u ruke Momina proza o posljednjem letu jednog srpskog pilota u Sarajevo – junak mu je išao od avlije do avlije i gledao posvuda derviše kako plešu i vrte se u krugu s isukanim handžarima. Kapor nije vidio ništa drugo u svom rodnom gradu, opsjednutom 1.350 dana, izranjavanom.“ A Teofil Pančić piše: “Čak i kada bi Sarajevo bilo najodvratniji grad na svetu, ostalo bi pitanje: kako se naziva čovek koji pljuje i šutira nogom u cevanice onog ko je već vezan i prebijen. Jer, to mrsko Sarajevo već četvrtu godinu Kaporovi prijatelji i istomišljenici tuku i razaraju, granatiraju i izgladnjuju i ubijaju sve živo što je na puškometu i topometu. I na kraju dolazi još Kapor da ga opljune i do kraja ponizi, u najboljoj jalijaškoj tradiciji koje se tako gadi…” Ovih dana mi je došla pod ruku Kaporova knjiga „Zelena čoja Montenegra“ napisana 1992. godine. Knjiga je čitljiva, u njoj se govori o prijateljstvu Kapora i Zuke Džumhura i zajedničkom pisanju scenarija za film o bitci na Vučjem dolu i legendi vezanoj za kneza Nikolu Petrovića i Osman – pašu Sarhoša. O Zuki nije napisao ništa loše. Ali u posljednjem poglavlju Kapor piše neke stvari koje govore o njegovom opredjelenju posljednjih godina. Govori da iz vjerskog i građanskog rata izvještava za beogradske listove, da prelazi planine sa srpskom vojskom i da je vidio mlade crnogorske ratnike kako su se „tukli sa Latinima i Turcima koje više niko nije zvao muslimanima – predačko nasleđe izbrisalo je u potpunosti novo ime starih dušmana. Turci su, tako, ponovo izašli iz tame davnih vremena.“ Momo Kapor koristi i ovu knjigu da još jednom popljuje ono društvo koje mu je sve omogućilo, onu državu i njenog predsjednika. Na strani 73. knjige (Knjiga komerc Beograd,2006.) on piše: “Čitavo svoje umetničko delo Zuko Džumhur je stvorio pod vladavinom poluobrazovanih, nedoučenih kabadahija koji su želeli da imaju svoje dvorske lude, pesnike, muzikante i zabavljače. Bio je, dakle, talac jednog primitivnog sistema, koji nije mogao razumeti istančanost njegove gotovo dekadentne umetnosti istočnjačkog filigrana.“ A o Titu kaže na strani 137: „Tito je pokazivao izuzetnu naklonost prema njemu… Kad se Zuko pozdravljao sa Titom oni su se poljubili kao da se odlično poznaju… (Zuko) je kao starovremenski čovek osećao nostalgiju za Austrougarskom, čiji je jedan skroman podnarednik postao jugoslavenski car! Kad već nije stigao da živi u Šenbrunu Franje Josifa, ove posete balkanskom dvoru njegovog podoficirskog dvojnika ispunjavale su ga zadovoljstvom.“ On pritom namjerno izostavlja Titovu vojnu, političku i državničku veličinu. Zaboravlja da je Tito bio okružen prvoklasnim inteluktualcima, koji su zauzimali i visoke državne pozicije ministara i ambasadora kao što su Koča Popović, Marko Ristić, Vladimir Velebit, Miroslav Krleža …Po ocenama nekih savremenih pisaca i umjetnika sloboda umjetničkog stvaranja bila je veća u Titovo doba nego sada. Momo Kapor mi je, kako kažu stari ljudi, „izašao iz hatera“. Ne zaboravljam njegove romane ali to što je radio i pisao posljednjih 20 godina je pad u smrdljivu baruštinu nacionalizma i antikomunizma.