The following is another review of one of the 2006 Reading the World title selections:
10th Book: Review Date May 8, 2006
Sarajevo Marlboro by
Translated from Bosnian by Stela Tomasevic
2004 by Archipelago Books 195 pages
Miljenko Jergovic has put together 29 short stories that aren’t quite short shorts, or short fictions (per Ed Falco’s definition), but are not long stories at all. He has a great ability to decide a story is complete, no matter the length, and the courage to put his pen down once he makes that decision.
These stories captures the human element of wars or military conflicts. While there isn’t an effort in the book not set during the war in Bosnia, Jergovic doesn’t write about the soldiers or even concentrate on the specific horrors one might expect to see in a book that covers a war. Instead, he concentrates on how quickly things can change in the lives of civilians during such a conflict.
The story “Cactus” has the narrator receiving a small cactus from his girlfriend. At first, it annoys him that she is unaware of his dislike for inside plants, but within weeks it becomes obvious that this plant means something to him – he waters it every fifth day and it begins to prosper. This story also highlights Jergovic’s ability to infuse some humor into his stories as the girlfriend eventually comments how the top of the cactus reminds her of a bit of his anatomy. As bombing of the area the narrator lives in begins and increases in volume, the cactus takes on the role of an example of perseverance, standing tall. However, the shelling eventually gets to the point where the man moves both himself and the cactus down to the cellar. It only takes a day before the cactus is drooping, its top staring down at the ground. The death of the cactus takes away a bit of the man’s spirit – he makes a point to the reader that while he has the ability to shut off conversations around him that discuss things he might find upsetting, but when he thinks of his cactus, he doesn’t have that ability, and instead gets more and more depressed thinking about it.
The story “Theft” deals with a pair of next door neighbors and the apple tree that grows on the property of one of them. The narrator is the son of the mother who owns the tree filled property and he recalls how the other family’s children used to steal apple pies from their window sill. This led to their father and his mother getting into a horrible argument with name calling that was not forgotten over the years, and the parents never spoke to each other. As the narrator grew older and the conflict began, the apple-less neighbors were visited by the police, who found two or three rifles in their house. This began an incredible amount of neighborhood gossip about who he must have wanted to hurt, or even kill – why else would have had the weapons? The story moves to a warm ending through the actions of the narrator.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Jergovic’s collection is that the characters come off as every day people, just those that have to deal with the fact that there is a war in their neighborhood. There are no wild overreactions or characters that seem to be overburdened with their own thoughts of the actions around them. Instead, Jergovic has populated his stories with people that remind his readers of the commonalities we all have, and the fact that it is so highly translated can only be seen as a great thing.
4.5 stars
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