I have just finished rereading Mesa Selimovic’s Death and the Dervish for the third time, and I am prepared to say that it is a masterpiece.
Think of a more restrained and penetrating Crime and Punishment. More restrained in that the protagonist exists in a more rigid environment than Raskolnikov (a muslim tekke) and is thus required by convention not only to refrain from acting on his impulses and desires, but to try and PREVENT impulses and desires from popping into his head. More penetrating because Selimovic is a master of frank and poetical prose (kudos to the translator) in a way that Dostoevsky is not in his current English incarnations (an exception to this is the Volokhonskly/Pevear translation of the Brothers Karamazov).
Most of the action is interior, and the appeal of the novel is not so much in its plot as in its mastery of psychology. I want to say “historical psychology”, but coining terms is not my bag. It is definitely not a fast read, and the philosophical musings with which the protagonist tortures himself can go on for pages. This is not a bad thing at all, mind you, but the novel does require time and effort. It also richly rewards it.
We had to read this book in high school as a mandatory reading, and that was always a torture. Have you read the Bogdan Rakic’s translation? He was Sarah’s professor in Indiana.
The Rakic translation is the one I have… now who is Sarah?
Sarah is my bahby.
I was supposed to read it in high school too. I’s delicious, I hope it’s still in the curriculum. Anyway, I am not sure why that gentleman translated the title as Death and the Dervish, when it’s first dervish and then death originally. There’s nothing wrong with Dervish and the Death, is there? Mayhap it kinda sounded better to him, but I am not delighted with his choice. Hope it’s not a case of “correcting” it, like Stanislav “corrects” the Beatles!
No. I’m translating The Beatles. I will ask Bodgan why he translated it this way.
Rabbit thinks one could understand from my post that I don’t like the book. So, I’m saying here, the book is wonderful, but making kids read what they don’t want to is bad. I hope I cleared it out.
I noticed that the German translation puts “Dervish” before “Tod” in the title… Perhaps the English version rolls off the tongue a bit better?
I can totally see your point about forcing kids to read the “great books”. This is why I advocate REMOVING truly great literature from high school curriculums everywhere… let the bastards stumble upon them on their own.
I just ordered “The Fortress” by the same author… I’m expecting more greatness. What do you guys think of Milorad Pavic, Danilo Kis, and Ismail Kadare?
Danilo Kis is one of my favorites! I have a couple of his books here with me in serbo-croatian, Boris Davidovich both in s/c and English. He had a really cool way of writing about the difficult stuff in a very poetic way. His first novel “Mansarda” is very different to anything else he wrote, but somehow it remains my favorite. I don’t know if it was translated. I don’t like Milorad Pavic, I find him repetitious and gimmicky. He’s also a bit primitive whenever he talks about women. I never read anything by Ismail Kadare. Do you like Miroslav Krleza? Kis and him are very similar in some sense, although Krleza is much more cynical. What about Dubravka Ugresic? I think all of her stuff is translated into English. Her pre-war stuff has a certian lightness to it that sets her apart from your standard Balkan author. Post-war stuff is tougher though. Also, recently Aleksandar Hemon was dubbed “the new Nabokov” whatever this might be. Nobokov or not, his latest book “Nowhere Man” has originally been written in English and you can find it in libraries easily. It’s one of the best books I saw recently. There were also a couple of excellent writers that I really like, but I don’t think they were ever translated, so keep an eye on them: Goran Tribuson (city kid, a lot of rock’n'roll in his writing), Jovan Strezovski (rural writer, deep and simple like folk literature), Grozdana Olujic (she had two wonderful novels in the sixties that mixed existentialism and a form of a teenage novel). Also, my sister Snezana Zabic is pretty good too
Well, I do think that kids should be forced to write great literature. You may hope that they would stumble upon them at some point in the future, but the chances are they are not, and if they do, the probably won’t even be bothered. But I do agree with the concept of mandatory reading in Italy – not (only) the late greats, but (also) the contemporary writers; therefore, the curriculum changes a lot. It is very important to give the kids a chance to appreciate good literature. As for the greats, there are, after all, so many of them that many will remain to be stumbled upon, or sought after, later in life.
Kis is nice, very delicate, also a very serious translator. I see him as a kind of shamanic figure of Eastern-European then-communist millieau, writing seriously and playfully (but also very, very thoughtfully) about childhood and war and tenderness and gore and whatnot. Now about Pavic, I do not like him very much; he is something of a, as E. A. Poe said about R. W. Emerson, “a mystic for mysticism’s sake”, and at the same time kind of like, condescending and pretentious. I see him somewhere between Salman Rushdi and Judith Krantz. The good news is he is not very boring – a lot of stuff goes on in his books.
“Well, I do think that kids should be forced to write great literature. ” – I meant, of course, “read” great literature. And “forced” is not a right word, either – they should have a choice: they would either read the book, or get an F. Sorry about the clumsy post. And, yes, the “Rabbit” Stanislav referred to is me – Marko from Serbia, glad to be here.
I’d first like to say that the fact that I get to talk about these authors with you guys is unbelievable. I don’t know many other people familiar with Balkan literature. Thanks.
“A Tomb for Boris Davidovitch” is one of my favorite books. The overall effect of the short stories when you read them one after another is stunning, and the inclusion of the story set in Medieval France in which the same crimes against human freedom and dignity abounded (as under communism) was genius. I first heard of him as a disciple and admirer of Borges. Kis supposedly said “There is the short story before him [Borges], and after him.” The Borges influence is much more obvious in “The Encyclopedia of the Dead”. I think Kis is incredible. I like “delicate” as a description of his writing… quite apt.
I like Pavic, although I agree that he is gimmicky. “The Dictionary of the Khazars” and “Landscape Painted with Tea” are the only books of his that I’ve read, though.
Ismail Kadare is an Albanian. He wrote a lot of books that have been translated, but I have read only “Elegy for Kosovo” and “The Three-Arched Bridge”, which is a book inspired by Ivo Andric’s “Bridge on the Drina” (which I own but have not read).
Stanislav, I have added all the names you gave above to my “check these out” list. Thanks!
IT’S DELICIOUS!