Reading again...

This year I was really on a roll with reading - for a while.
Specially on my last ship, I really almost re-discovered pleasure and joy of reading, that is how much I loved my new discoveries. I had almost ignored movies and music, but returned to my first love, books, with greatest passion, probably because e-books were so available and I found the whole concept suddenly so exciting. Than at certain point I found myself really stuck with something I didn't care for anymore, monumental horror/fantasy novel by Stephen King ("The Stand") that was just going on forever and ever, literary bothering me with huge volume and I eventually capitulated, left the darn colossus aside and was afraid to even look at anything else. Sure, I did indulge in book shopping but trough almost whole of my vacation didn't want to actually read because I didn't want to have any feeling of pressure or obligations. Now on this Interliber book fair I finally bought several thin volumes as presents and because they intrigued me decided to give it a go. I read this slim volume last night in one sitting.

"Proklete Hrvatice" is God-awful, bombastic title that should have actually be "Tragic Croatian Ladies" instead of this horrible name that translates as "Damned Croatian Ladies".
It is a very interesting biography of ten Croatian heroines from the past, well researched and there is even some connection between them as some of them lived at the same time and walked the same streets simultaneously, though have they ever meet remains a speculation. It is a very good idea, since majority of these ladies are today known only as names from schoolbooks and we have streets & squares, sculptures and art, but know surprisingly little about them. The book starts with celebrated 17. century poetess from Dubrovnik Cvijeta Zuzorić, who is remembered as being a beauty and gifted poet but nothing from her writings have ever survived centuries (?) - today all we know about her is her name and this is where book tries to clear the facts up. Further chapters are all given to specific women and their contribution to our history & culture. Most of the time I found the stories very interesting and was occasionally embarrassed with my own ignorance as I previously used to mix some of them up (apparently Jelena and Katarina Zrinski were two completely different persons). Naturally, two of the biggest and most familiar stories are about two ladies who lived at same time but probably never met, as they moved in different social circles: Ivana Brlić Mažuranić was gentle, refined and sophisticated aristocrat who wrote children stories as hobby (permitted for someone of her status) but harsh reality, financial troubles and family drained her so much that she ended her life with suicide. On the other hand, first Croatian female journalist and writer of mega-popular "pulp fiction" historical novels Marija Jurić Zagorka lived completely off her own writings and fought windmills trough all her life, suffering humiliations on every corner that someone of privileged class would simply not have to endure. Zagorka happened to be a commoner writing for little, common people and she was darn successful at it, though academic circles always despised her. What this book also mention is her fierce nationalism and troubles that she would often out herself willingly into parading on the streets and being extremely politically active which surprised me a little bit, I mean here we have a little dowdy lady without any husband or support showing strength as a lioness with absolutely no fear or thought for her material background. There is also a very inspired chapter about deaf & mute painter Slava Raškaj that inspired me to look out for her work and gentle finale about late actress Ena Begović who was one of our great beauties.

Milana Vuković Runjić writes very well and I was impressed. However I am also aware that this is a very serious, almost academic book that somehow got published under false pretense of being light, non-fiction entertainment (paperback as part of daily newspaper) and its perhaps too good for intended audience that might find all these informations and analyses too complicated. I almost wish this to be re-printed in different edition and given serious treatment it deserves.

"Proklete Hrvatice Vol.2" is actually even more interesting because it focuses on less famous ladies from the past - we all know about Brlić Mažuranić and Zagorka but hardly anyone has ever heard of Josipa Vancaš who had her own literary salon and was known for nurturing talents of almost anybody who mattered in 19th century Zagreb. Or Mila Gojsalić who somehow went into a legend trough folk poem, but who she actually was? Again, Vuković Runjić does excellent job and I would say that this time she was even more inspired, very interesting read.

Another book that I bought on Interliber book fair (again as a present for a friend who lives in another country) was this slim biography of Josip Broz Tito published under the title "Veseli Diktator" ("The Merry Dictator") by Slovenian author Žarko Petan. I gulped it all in one sitting last night, as I usually do with this kind of slim volumes but it left a bitter taste in my mouth and now I wish that I didn't bother.

You see, all this kind of post-mortem biographies published after Tito's death in 1980 deal almost exclusively with lurid, scandalous and gossipy subjects that nobody dared to mention while he ruled the country for 45 years. To me this looks very much like angry, immature adolescents rebelling against big father's authority and trying to throw mud at someone who demanded respect while he was alive. Author keeps lifelong grudge against the late president, because he was jailed once for daring to ridicule his pompous uniforms and comparing him to some operetta character (his father died while he was in prison). While it is startling to realize that people used to end up in court for talking such things in private conversations and there were enough of slimy characters willing to immediately tell this to police officials, it also explains author's point of view colored with bitterness. Which personally I find very unusual because I am not capable to simmer such thoughts about anybody - most of the time I simply let it go and people who cross me are usually forgotten after a while. But Petan still thinks about it half a century after his imprisonment and won't let it go, now when Tito is long gone and buried he is here to tell his opinion about the man he saw only once in a passing train.

Author is well-known in his native Slovenia as director of TV and theatre, therefore his book might be interesting to people who know him from media. Personally I find all this a bit tasteless, remembering how much Tito was beloved by everybody while he was still alive - I was just a child back than but I was there and saw it with my own eyes, there were whole generations who saw him as a father figure, so even if this was all fake, false and artificial as author claims, this means we were all brainwashed into believing it. I still recall the genuine sorrow of the whole nation right after Tito's death and feel a bit disgusted with this apparent general amnesia where people today gleefully ridicule someone who was big authority once.