"So does a (good) book, picture or photograph need an 'instructions for use'? Do they need to be explained? Art speaks the language of experience and does not require an interpreter," Nebojša Radović wrote in his third book 'Baobab', which was promoted at the City Hall in Niksic.
His book does not need an interpreter, only an emotion - the same one that "took everything" from him, but also to which he gave everything, the emotion with which he "bought" the readers and "caught" them in a net from which it is difficult to get out. "Baobab" is not only his treasury of memories, but also ours, because as much as it is in every story, "in every letter and comma", there are as many of us. So skillfully he "opened" our hidden drawers in the brain and "spill" the contents all over the stories.
That is why it is not surprising that his book, as Dr. Marijana Terić said at the promotion, can be read in one sitting. If you add to that Radović's specific style and ability to, in the words of Terić, "present things as they really are", then what happens is that after reading the book, readers return to his stories again and again, looking for themselves in them.
"This collection of stories shows that books are not just stories written on paper, but mirrors through which authors reflect their inner worlds. Something makes every writer special, and what is particularly interesting about Radović is that he developed an original and unusual way of writing. can be understood as a form of internal transformation, i.e. questioning one's own soul, as a form of meditation, self-therapy and facing one's own struggles," said Terić, who is the editor and proofreader of the book.
It is not easy to "confess" to unknown people, to reveal hidden places in your heart and soul, to entrust them with your dreams and fantasies, to give them memories. And Radović did that, and that, according to Marijana Terić, is the special quality of "Baobab" because it required "human, mental courage to embark on writing one's own life."
And "Baobab", according to her, represents the author's personal confession.
As the basic initial creative impulses for writing stories, Terić singled out the feeling of loneliness and love. It is love, writing, photography and life that make him alive. Or he makes life alive. Anyway.
Radović, who has been very successful in photography for decades, managed, according to the editor of the book, to create photos that "tell a story", so reading his stories reminds one of flipping through an album of pictures.
And why "Baobab"?
"Symbolism again. A lot of symbolism. The 'upside-down' tree. That's what they call it. The one that lives the longest in the harshest conditions. Which defies time and drought. Everyone. In defiance is power. In spite of will," wrote Radović in an interview that he took with him and which served as his biography.
Radović read, as he pointed out, "something like a speech", which was written for promotion.
"In this strange time, where people hurry and eat, run and talk, walk and read, where normal people are in the minority and where there are more and more of these others, it is at the same time difficult and easy to find your peace, to fence it off and preserve it. Without thinking a lot, we give up all those classic things, accepting new ones. Flea shops are slowly becoming museums and so on, while some are throwing away, others are buying I'm not even squinting into the unknown and rejecting everything that has lasted for centuries. Let's say that despite all the technology, electronic libraries, aids, the classic book has survived for seven thousand years , although much younger, survived everything and anything, and again, printed on paper, remains the most beautiful and powerful. Both the book and the picture need nothing but fire, and maybe a glass of wine with a loved one," is part of the author's speech who, in addition to "Baobab", also published "Zanoktica" and "Trun", while the fourth book, "Ushur", is in print
His prose is drinkable like poetry, because, as he likes to say, "no cake without sugar, no dish without salt", aware that not everything goes smoothly in life, that sometimes he too has to suffer.
"There is magic in belief. Strength. There is nothing in doubt except doubt and its destructive instinct. If I recognize suffering in someone, and if I still know that person, I try to be that person. Or at least a part of it. An auxiliary worker in that process who will carry a part of the burden on my shoulders. Sorrows. Pain...If even one of my stories makes you sad or laughs, I will know that I did not waste the paper in vain", the author wrote in the book, which was organized by JU Narodna "Njegoš" library.
The moderator was the librarian Ivan Lješković, fragments from the stories were read by the actor Dobrilo Boban Čvorović, while Dino Maksuti was in charge of the musical atmosphere.
The promotion was held as part of the December repertoire of the Nikšić cultural scene.
Bonus video:
