Wars in the Balkans never stop

The literary program of the 33rd City Theater began with a guest appearance by Damir Karakaš, one of the most respected and widely read Croatian writers and playwrights, winner of numerous awards (among them the "Kočić's Feather", the "Fric" award...), whose works have been translated into a dozen language.

The writer whom critics classify as classics, who wrote all his books in the way Krleža said - that one should write "grimly, cruelly, uncompromisingly, relentlessly, without compassion, and with blocked nostrils if necessary", presented his the new novel "Proslava", and the mediator of the conversation with him was the critic Nikola Nikolić. It is interesting that this novel, while it was still in the making, in bound fragments and in English translation, was presented at the Paris Book Fair Livre Paris...

Part of "Celebration" was created in the monastery of St. Francis on Cres (during the residential program as part of the Rijeka EPK 2020 project), the novel was typed on a typewriter, and in his writing mission, as he stated, Karakaš tried to 120 pages, in four chapter, describes three generations and two wars, in fact, the end of one and the announcement of another, because war never ends, especially in the Balkans. But, this novel is also a story about melancholy, about art, and the sacrifice of writing and creation... Karakaš worked intensively on it for seven years, because, as he explained, he does not write, but works... The four narrative units of the novel are "House", "Dogs", "Celebration" and "Father", the action spans thirty years, ending with 1945, and the celebration referred to in the title takes place in a place in Lika in 1941, at a celebration for the establishment of the NDH...

"I am interested in a man with all his faults and virtues. I always try to get into the dark corners and bring them to the light of day. Writing itself is a kind of fight with demons, like dancing with demons... When I write I have the feeling that I have little ammunition at my disposal and that each of my bullets must hit the heart of the demon in order for me to go on. The plot of "Celebration" is related to the post-war period, however, even though it is post-war - a new war is on the horizon and the plot itself is tense, suspicious, arrogant, uncompromising... and I was more interested in the nature of people and the allegorical depiction of mentality, than in portraying what what war brings. It is a description of the state of space and time in which people become victims and executioners at the same time".

With this novel, Karakaš returns to Lika, where he was born, among the shadows and fogs, silence and sounds, colors and smells of the native landscape and its people, and takes readers on an exciting journey through time, nature, customs, a journey on which, in turn, as that everything stands... The very title of the novel came from the text, because, as he pointed out, he wanted to write a novel about a character who came out of our climate, people who are both victims and executioners at the same time, and that title was somehow adequate for him. He worked for seven years, "to be narrow in words and wide in thoughts", and he shortened it a lot...

"When I write a book, I do a lot of research. For example, I chose to write in one story about a man who belonged to the devil in the army. I was interested in how he found himself there, how we all find ourselves in various circumstances in life. People always try to assert themselves and prove themselves in something, and in the time of war, in war Satan is dominant, they simply try to assert themselves in a bad way, because someone is an artist with a guitar, and someone is an artist with a knife. I also dealt with mercy killing here. It is a specific motive and phenomenon that is different everywhere, from nation to nation".

As an interesting fact, Karakaš also mentioned the example that he performed with his books in Berlin, in the cult cinema "Babilon", in Lisbon, Leipzig..., but that in the 20 years that he has been publishing, no one from any bookstore in Lika has invited him.

"Not only am I not very popular in my area, but after the novel "Celebration" I am not allowed to come there anymore, because it has become dangerous and inconvenient for me, but also for my parents who live there. Still, I think it's a writer's natural position to be at odds with the environment, and I've always been skeptical of writers who are worshiped and memorialized in their places of origin. When I write about Lica, I write about myself and give my best, I don't write otherwise. The essence of my writing is life and/or death," said Damir Karakaš.

Rich opus

Karakas wrote a book of travelogues "Bosnians are good people", story collections "Kino Lika", "Eskimos", "Colonel Beethoven" (he also published the cult American literary magazine "McSweeny's Quarterly")...., novels "Kombetari", " How I Got Into Europe”, “A Great Place to Crash”, “Blue Moon”, “Remembering the Forest” and “Celebration”. A former journalist (for years he worked as a journalist for the black chronicle "Večernji list"), he is also known as a successful successful screenwriter and playwright - his plays "Skoro nikad ne začičavamo", "Sniper" were directed by Paolo Magđeli, Franka Perković, Ivica Buljan, and based on the book "Kino Lika" Dalibor Matanić made a film of the same name...