And the magical mirror of literature and the endless rainforest of life, nostalgia for the past and fear of tomorrow, whirlwinds of memories, torrents of first loves, flickers of anxiety, dealing with the homeland, with the return and departure, with times and times, with man and life... That's how it is. , and an even deeper, more intimate, stronger flow of Our River...
The novel "Our River" by a journalist, editor-in-chief of the independent weekly "Monitor", philosopher and writer Esada Kočan, like a river, from the first page carries the reader in a perfect flow to the very end, bringing more levels of life and man... This, among other things, was noticed by the journalist Milena Perović, the moderator of the promotion that was held on Tuesday evening in the crowded "Marko Miljanov" hall of the "Radosav Ljumović" National Library in Podgorica.
"Memories, memories, loves, all ours and all that marked me"
What catches the eye of every reader, the author also noted, is the title of the novel, which symbolically hides everything that flows through the words of this work, but also through the author. And every future reader will feel that river as his own and immerse himself in its flows, destinies, memories...
"Perhaps everyone has noticed that one spelling rule has been lost in the title of the book - the letter 'r' in the name 'Our River'. Spelling dictates that an uninhabited place should be written with a lowercase letter. I once wrote it with a lowercase letter, but it was so sad, especially when I looked at it... How come my Rijeka is an uninhabited place? That would be a lie, a fraud, I would betray my Rijeka like that, because in our Rijeka I am, in our Rijeka are our memories, our memories, our first love, all ours, all that marked me, because 'Our River' flows through me, not blood. That's why that rule suffered," Kočan explained at the very end of the presentation of his new manuscript.
The hall was filled to the last seat, with rows of people standing and those who listened to Kočan's words from the corridor with the door open, something that best testifies to the need of the Montenegrin literary scene for this kind of work, by this author.
Philosopher and author of numerous scientific works, prof. Ph.D Sonja Tomović Šundić she pointed out at the very beginning that Kočan is an unusual intellectual, philosopher and poet, but also an engaged intellectual who has participated in the public and political life of Montenegro for decades. with an always recognizable libertarian voice that somewhere and once demanded a sacrifice that he was very happy to make.
"Before us is a novel of rare inventiveness. Its qualities are numerous and numerous. It leads and seduces us with its River, and the readers swim with it through its eddies, backwaters, rims, banks, we collide with obstacles, waterfalls and together with that sparkling microcosm in which every drop is actually a life, a resume, a biography, let's go into its deep labyrinths. This book is actually in the literary and philosophical sense a labyrinth in which many destinies, times, epochs are intertwined, all given through a small topos of native experience Tomović Šundić remarked.
An anthropological novel, an authentic and engaging masterpiece
Nevertheless, "Our River" is a toponym, but at the same time a great metaphor of human life, pointed out Tomović Šundić, who characterized the novel, in terms of genre, as anthropological.
"Here we have a great task to detect the deeper meaning of life and to overcome ordinary destinies, collisions with illness, death, Eros and Thanatos, through small destinies, (conflicts of) families, moving and emigrating, coming and going, and everything that denies us, as the writer says, but also everything that we deny, is actually one big kaleidoscope of human life, one big river, one big torrent that carries us all. That river is also his people, his topos, the place from which he is native encourages," said Tomović Šundić.
Historian, but also the editor this time, Šerbo Rastoder quoted the academic reviewer at the promotion Ferid Muhić who noted that the novel, in terms of its aesthetic qualities, is an authentic literary and artistic masterpiece, conceptually original, thematically current, told suggestively and convincingly in the language of a born storyteller, intellectually and critically engaged, encouraging and inspiring...
"There are few people like him who saw his nest so high and untouchable, protecting it from all storms and eddies. I am afraid to say that we got a great writer who will never be rewarded and recognized in the true greatness that should mean to a society, and that we lost a journalist who spent his entire writing life fighting to be what he is now. With this book, Esaad entered the company of the greatest," said Rastoder.
He specifically referred to the historical segment, the factor, but also the flow and features of the novel, and then added that the issues of the past and what the future brings are intertwined and he noticed completely new approaches in literature to topics already covered...
"Infinitely interesting characters, none of whom we do not know, face numerous life, emotional and existential challenges and solve them in the same way as the author's heroes of the story on the banks of Our River. At the same time, we cannot help but notice that not only that there is less and less water in that river, but that the fish are almost disappearing in it. It seems like a metaphor - the destruction of one life and the disappearance of another, a life between tradition and modernization. It is not a new theme in literature, but it is a new approach to that theme. In addition to nostalgia for of the past, there is no historical pathos in Kočan, there is no culprit, there is no hero derived from guilt. An ordinary world, an apparently ordinary man, placed in the grip of contemporary challenges, profoundly philosophically intriguingly solves questions from his past, but remains worried about what awaits him, he said Rastoder.
In the literature, a unique description of brotherhood, but also of the ecological factor
Teacher Milan Popovic he also pointed out that other elements were described in a unique way in Kočan's work, and singled out what left the strongest impression on him.
"The first is the historical element, i.e. history without romanticization, without beautification, without court decorations... I have not come across any works, or novels in the literature, in which the fraternal antiquity, which is even older than monotheistic religions, is described in a better way. Description of one of brotherhood, his conflict with others, transitions from one to another, with all the cruelty of the existence of survival that produces such a structure... And there are also elements of emotion and beauty...", says Popović and continues:
"The strongest impression on me was something that is not visible in the title itself, but can be seen in the first third of the novel, which describes the disappearance of Our River, and which today, even globally, is the most topical moment of ecopsychology, ecocivilization, the nuclear ecological apocalypse that threatens, and humanity lives in the heavy shadow of that threat, lives in fear... Also, I can't remember a work in literature where this element that is very difficult to describe, which is negative in content, is better described, which is the feeling of disappearing , disposal, in this case the river, childhood, antiquity... I would extend it to all the dearest and closest things that a person has in life," Popović pointed out.
Journalist and writer Balša Brković he referred in particular to the subtle but clear ecological element of the novel, highlighting it as a novelty in Montenegrin literature...
"In this novel, there is an ecological impulse that is so subtle and distilled in an intelligent way, which is something new in Montenegrin literature. While earlier it was dominantly focused on the countryside, it was not so visible. Today, from this point of view, when the Montenegrin reader, writer and literature is much more urban than it used to be, then this ecological impulse is possible, because it ultimately stems from the need to return. Return is always also the discovery of something. Our River to which the writer returns is actually "Our Rijeka, which he discovers again and again. We never return to the forgotten, but to what we discover, how much and how we forgot," said Brković.
Esad Kočan is a man of exceptional observation, he does not go through life with his eyes closed, but very keenly follows, observes the people around him, events, nature and everything affects him, and he also affects everything, added Tomović Šundić, so everything is one an interaction that gave the opportunity to create such an exceptional novel, told in an extremely stylistic and narratological way.
"His narratological process is a river that also has many directions, many tributaries, and that magisterial flow that connects different times where Esad Kočan will tell us a great saga, a historical, culture of memory that differs even among the people to which he belongs, but he will of course, the XNUMXs and the events of war and politics and the man of the masses are woven into that story, but also when a man becomes a man of the masses, as well as when a man becomes an inhuman, which is his key anthropological starting point: when and at what moment does a man begin to be evil , can every human being be evil, can it happen to all of us - to fall into evil", points out Tomović Šundić...
Stepping out of the world of facts
The beginning of the novel, she reveals, follows a confessional moment when the author himself or the narrator's other self, the alter-ego, faces the disease.
"There is no stronger sobering for a person than when he is faced with death and illness. This is where the question of meaning is born, this is the basis of all the religions of the world...", states Tomović Šundić.
And regarding the facts, the so-called real world as the only reality, Kočan said:
"If there were only this real world of facts, life would be a punishment, a dangerous, severely prescribed punishment, if it were the only reality. Fortunately, in the human world reality is also what we dream, what we want, our world is what will never happen, and what we wished would never happen. Perhaps the last defense of human meaning will be man's right to be unhappy, man's right to be sad, man's right to be wounded and, lastly, to be loved I entered this world of the possible, one that is not limited by real facts, it is an endless rainforest...", says Kočan...
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Brković points out that this book by Esad Kočan is that magical mirror of literature that we, as readers, have the privilege of looking into and in which a lot can be found.
"We got a serious writer, which makes me happy as a reader and as someone who believes that literature is more important than anything and that in the end, nothing can redeem us if literature doesn't redeem us," said Brković.
Perović also pointed out that this novel by Kočan will most certainly live a long time and be significant, not only for the local, but also for the wider literary scene, which academician Muhić also noticed, placing it, regionally, at the very top of modern literature in the Balkans, and according to his qualities, Muhić added, and at the top of European literature.
"The book is also about death, but also about love"
"Our River" is the second literary work of Esad Kočan, after the book "Iza daštuš" which was published seven years ago. Confident in the words of others about his work, the author, however, says that he cannot speak for himself about what the novel is like.
"I can not to say whether this novel is good or bad... It's too much my work, too much me in it, but I know that I couldn't have done better..."... And that reflects the emotion of the novel, its core, and sensitivity , which Tomović Šundić also noticed, and Kočan confirmed in his address to the audience, with gratitude for such an event.
"Only love in this world wins indescribably. Only love. All that I managed to understand while traveling through this rainforest of mine is that only before the fact of love is death helpless and only before love does it retreat. This book of mine is also from death , but also from love," concluded Kočan.
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