Closeness is a topic that is not talked about enough, especially nowadays when people are increasingly alienated, increasingly choosing solitude, absence from others, while the fact is that we miss out on finding compatible people with whom we could achieve closeness, because socializing with them does not take away anything from our personality... With close people we can be completely ourselves, as we really are, with all our flaws and virtues and without calculation and the need to be liked.
This is what the Croatian writer and former musician said in an interview for "Vijesti", Zoran Zmirić whose novel "Tall Grasses" was published by the publishing house "Nova knjiga", and which was presented at this year's 19th International Podgorica Book and Education Fair.
Žmirić is a member of the Croatian Writers' Association, and his works have been translated into English, French, German, Polish, Slovenian, Italian, Ukrainian and Arabic. He has a collection of stories "Shadow Theatre", a collection of columns "Time Eaten by PacMan", a novel "Blockbuster", a non-fiction prose "Riječke rock himne", a poetry collection "Zapisano metkom", a collection of micro-stories "Kaleidoscope", a graphic novel "Vožnja", as well as the novels "Snoputnik", "Putovanje desnom hemisferom", "Pacijent iz sobe 19", "Hotel Wartburg".
His latest novel, "Tall Grasses," tells the story of the lifelong friendship between Robert and Goran, which neither love, war, nor emigration can completely break.
"'Tall Grass' is an extension of my anti-war trilogy with the novels 'Blockbuster' and 'Patient in Room 19'. I feel the need to advocate for peace and reconciliation between people through my texts. There are people who are key in this story, and who do not make the world normal, and that is why we, the little people, need to remain human towards each other. In 'Tall Grass' I do not offer answers, but I think it is much better to encourage the reader to ask themselves questions through my writing," said Žmirić, presenting the novel that has been in the making for seven years.
His biggest challenge, he says, was a narrative line concerning the refugee situation of the Serbian population from the then occupied Krajina region.
"I wanted to be completely authentic and find someone who was in that column. I wasted a year and a half looking for someone who would be willing to talk to me about it. However, one sentence was enough to open the door for me. This novel is based on the proverb that says 'Your friend is the one who knows everything about you, and continues to be your friend'. I was fascinated by how in one such, concise, spartan line there is a complete decoding of friendship. Based on that, I imagined a story about two friends from our region," said Žmirić.
"The Tall Grass" takes the characters and readers from the dark nineties onwards... The paths of childhood friends cross in Ireland, "where the tall grass seems greener" and where they meet Irish travellers...
"Anyone from this region can find themselves in my novel because I deal with contemporary themes from the Balkans. I divide people by spiritual space, and I see the Balkans as one such space. On the other hand, some modern themes experienced by people in Ireland are actually not much different from what we have here, maybe they are just a little more washed out. Maybe the grass looks greener there, but I think we all have the same problems and that we can learn from each other," the writer pointed out.
In an interview for "Vijesti", in addition to novels, he also talks about music, writing, his homeland, himself...
The novel “The Tall Grass” brings an emotional story about friendship, dealing with the past and the power of shared memories, encompassing all those universal life themes. How would you present the novel as an author and what would you single out as an important motif for you?
It's a story about friendship, but also about the search for happiness, freedom, love, identity, for answers to the questions of what makes us who we are and what leads us to make certain moves in life, and how those decisions reflect on the people around us as well as our future.
Robert and Goran's friendship began in 1985 on a basketball court and has lasted for decades. Their lifelong friendship has also faced numerous challenges, especially in the context of the historical and social changes that have shaped them. What does it testify to and how strong is it in reality, considering everything, whether specifically in your novel or as a metaphor for similar examples, given that you yourself remember the period you are writing about?
They say that a friend is someone who knows everything about you, and yet they are still your friend. The relationship between my characters is put to the test from the first moment they met, because before they became friends, they were sports rivals. Their rivalry later spilled over from the sports field to the geographical space in which they operated under the influence of the turbulent 90s, and especially after that period when they meet again, the traumas that those years left on each of them surface between them. My experience is that I have witnessed the breakups of friendships that were broken due to different opinions, political pressures, and decisions that were not always made with a cool head. However, I also know of those friendships that survived despite everything, because people managed to understand that beneath all the layers in which other people's expectations have wrapped us, we are, above all, human beings who carry within us primordial values such as peace and non-violence.
The novel deals with a generation whose dreams were “stolen”, but who still saves them. How do you see and experience the strength and resilience of that generation? How difficult is it to survive, and then build some new dreams?
That's simply life, it's not that we were betrayed by our dreams once and it's not that we won't be again. It's pretty deeply rooted in our society, this perpetuation of trauma and unfulfilled expectations. Just listen to people, in clinics, for example... People seem to compete in who had a harder time in life and who was more disappointed in the system, society, environment... That's why this topic is so prevalent. However, when we look back, we see that each generation found itself in some specific problem, but also that in the end it somehow got back on its feet and moved on.
The story follows the pre-war period, but also emigrant life. Both parts touch on the themes and consequences of war, emigration, and identity. How relevant is all of this today, and what did you want to convey to readers about the impact of these things on the individual and the community?
I try not to send messages with my writing, but to lead the reader to ask questions (to himself). In order for a person to send messages to someone, first of all, he should see himself as someone who has more clarity than most people, and I don't see myself that way. The questions I ask myself are the same questions that my characters deal with, so if the reader can ask themselves the same thing at the end, the book has fulfilled my, otherwise, modest expectations. The answer I was looking for in "The Tall Grasses" lies in the question of whether my generation can look into the future without checking the rearview mirrors every now and then, or will society have to wait for a new generation for which interpersonal differences will not be crucial for building their own future, as well as the future of the world. Some people achieve this on their own, and some only after moving and experiencing life somewhere else. Some, on the other hand, never achieve it at all.
There is also one quote, particularly powerful, like "The further away people are, the closer they are to you"... Does this mean that distancing is actually only physical, ideological, and that closeness and sincerity are not really known for these concepts?
Exactly, and I think that closeness is a topic that is not talked about enough, especially nowadays when people are increasingly alienated, increasingly choosing solitude, absence from others, while the fact is that we miss out on finding compatible people with whom we could achieve closeness, because socializing with them does not take away anything from our personality. With close people we can be completely ourselves, as we really are, with all our flaws and virtues and without calculation and the need to be liked.
You've said that writing is part of your identity, one of the strongest factors of it... But, has your musical experience shaped you as a writer and how? Is there any connection between music and literature, performing on stage and in front of readers, whether in direct contact like at events and fairs or through indirect communication through books and music?
Everything I've done in my life has shaped me as a person, and then logically all of that has influenced my formation as an author. Music has a huge importance here because I expressed myself artistically first through music. Only after that did everything else come. Now that I think about some of the basic differences between the two media, it seems to me that, as far as emotions are concerned, music hits faster and harder, while literature lasts longer, empties more slowly. I feel more humble towards literature, because my responsibility towards the reader is greater than it was when I was creating music as part of a collective.
Given the circumstances in the novel, but also in the former Yugoslavia, how do you view the concept of homeland today? What is home for you, and does it change over time?
I no longer know whether home and homeland are administrative categories or spaces to which a person feels a sense of belonging... I have narrowed these concepts down to a few square meters. Home for me is the place where I drink coffee in silence with someone important to me in the morning.
Since you yourself write about the "stealing of dreams" of a generation, what role did music, literature, and even art in general, play in preserving identity and resisting that theft?
Enough that today I can see it as a generational code, as a key to recognizing normality in a world that, let's not lie, is completely crazy.
It seems that music from the past century still lives on in our region and has a young audience... How do you comment on that and would you single out any songs or bands that for you are the soundtrack of lost dreams or a lost world, country, society, or the Yugoslavia that no longer exists?
Quality materials are weather-resistant, everything that is worth it survives, and in every generation there are those who share that tendency. I listen to music the same way as my children, I don't check the dates and years of creation, so it's completely normal for me to listen to the same songs while driving in the car and to feel good with them. And there is enough of that kind of music in our region. I keep coming back to it, not because it takes me back to my youth in some nostalgic way, but because time has confirmed its quality.
For example, “Ekatarina Velika” has been my favorite band for 40 years, but I admit that I am a little biased, as one must be in every love.
Home is the place where I drink coffee in silence with someone important to me in the morning.
You said that you were a member of three of the five strongest bands in Rijeka... How do you remember that period and the performances themselves, and to what extent music was a space of freedom, expression, and identity at that time, especially in the years preceding the war?
Music was everything to me. And not just to me and not just music as such. Various creative individuals and collectives gathered around the music scene. The iconic Rijeka club “Palach” was a place where then and future poets, writers, painters, actors… hung out, in short, anyone who was looking for a way to express themselves artistically. Some of them later achieved respectable careers. I remember that time as good, full of pluralism and respect, exchange of creative energy, whatever you were looking for; like-minded people, someone to collaborate with or just a little support for your work, you knew you would find it there. The scene shaped us and was a space for learning and inspiration. Now that I compare that time with today, it turns out that today we are more closed, more selfish, we have become more conservative and exclusive as a society, which is paradoxical considering that before the transition to democracy, the community sent clear signals that it was striving for free thought.
How connected is the cultural space of the former Yugoslavia today, and how divided is the political space?
So as much as it is connected by reason, wisdom and the desire for closeness with those like us, it is divided by mindless political manipulation and will remain so until a critical mass of those who are capable of distinguishing right from wrong is created. And I am not counting on my generation at all, when I want to look at things optimistically, the only ones I trust are young people born in the new millennium.
Are you working on anything right now?
I'm just finishing editing a novel for a colleague. After that, I'm going to start writing a play, and I hope to have a synopsis for my new novel by the fall.
The task of the majority is to protect the minority.
How did Irish travellers end up in the book, and then enrich it? How much dedication and research did that segment require?
While in Ireland, I had the opportunity to get to know their community, perhaps not as much as I wanted, but certainly more than I initially thought, but I was lucky enough to gain the trust of some members of their community and learn most things about their way of life. It is a very closed group of people who inherit a wandering way of life, and I am always interested in small communities that try to survive in a dominant environment in a sociological sense. I believe that the task of the majority is to protect the minority, that the majority should always position itself in such a way that the minority feels good with it, and by that I mean any majority and any minority into which society is divided; gender, sexual, racial, ethnic, national, religious, economic, linguistic... Travellers have their own culture and language, and since they appear as characters in my novel, one of the major tasks when writing was to get to know everything they see as their identifying factor, with a special emphasis on their language, which was created by encrypting various languages and dialects.
Music was everything to me. And not just to me and not just music as such. Various creative individuals and collectives gathered around the music scene. The iconic Rijeka club "Palach" was a place where poets of the time and future, writers, painters, actors..., in short, anyone who was looking for a way to express themselves artistically... I remember that time as good, full of pluralism and respect, exchange of creative energy, whatever you were looking for; like-minded people, someone to collaborate with or just a little support for your work, you knew you would find it there. The scene shaped us and was a space for learning and inspiration
All my characters are partly me.
Short, exciting chapters and a cinematic style of storytelling make “The Tall Grass” dynamic. On the other hand, there are also descriptions, often long and detailed, that contribute to the atmosphere... What guided you in that process, especially in shaping the narrative?
The first part of the novel deals with growing up and carefreeness, which is why I relaxed the writing style, allowing myself to paint scenes and emphasize chapters with lyrical elements, while the second part of the novel is "grown up", more serious, more dynamic, and speeds up towards the end, all the way to a frenetic, almost abrupt ending, which fits perfectly with the relationships between my characters, who are closer in their formative years, and in adulthood their relationship is almost always on the verge of escalation...
Your writing style is often described as emotional and introspective. How do you approach shaping the characters' inner monologues and emotional states, which are probably common in all of us?
All my characters are partly me, and by that I mean not only the biographical, experiential component, but also the numerous attitudes, but also the polemics that I have with myself, which means that my characters struggle with the same questions that I myself am looking for answers to. I approach the creation of characters extremely meticulously and cautiously, I take great care not to let them slip somewhere, and since I always deal with modern topics, it seems that it is easy for readers to recognize them and get close to them.
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