"In these few years I have searched hundreds of warriors. And they are all the same, no matter whose they are. Everyone carries the same thing in their pocket: a photo of their loved ones, children, wives, family, girlfriends... That is their flag, those pictures. And that tells you everything about the war," says pigeon fancier Milenko Lazin, the main character of the novel "NGDL" by the author Marinka Arsić Ivkova.
And that says a lot about the book whose title contains the sentence "Don't let the pigeon fly", about the novel for which Arsić Ivkov received the NIN Award for 2024, and which was promoted in Nikšić. The promotion was organized by the Public Institution "Njegoš" National Library as part of the major repertoire of the Nikšić cultural scene.
"Those people who are at war, whether with guns or words, have essentially shown that they are good people. I have always believed and still do believe that people are good, and that is why I portrayed that war this way - without any hatred, without malice, without cheering. For me, all those warring parties are treated equally, and I am not on the side of either one or the other, believing, like my hero, in that human kindness. After all, I think that kindness is at the heart of every literary work," said Arsić Ivkov, who read an excerpt from the book, convinced that perhaps the time has come for the pigeons to start flying again, 30-odd years after the breakup of Yugoslavia, wars, conflicts, and hatred.
"I don't want peace. We barely fought for the war, and you want peace. You shouldn't have let the pigeon fly. Pigeons belong in a cage now, and pigeon fanciers at the front... And remember well: Don't let the pigeon fly," the officer tells Milenko Lazin.
But he was wrong - pigeons must fly, for them freedom and the sky are theirs. Well, even if they are left without pigeons, like the hero of the novel "NGDL" who was left without his Stapar flyer Unicum.
"Titling is a poetic sign that says, according to the school of Russian formalists, that someone wanted to make something unusual, strange. When a novel is called 'NGDL', unlike all novels that have (un)poetic, (un)exciting titles, it draws attention, points to itself, and the reader begins to wonder and think about the novel," said prof. dr. at the promotion in Nikšić Aleksandar Jerkov, president of the jury that awarded Arsić Ivkov the Nin Award.
According to Jerkov, there are books that are both literary-historically important and current. Time will tell, he pointed out, whether "NGDL" will become a book of such importance, but what is certain now is that it is current.
"Today's political tension is a consequence of the events of the '90s, so the book is more than current. When that book laughs, mocks, jokes, jokes, it is important for all of us. That tragedy of the '90s, in which human lives, families, were broken and damaged, needs to be overcome at some point. Literature has the power of healing, which goes beyond the horizon of trauma. Trauma would be the question of who is right here, while literature goes beyond the horizon of that question," said Jerkov.
And the horizon is also surpassed by Marinko Arsić Ivkov's pigeon, which, according to Jerkov, gives a feeling of elevation, sublimity, sublimity, and at the same time laughter. According to him, in the materialization of the pigeon, the orientation towards the heavenly and sublime is shown in a destabilizing way, while he singled out "comic evasion" as the key code of the novel "NGDL".
"Comic in antiquity does not mean funny, but is related to everyday life, just as tragic is not sad, but serious. The tragedy that lies behind the novel is the tragedy of the '90s, the collapse of the state, civil wars, suffering, and fighting between people who live 20 kilometers apart, have different names, speak different languages, have different religions, and are the same people, with the same customs," said Jerkov.
He explained that a travel novel, such as "NGDL", is called a picaresque novel in literary theory, since it follows the wanderings and experiences of the hero through different environments, often with a touch of irony and criticism of social reality.
Member of the jury for the Nino Award, literary critic Mladen Vesković, pointed out that the novel should be read as auto-irony, an auto-fiction in which the narrator "shows, through subtle signs he leaves in the text, that he knows much more about literature than he seems to at first glance." The novel, he said, takes the form of autobiographical narration, a first-person singular narrative, in which we follow the protagonist through a connected series of micro-novellas.
"The narrator of 'NGDL' did not only depict the cruelty of the civil war in a reporter-like, documentary way, but also literaryized it, humorously noticing the negative traits of a number of the actors he comes into contact with. Well-intentioned, human laughter is the mechanism by which Milenko Lazin traverses the fronts and free territories in search of his dove," said Vesković.
The current structure of the picaresque novel, according to him, made "NGDL" not only artistically valuable, but also a very rare novel in contemporary Serbian literature in which "subtle humor and irony are the main creative elements."
"However, along with the smile, there is also a very gloomy tone in the novel, which is precisely mitigated by humor, making the novel's world somewhat balanced. A sardonic, bitter smile, perhaps more melancholic, often overshadows Milenko Lazin's narration during his search for the Unique. He looks up to the sky to see a dove, but on the ground, around him, he sees liars, fraudsters, money-loving patriots, torment and death, arsonists who have become more valuable than firefighters, abandoned taverns, a ruined world without any happiness or joy," Vesković pointed out.
As he said, many novels have been written about the wars of the 90s in the former Yugoslavia, but there are few "works as literaryally subtly written as Marinko Arsić's novel Ivkov, in which nuanced irony, melancholy, carnivalization and, above all, humanity, have an important key place."
"In which love for the beautiful, for the dove, both as a bird and as a symbol, leads to self-forgetfulness, but at the same time frees man from hatred and evil and guides him through the world 'with eyes beyond all evil'." By writing this novel, Marinko Arsić filled one of the emptiest niches of Serbian literature, the one that uses humor, parody, and irony as the main means of storytelling, and which has been around for a long time. Sterile, Sremca, Nusic i Copic "it did not have many successors. Chronically burdened by historicism, our literature often forgot that humor and carnivalization can often say much more about the nature of an event or era than epic pathos," concluded Vesković.
"People lose a lot more because of much smaller ideals. And I still believe in my ideal that a pigeon must fly," says pigeon fancier Milenko Lazin.
And the writer who proved to be a "prophet" also believes in this ideal, as he predicted in the last chapter that his novel would win the Nino Prize.
"A book appeared, a novel in the form of a diary, with the title 'NGDL' and the subtitle 'Adventures of a Pigeon Fancier'. Its main character is the pigeon fancier Milinko Lazić. The novel was written by the writer Radivoj Perić Đus... Then, probably out of spite for me, the writer was awarded the Nin Award for the book. And later the award of the Pigeon Fanciers' Society from Mali Iđoš... Maybe in the end I will embarrass myself and actually write a book...", wrote Milenko Lazin, or Marinko Arsić Ivkov.
He "disgraced himself" and wrote a book. And won the Nin Award...
Bonus video:
