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Plum Brandy: Croatian Journeys
Immigrant writer Novakovich records his journeys to find his roots, some to his native Croatia, some no farther than Cleveland, where he searches for the grave of his grandmother, who refused to return to Croatia with the rest of her family. This moving collection reflects the joys and the difficulties in returning to a homeland left behind.
"Novakovich is a strong, original writer. His subtle prose makes me beam with pleasure, and break into an anxious sweat at the same time. He has mastered the tone of bearing witness as a principle of moral literature."—Philip Lopate, The Art of the Personal Essay
Josip Novakovich is the author of Yolk, Apricots from Chernobyl, and Salvation and Other Disasters.
"Novakovich is a strong, original writer. His subtle prose makes me beam with pleasure, and break into an anxious sweat at the same time. He has mastered the tone of bearing witness as a principle of moral literature."—Philip Lopate, The Art of the Personal Essay
Josip Novakovich is the author of Yolk, Apricots from Chernobyl, and Salvation and Other Disasters.
181 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2002
41 people want to read
About the author
Josip Novakovich
36 books64 followersJosip Novakovich (Croatian: Novaković) is a Croatian-American writer. His grandparents had immigrated from the Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to Cleveland, Ohio, and, after the First World War, his grandfather returned to what had become Yugoslavia. Josip Novakovich was born (in 1956) and grew up in the Central Croatian town of Daruvar, studied medicine in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad. At the age of 20 he left Yugoslavia, continuing his education at Vassar College (B.A.), Yale University (M.Div.), and the University of Texas, Austin (M.A.).
He has published a novel (April Fool's Day), three short story collections (Yolk, Salvation and Other Disasters, Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust), two collections of narrative essays (Apricots from Chernobyl, Plum Brandy: Croatian Journey) and a textbook (Fiction Writer's Workshop).
Novakovich has taught at Nebraska Indian Community College, Bard College, Moorhead State University, Antioch University in Los Angeles, the University of Cincinnati, and is now a professor at Pennsylvania State University.
Mr. Novakovich is the recipient of the Whiting Writer's Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, two fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, an award from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. He was anthologized in Best American Poetry, Pushcart Prize, and O.Henry Prize Stories.
He taught in the Master's of Fine Arts program at Pennsylvania State University, where he lived under the iron rule of Reed Moyer's Halfmoon Township autocracy. He is currently in Montreal, Quebec teaching at Concordia University.
He has published a novel (April Fool's Day), three short story collections (Yolk, Salvation and Other Disasters, Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust), two collections of narrative essays (Apricots from Chernobyl, Plum Brandy: Croatian Journey) and a textbook (Fiction Writer's Workshop).
Novakovich has taught at Nebraska Indian Community College, Bard College, Moorhead State University, Antioch University in Los Angeles, the University of Cincinnati, and is now a professor at Pennsylvania State University.
Mr. Novakovich is the recipient of the Whiting Writer's Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, two fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, an award from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. He was anthologized in Best American Poetry, Pushcart Prize, and O.Henry Prize Stories.
He taught in the Master's of Fine Arts program at Pennsylvania State University, where he lived under the iron rule of Reed Moyer's Halfmoon Township autocracy. He is currently in Montreal, Quebec teaching at Concordia University.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 1, 2011
I finished this book in the airport, on my way to Croatia, to meet up with my cousins who were already in our "rodna gruda" (birth bosom; native place). I enjoyed this book, probably more than the other Novakovich books that I have read. This is a book of first-person essays/articles, some relating to time in Croatia, others to time in the United States.
"The city [Zagreb] had an incredible inferiority complex historically because it had been the provincial capital of a subordinate part of Austria-Hungary and was now the provincial capital of Croatia, which was subordinate in Yugoslavia and still trying to prove through lots of foreign words its cosmopolitan status. (65)
"Zagreb used to be gray and sooty brown and actually, outside the center and several fashionable areas, still was, like a browning black-and-white photograph from the Second World War." (97)
"From my perspective, Croatian independence is an illusion; it will be a colony again, this time of the large corporations and wealthy investors who are busy buying up all the islands." (156)
"I no longer drank, and now I could not ride trains...what pleasures were left?" (165)
The Epilogue about Novakovich's young son, Joe, and New York City was especially poignant and another 09/11 touchstone story.
"The city [Zagreb] had an incredible inferiority complex historically because it had been the provincial capital of a subordinate part of Austria-Hungary and was now the provincial capital of Croatia, which was subordinate in Yugoslavia and still trying to prove through lots of foreign words its cosmopolitan status. (65)
"Zagreb used to be gray and sooty brown and actually, outside the center and several fashionable areas, still was, like a browning black-and-white photograph from the Second World War." (97)
"From my perspective, Croatian independence is an illusion; it will be a colony again, this time of the large corporations and wealthy investors who are busy buying up all the islands." (156)
"I no longer drank, and now I could not ride trains...what pleasures were left?" (165)
The Epilogue about Novakovich's young son, Joe, and New York City was especially poignant and another 09/11 touchstone story.
July 8, 2015
I picked up a few books before heading to Croatia. One was a very dry history book for tourists. The other was April Fool's Day, a novel also by Novakovich. But Plum Brandy, by far, shed the most light on the people and the history of Croatia. Novakovich is an incredibly honest writer. He doesn't stretch for the perfect narrative. Instead, he captures the voices of people around him -- from his childhood, from the US, and from Croatia in the midst of war.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews