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Checkpoint
From the award-winning Serbian author David Albahari comes a devastating and Kafkaesque war fable about an army unit sent to guard a military checkpoint with no idea where they are or who the enemy might be.
Atop a hill, deep in the forest, an army unit is assigned to a checkpoint. The commander doesn’t know where they are, what border they’re protecting, or why. Their map is useless and the radio crackles with a language no one can recognize. A soldier is found dead in a latrine and the unit vows vengeance—but the enemy is unknown. Refugees arrive seeking safe passage to the other side of the checkpoint, however the biggest threat might be the soldiers themselves. As the commander struggles to maintain order and keep his soldiers alive, he isn’t sure whether he’s fighting a war or caught in a bizarre military experiment.
Equal parts Waiting for Godot and Catch-22, Checkpoint is a haunting and hysterical confrontation with the absurdity of war.
Atop a hill, deep in the forest, an army unit is assigned to a checkpoint. The commander doesn’t know where they are, what border they’re protecting, or why. Their map is useless and the radio crackles with a language no one can recognize. A soldier is found dead in a latrine and the unit vows vengeance—but the enemy is unknown. Refugees arrive seeking safe passage to the other side of the checkpoint, however the biggest threat might be the soldiers themselves. As the commander struggles to maintain order and keep his soldiers alive, he isn’t sure whether he’s fighting a war or caught in a bizarre military experiment.
Equal parts Waiting for Godot and Catch-22, Checkpoint is a haunting and hysterical confrontation with the absurdity of war.
122 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
3 people are currently reading
144 people want to read
About the author
David Albahari
111 books132 followersDavid Albahari (Serbian Cyrillic: Давид Албахари, pronounced [dǎv̞id albaxǎːriː] was a Serbian writer. Albahari wrote mainly novels and short stories. He was also a highly accomplished translator from English into Serbian.
Albahari was awarded the prestigious NIN Award for the best novel of 1996 for Mamac (Bait). He was a member of SANU (Serbian Academy Of Sciences And Arts).
Albahari was awarded the prestigious NIN Award for the best novel of 1996 for Mamac (Bait). He was a member of SANU (Serbian Academy Of Sciences And Arts).
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 1, 2019
This book is pitched as "Kafkaesque" and "this century's Catch-22" so I knew I wouldn't love it, but it was from a subscription and an unread book on my shelves and I read it so hooray.
It's translated from the Serbian and the non-specific soldiers working at an unspecified checkpoint seem to be Serbian as well. It doesn't surprise me to find a very recent novel of senseless war coming from this part of the world because of the ongoing conflicts. But really, war is always senseless when you're inside of it. This 200 page paragraph doesn't let you escape it because it could BE you.
There are some moments of commentary that might make the read worthwhile, but fair warning, you have to get through a larger amount of violence of all sorts to get to it.
It's translated from the Serbian and the non-specific soldiers working at an unspecified checkpoint seem to be Serbian as well. It doesn't surprise me to find a very recent novel of senseless war coming from this part of the world because of the ongoing conflicts. But really, war is always senseless when you're inside of it. This 200 page paragraph doesn't let you escape it because it could BE you.
There are some moments of commentary that might make the read worthwhile, but fair warning, you have to get through a larger amount of violence of all sorts to get to it.
Read
July 7, 2016Sad sam proverila spisak Albaharijevih objavljenih knjiga i došla do poraznog zaključka: pročitala sam šest njegovih romana i jednu zbirku priča u nastojanju da otkrijem zašto se drugim ljudima sviđa, zašto ga toliko vole i cene - i ništa :( dosadan mi je, ubitačno dosadan, toliko da mi se oči prevlače skramom kao gušteru dok čitam.
August 18, 2025
Fabulously surreal, blackly comic tale on the absurd torpor of war, with obvious Waiting for Godot echoes. Written as one long paragraph melding real and unreal tableaux of anxiety, atrocity, and horror in a nightmarish tapestry, Serbian writer Albahari’s novel is a mesmeric account of the ease with which the tethers of humanity snap in wartime.
January 25, 2019
I got this book as part of a 1 year subscription to Restless Books and I wasn't that thrilled at first, since I'm not a Kafka fan. When I flipped through the pages and realized that it's a 200 page paragraph, I was more than a bit dismayed. But I liked it! The key for me was to read it quickly, which isn't difficult since the writing is clean and the narrative flows smoothly, in it's own surreal way. I felt like I was on a run, with the scenes and characters unfolding to my left and right, and me exclaiming Haha! Heh Heh! Yuck! 'What?' as I zipped along. One of the cover blurbs says it's "between Kafka and Kubrick" - and I can see it as a movie in the 'Dr. Strangelove' mode. Peter Sellers would have been great as the commander.
September 14, 2018
This was an interesting one. Intimidating to start since all approximately 190 pages are one paragraph, but it reads incredibly quickly.
As for the content of this long paragraph....wow. It starts simply enough as a story on the futility and horrors of war, but quickly becomes a hallucinogenic experience in which the reader is not sure of the timeline, location, or even the existence of the setting. It follows a squad of mostly nameless soldiers from an unnamed nation (presumably Eastern European), with a focus on the "commander" who is quite despicable. There are scenes of horrid rape and abuse and death that are handled with a shocking apathy, and mundane day-to-day life in the checkpoint where almost the entire novel takes place. The fact that there are no breaks is effective in making all of the horrors seem commonplace, since nothing is featured or highlighted by page or paragraph breaks.
It's definitely a hard book to "like" due to the nature of its content, but the translation is incredibly done (for what must have been a very difficult format). It reads like it was written in English, and it's a very modern novel, despite taking place in an undisclosed and ambiguous time period (there is a lack of technology, but also cell-phones appear out of nowhere in some scenes).
I feel like the book is well-done, but also that the message has been done so many times that it left less of an impact on me than other novels that satire or comment on the lives of soldiers. The format helps elevate the message and keeps it interesting and quick to read, but it's a hard book to recommend due to the sheer nastiness of some scenes. Overall though I am glad that I read it.
As for the content of this long paragraph....wow. It starts simply enough as a story on the futility and horrors of war, but quickly becomes a hallucinogenic experience in which the reader is not sure of the timeline, location, or even the existence of the setting. It follows a squad of mostly nameless soldiers from an unnamed nation (presumably Eastern European), with a focus on the "commander" who is quite despicable. There are scenes of horrid rape and abuse and death that are handled with a shocking apathy, and mundane day-to-day life in the checkpoint where almost the entire novel takes place. The fact that there are no breaks is effective in making all of the horrors seem commonplace, since nothing is featured or highlighted by page or paragraph breaks.
It's definitely a hard book to "like" due to the nature of its content, but the translation is incredibly done (for what must have been a very difficult format). It reads like it was written in English, and it's a very modern novel, despite taking place in an undisclosed and ambiguous time period (there is a lack of technology, but also cell-phones appear out of nowhere in some scenes).
I feel like the book is well-done, but also that the message has been done so many times that it left less of an impact on me than other novels that satire or comment on the lives of soldiers. The format helps elevate the message and keeps it interesting and quick to read, but it's a hard book to recommend due to the sheer nastiness of some scenes. Overall though I am glad that I read it.
April 1, 2021
There's a haze over this satirical take on war; the soldiers don’t know where they are or who they’re fighting, we don't know who the soldiers are or what countries they are from. Thirty soldiers and their stressed commander stand sentry, but what is there to do at a checkpoint that no one passes through, and is the war even still going on? If they were to leave, they don't even know the way home; communications are dead. The surrounding forest is inhabited by the enemy and possibly other hostile forces, ready to pick off the soldiers one by one.
Albahari was born in the former Yugoslavia, and this is a dark story, peppered with ironic humour, of the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, were many more who found themselves caught up in a madness with no clear enemy and or any clear purpose. Interwoven is the author's own ruminations on man's impulse to destroy.
Albahari was born in the former Yugoslavia, and this is a dark story, peppered with ironic humour, of the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, were many more who found themselves caught up in a madness with no clear enemy and or any clear purpose. Interwoven is the author's own ruminations on man's impulse to destroy.
December 13, 2018
Wunderbares Beispiel dafür, wie viel man mit wenig Worten sagen kann. Albahari seziert den Abstieg ins Absurde, wenn die Realität unerträglich geworden ist.
August 10, 2022
I discovered David Albahari through a friend's recommendation, and decided to read his most recent book 'Checkpoint'.
A unit of soldiers and their commander are taken to a place in the middle of nowhere and are asked to create a checkpoint and manage it. They don't know anything about the war going on, and who is the enemy. Nothing happens at the checkpoint. There is no one coming from either side and the days just pass by. As the narrator says –
"So we guarded a checkpoint where nobody was checked and peered through our binoculars at landscapes through which no one passed. If there was a war still on somewhere, we knew nothing about it. No shots were fired, there was no zinging of bullets, no bomb blasts, no helicopter clatter, nothing."
What happens after that – are the soldiers just 'waiting for Godot', or does war enter this quiet place and does something happen – this is told in the rest of the story.
'Checkpoint' is a darkly comic satire. It is about the meaningless nature of war, during which innocent people get killed, and nothing good happens. David Albahari has been compared to Kubrick and Kafka and we can see why. (I'll also add Joseph Heller to the mix.) Albahari's dark humour makes us laugh in many places, and it also makes us think.
I enjoyed reading 'Checkpoint'. David Albahari has written many books, but only a few are easily available in English translation. I found that a couple of them are available, and I hope to read them soon.
I'll leave you with some of my favourite passages from the book.
"No one wanted to die. Even for such a noble cause as defending the homeland. What could possibly be noble about a violent death? And the stupidest part of all was that afterwards this would become fodder for people who’d had no experience at all with it, with death. How can a living person understand someone who’s dead, understand what a gunshot victim thinks as the bullet rips through his flesh..."
"A wiseguy would say that the real barriers are the ones within us, and that the external ones, like the checkpoint, are, in fact, futile. Mumonkan, an ancient collection of Zen tales, speaks of all this with eloquence, but no one among us soldiers had Buddhist texts in mind, especially none of the amateur soldiers, society’s dregs, who were generally blasé about warfare. Professional soldiers, like samurai, are another story, and among them one may find connoisseurs of the Mumonkan and Hagakure, even lovers of the poetry of T. S. Eliot and the music of Edvard Grieg. Yes, it is one thing to be a samurai and altogether different to be an ordinary recruit who, when he opens his eyes in the morning, cares not a whit for himself or for the world."
"War is so unnatural, so different from all else, that no one in their right mind can grasp why war would be a part of human culture. The commander turned—he ought to love war at least a little, being a man in uniform, but he couldn’t bring himself to. Never would he admit this to his soldiers. But he also couldn’t abandon them to this hell. So like a good fairy he hovered over their preparations for departure."
"You could see right away, thought the commander, that he was one of those people bullets didn’t want to hit. There aren’t many folks who enjoy that kind of luck, though they’ll pay for it elsewhere, as things tend to go with good and bad luck. Life is impartial, it plays no favorites. If a person is offered something that is not equally accessible to all in equal measure, they’ll also be given something bad, meaning they’ll be greater losers in other realms. So the radio and telegraph operator, say, was spared the bullets, but he often tripped and fell, and it may have been a fall that additionally shielded him from bullets. The radio and telegraph operator may have stumbled exactly when the fingers of three snipers were on their triggers, and his tumble removed him from the enemies’ field of vision."
"...the sky began to redden and the shadows, hidden until then by the dark, began shivering with anticipation. In no time they’d be venturing into the world, all they needed was to be told whether to go in front of or behind the soldiers. Shadows have a way of moving slowly and faltering, but when they finally make up their minds, their resolve is legendary. And so, when the soldiers set out on their “punitive expedition,” as the commander noted in his ledger, the shadows followed behind the soldiers, fused to their heels. When the soldiers returned, the shadows were still swinging from their heels, but with none of the earlier joy. In a word, the shadows on that brief journey downhill and uphill aged quickly, perhaps a little too quickly. Anyone would have aged who’d seen what the shadows saw; it’s enough to say they became darker, more somber, more hermetically sealed. Who knows what they might have said if only they’d had skill with words."
Have you read 'Checkpoint'? What do you think about it?
A unit of soldiers and their commander are taken to a place in the middle of nowhere and are asked to create a checkpoint and manage it. They don't know anything about the war going on, and who is the enemy. Nothing happens at the checkpoint. There is no one coming from either side and the days just pass by. As the narrator says –
"So we guarded a checkpoint where nobody was checked and peered through our binoculars at landscapes through which no one passed. If there was a war still on somewhere, we knew nothing about it. No shots were fired, there was no zinging of bullets, no bomb blasts, no helicopter clatter, nothing."
What happens after that – are the soldiers just 'waiting for Godot', or does war enter this quiet place and does something happen – this is told in the rest of the story.
'Checkpoint' is a darkly comic satire. It is about the meaningless nature of war, during which innocent people get killed, and nothing good happens. David Albahari has been compared to Kubrick and Kafka and we can see why. (I'll also add Joseph Heller to the mix.) Albahari's dark humour makes us laugh in many places, and it also makes us think.
I enjoyed reading 'Checkpoint'. David Albahari has written many books, but only a few are easily available in English translation. I found that a couple of them are available, and I hope to read them soon.
I'll leave you with some of my favourite passages from the book.
"No one wanted to die. Even for such a noble cause as defending the homeland. What could possibly be noble about a violent death? And the stupidest part of all was that afterwards this would become fodder for people who’d had no experience at all with it, with death. How can a living person understand someone who’s dead, understand what a gunshot victim thinks as the bullet rips through his flesh..."
"A wiseguy would say that the real barriers are the ones within us, and that the external ones, like the checkpoint, are, in fact, futile. Mumonkan, an ancient collection of Zen tales, speaks of all this with eloquence, but no one among us soldiers had Buddhist texts in mind, especially none of the amateur soldiers, society’s dregs, who were generally blasé about warfare. Professional soldiers, like samurai, are another story, and among them one may find connoisseurs of the Mumonkan and Hagakure, even lovers of the poetry of T. S. Eliot and the music of Edvard Grieg. Yes, it is one thing to be a samurai and altogether different to be an ordinary recruit who, when he opens his eyes in the morning, cares not a whit for himself or for the world."
"War is so unnatural, so different from all else, that no one in their right mind can grasp why war would be a part of human culture. The commander turned—he ought to love war at least a little, being a man in uniform, but he couldn’t bring himself to. Never would he admit this to his soldiers. But he also couldn’t abandon them to this hell. So like a good fairy he hovered over their preparations for departure."
"You could see right away, thought the commander, that he was one of those people bullets didn’t want to hit. There aren’t many folks who enjoy that kind of luck, though they’ll pay for it elsewhere, as things tend to go with good and bad luck. Life is impartial, it plays no favorites. If a person is offered something that is not equally accessible to all in equal measure, they’ll also be given something bad, meaning they’ll be greater losers in other realms. So the radio and telegraph operator, say, was spared the bullets, but he often tripped and fell, and it may have been a fall that additionally shielded him from bullets. The radio and telegraph operator may have stumbled exactly when the fingers of three snipers were on their triggers, and his tumble removed him from the enemies’ field of vision."
"...the sky began to redden and the shadows, hidden until then by the dark, began shivering with anticipation. In no time they’d be venturing into the world, all they needed was to be told whether to go in front of or behind the soldiers. Shadows have a way of moving slowly and faltering, but when they finally make up their minds, their resolve is legendary. And so, when the soldiers set out on their “punitive expedition,” as the commander noted in his ledger, the shadows followed behind the soldiers, fused to their heels. When the soldiers returned, the shadows were still swinging from their heels, but with none of the earlier joy. In a word, the shadows on that brief journey downhill and uphill aged quickly, perhaps a little too quickly. Anyone would have aged who’d seen what the shadows saw; it’s enough to say they became darker, more somber, more hermetically sealed. Who knows what they might have said if only they’d had skill with words."
Have you read 'Checkpoint'? What do you think about it?
March 1, 2019
Brutal. Absurd. Profound. Brilliant.
October 7, 2015
Odlicno mi je legao roman, Albahari me je iznenadio ratnom pricom i vojnom tematikom. Ponekad u nekim svojim delima ume previse da smlaci i nekako luta u nedoumici i magli dok ovde imamo vrlo konkretne komandanta i vojnu jedinicu (tokom romana jos par junaka dobije ime i posebne detalje, npr. vojnik Mladen koji poznaje shumu bude definisan) Doduse nejasan je sam taj rat u kome su, kao i svrha njihovog zadatka (cuvanje i nadgledanje kontrolnog punkta, koji je nigde i nema neki promet...)
Vrhunac romana mi je deo u kome se zbiva apsurna situacija sa izbeglicama, u tom delu price mi se sve zarivalo poput noza u mozak (verovatno zbog aktuelne situacije sa Sirijom, sa zatvorenim/otvorenim granicama prema Madjarskoj, Hrvatskoj itd) Kolicina besmisla rata dovodi do naprsnuca, ali nema nekog nihilizma stvar se dovede do nekog "logicnog" kraja
Tu je cak i poruka...
PS
u jednom novinskom intervju pominje da je osnovnu inspiraciju za Kontrolni punkt crpeo iz Tatarske pustinje Dina Buzzatija...
Vrhunac romana mi je deo u kome se zbiva apsurna situacija sa izbeglicama, u tom delu price mi se sve zarivalo poput noza u mozak (verovatno zbog aktuelne situacije sa Sirijom, sa zatvorenim/otvorenim granicama prema Madjarskoj, Hrvatskoj itd) Kolicina besmisla rata dovodi do naprsnuca, ali nema nekog nihilizma stvar se dovede do nekog "logicnog" kraja
Tu je cak i poruka...
PS
u jednom novinskom intervju pominje da je osnovnu inspiraciju za Kontrolni punkt crpeo iz Tatarske pustinje Dina Buzzatija...
September 13, 2018
This is the first of Albahari's mature work that I didn’t find truly excellent (and I've read all the long fiction that's made it into English). Its violence and absurdity didn’t lead me to any new feelings or revelations about war, I didn’t find its narrative or its narrative voice of any interest, and the hallucinogenic final section didn’t work for me at all. Perhaps I didn’t get it, but in any event it just wasn’t for me. All an author’s works don’t have to be.
Albahari's a great writer. I would not recommend starting with this book.
Albahari's a great writer. I would not recommend starting with this book.
August 26, 2023
Soldiers are mobilised under their commander and sent to guard a checkpoint for reasons unknown due to a conflict which may or may not involve them directly. Once there they realise they are on their own as some external force begins to prey upon their number. The soldiers discuss their situation and their options and what might be happening. Gradually the barbarity of war strips away morality and restraint and consumes the soldiers and those they encounter in increasing gruesome encounters and betrayals.
Inspired, no doubt, by the tragic experience of Yugoslavia's destruction, and informed by human stupidity and violence through the ages, this excellent short novel takes on themes of war and violence which are not new but, which it treats with a particular detached resignation and in which the banality of evil becomes a surreal motif for our times eternally.
The words of the Slovenian group Laibach seem to describe the text aptly: "You are in black darkness and confusion, You have been hugger-muggered and carom-shotted into a war, and you know nothing about it. You know nothing about the forces that caused it, or you know next to nothing. You are not to win this war. You cannot win this war."
A manically rewarding read.
Inspired, no doubt, by the tragic experience of Yugoslavia's destruction, and informed by human stupidity and violence through the ages, this excellent short novel takes on themes of war and violence which are not new but, which it treats with a particular detached resignation and in which the banality of evil becomes a surreal motif for our times eternally.
The words of the Slovenian group Laibach seem to describe the text aptly: "You are in black darkness and confusion, You have been hugger-muggered and carom-shotted into a war, and you know nothing about it. You know nothing about the forces that caused it, or you know next to nothing. You are not to win this war. You cannot win this war."
A manically rewarding read.
February 17, 2024
Intriguing concept that promised a really interesting thought experiment, but about half way through the writing becomes quite trivial and harder to take seriously. The author also handles heavier topics such as sexual harassment and rape in trivial ways and without the reverence they deserve, these topics are often thrown in fleetingly or with some extreme details with no relevance to the overall plot / point of the book. There are also a number of glaringly obvious holes in the main concept which makes it hard to buy into the soldiers' circumstances, e.g. when the mail turns up, or the translator is interacting with the soldiers, no-one asks them where they're from or what's going on from outside the checkpoint. The style however was quite interesting and the no chapters and fast changing pace kept the momentum enough for me to finish it.
July 30, 2020
A very good book about an army officer not aware of his inability and lunacy. We can see it as a metaphor for Serbia, from the last decade of the 20th century onwards. The population of Serbia keeps steeply reducing, while our governments keep on defending and preserving "Serbdom", actually servitude.
February 28, 2021
I'm a fan of stream of consciousness writing so I actually enjoyed this style, and the prose is very cleanly translated.
Fav passage: "Besides, it would be funny if the victor were to speak the language of the loser, just as it was entirely natural for the loser to speak the language of the victor. But what about when the victor and the loser speak the same language?"
Fav passage: "Besides, it would be funny if the victor were to speak the language of the loser, just as it was entirely natural for the loser to speak the language of the victor. But what about when the victor and the loser speak the same language?"
January 1, 2022
um idk how i feel about this book. i feel like different chapters or at least sections would make it a lot easier to understand and would feel less like a giant run on sentence. otherwise… i mean i liked some of the figurative language used… this is probably one of those books i’ll have a better view of a few days after reading it
June 25, 2023
Checkpoint is a fascinating book, full of the absurdity and stupidity of war. The soldiers are surrounded by the unknown, have no actual guidance or mission, and are completely unprepared for whatever they face. It is written without paragraphs, which takes a bit of getting used to. Brilliantly executed, until the last third of the book, when it seems to lose its way.
January 30, 2019
thoughts coming shortly
October 9, 2019
Feels like an expanded episode of the Twilight Zone. A clinical look at military service and the futility and insanity of war.
September 23, 2023
3.5 stars
December 19, 2022
Absurdist view of war. A group of soldiers are sent to guard a checkpoint but they do not know where they are, why they are guarding the checkpoint or who the enemy is. In fact, they don't even know if there is a war on. But everything that happens during a war happens at this checkpoint. It's a clever way of showing the pointlessness and brutality of war.
Read
January 27, 2019This was a difficult but rewarding read for me, a hallucinogenic labyrinth of symbolism and imagery with stunning moments of lucidity. Here are two of my favorites:
"Everybody was still thinking in well-trodden categories that reliably (as they saw it) divided the world into plus and minus, light and dark, male and female, leaving no place whatsoever for all those who, deliberately or otherwise, stepped out of the black-and-white picture and did what they could to free up some small space, the seats of future change, which would slowly grow until they took their place in the new world" (189).
"There is a misleading and heart-wrenching notion of war as the ideal time for forging friendships, rich with opportunities for self-sacrifice and dying for one's ideals, when, instead, these notions are all part of the farce that is war. War is a business like any other and these stories are merely a manifestation of efforts to consign the truth to oblivion, [from] whence it will only be allowed to emerge once it conforms to the government's truth, but the honest truth would never accept that, and doesn't even now" (153-4).
"Everybody was still thinking in well-trodden categories that reliably (as they saw it) divided the world into plus and minus, light and dark, male and female, leaving no place whatsoever for all those who, deliberately or otherwise, stepped out of the black-and-white picture and did what they could to free up some small space, the seats of future change, which would slowly grow until they took their place in the new world" (189).
"There is a misleading and heart-wrenching notion of war as the ideal time for forging friendships, rich with opportunities for self-sacrifice and dying for one's ideals, when, instead, these notions are all part of the farce that is war. War is a business like any other and these stories are merely a manifestation of efforts to consign the truth to oblivion, [from] whence it will only be allowed to emerge once it conforms to the government's truth, but the honest truth would never accept that, and doesn't even now" (153-4).
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews