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Lakonogi Dan
Glavni junak romana Lakonogi dan je pisac koji, u potrazi za razrešenjem porodične istorije i životnih sumnji, kao i nedoumica poteklih iz ljubavnog brodoloma, odlazi na dugačko putovanje po Evropi – od italijanskih obala do norveških luka i fjordova. Posle tog putovanja od zemlje do zemlje i od grada do grada, junak romana Lakonogi dan vraća se u svoj rodni grad, gde ga čeka svet koji je ostavio i životne istine s kojima mora da izađe na kraj.
Uzbudljivo i provokativno, zavodljivo i jezički i stilski perfektno pripovedanje.
Uzbudljivo i provokativno, zavodljivo i jezički i stilski perfektno pripovedanje.
184 pages, Hardcover
Published April 8, 2022
17 people want to read
About the author
Jelena Lengold
49 books29 followersBorn on 15 July 1959 in Kruševac, Serbia. She has published eleven books which include six books of poetry, four books of stories and a novel. She is represented in a number of anthologies of poetry and stories, and her works have also been translated into a number of foreign languages. Jelena Lengold has worked as a journalist and an editor in the culture desk at Radio Belgrade. She has afterwards worked as a project coordinator of Nansenskolen Humanistic Academy in Lillehammer, Norway for the subject Conflict Theory. Since September 2011 she has been a freelance artist, dedicated solely to writing as her only profession. For the collection of stories The Fairground Magician she received the following awards: Biljana Jovanović, Žensko pero, Zlatni Hit liber, as well as the European Union Prize for Literature in 2011.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 19, 2022
When I discovered that Jelena Lengold's new book 'Lakonogi Dan' ('Lightfooted Day') was coming out, I was very excited. I loved the two earlier books by her that I had read – the short story collection 'Fairground Magician' and the novel 'Baltimore' – and so I was looking forward to reading her new book.
Isidore is a writer who has just published his new novel. He is busy with the launch of the novel and looking at the reviews, when he receives an email from a stranger. This stranger talks about deep, complex things and Isidore finds the mail interesting but he doesn't respond. But this stranger is persistent and he sends another mail and at some point Isidore replies and a conversation starts. Then Isidore and this stranger decide to meet, and this stranger tells Isidore about someone from Isidore's past, and Isidore is surprised and stunned. He mind goes back to a time when he was eighteen and he was in the middle of a tragic event for the first time in his life. The rest of the story moves between the past and the present as we get introduced to the people in Isidore's life, especially this particular person, and how the past impacts the present and the future and the surprises that are revealed form the rest of the story.
I loved many of the characters in the story. There are many strong women characters in the story who come into Isidore's life, all in different ways, and they all play important parts in the story. There is Maja who first comes in the beginning, and then there is Olga who plays a big part in Isidore's life, and then there is Irma who plays a big role in the story, and then there is Benedetta who makes a brief appearance but who leaves a big impact and then there is Trine who is a wonderful character. It is hard to pick one favourite character because they are all amazing and kick-ass. Then there is Isidore's dad who is a quiet person and doesn't talk much, but there is more to him than meets the eye. One of my favourite characters is a man called Kjetil who appears for a brief while, but who is mysterious and fascinating, and he has some interesting things to say about Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House.
The book is a story of a quest in which the main character travels across time and geography to find meaning and prise out some of life's secrets. It is beautiful and contemplative. Jelena Lengold's prose flows smoothly like a river and there are beautiful passages in every chapter, which her fans have come to expect now. Isidore's sense of humour is cool and stylish and he makes us smile many times. I've shared some of my favourite passages in the comments. The whole book has a musical backdrop and music plays an important role in the story. I loved that aspect of the book. There is a section in the end which has a description of all the music referenced in the story.
A word on the translation. I got the Serbian edition of the book and used Google Translate to translate it and then polished some of the sentences. I've read many essays and articles and book reviews like this, with the help of Google Translate, but this is the first time I'm reading a whole book like this. It was an interesting experience. As English doesn't have gender for inanimate objects, sometimes objects got translated from the Serbian to English as 'he' or 'she'. There were a few other issues. But outside of that, the translation was pretty good. I could follow the story, I could enjoy the humour, and I could catch the beautiful passages. The translation was not perfect, but it was readable. For a software based translation which doesn't involve humans, it was pretty impressive. This opens up a whole new world for me, because many European books are not available in English translation or they take many years to come in English translation. I've been frustrated many times in the past because of this. Now I don't have to be. I need to just get the original edition, translate it myself using software, fine-tune the sentences and I have the book ready to read. I am very excited at this possibility.
I loved 'Lakonogi Dan'('Lightfooted Day'). Can't wait for Jelena Lengold's next book.
I'm sharing some of my favourite passages from the book below. Hope you like them.
"It's been a few days since I've been trying to start a new novel. Still above me, like some heavy clouds, stood all those days, three years to be exact, in which I wrote Lakonogi dan. I would sometimes think of scenes from movies in which the protagonist writes a book. We usually see him at the computer or typewriter, in uncomfortable, impossible poses, sitting on the bed with a laptop on his lap or lying on the floor and writing something in his notebook. Only music is heard, and then the frame occasionally goes to the window, we watch the seasons change through bright music, leaves fall, the writer writes, it snows, the writer writes again, this time in a warm sweater with sleeves which are too long, people have Christmas trees, we understand that it's the New Year, the writer is still writing, a steaming cup of tea is next to him, it's already spring, we see the sun in the park across from his building, because in movies the writer's apartment mostly overlooks some magical park or lake, and not even thirty seconds into the film, he triumphantly types in capital letters THE END in the middle of the last page.
In reality, it's all much different. Time drags on and often nothing happens for hours, except that the windows are occasionally shaken by the vibrations of a tram or some heavy plane that flies over the city. Immersed in that quiet wrestling with the outside world, I sometimes see the lights in the windows go out. The seasons really change, but autumn will last as long as autumn must last, before it turns into winter. Anxious magpies crouch on the bare branches of the trees. In the morning I would be awakened by the cries of children in the streets, the barking of dogs, the ticking of clocks, distant church towers and the poisoned fumes of the city. I would sit at my desk for a while, then I would go to wash the dishes, fry eggs, make coffee. The total senselessness of this empty apartment would sometimes fall on me like a torrent of all the replicas and noises that once filled it. Those were hard days. Boring and tiring."
"What was good is forgotten devastatingly quickly, as if it didn't even exist. Those who break things up should keep that in mind, that terrible truth, that creation takes much longer than breaking up. And therefore we must be guided by this truth before we decide to break up anything in the world."
"And I was convinced that I was telling the truth. The truth, obviously, is not what we naively consider, something unchangeable, provable and factually indisputable. The truth, by all accounts, has its moment, as does everything else. And it lasts for a while, and then it disappears."
"One of the human traits that I couldn't understand and that became more and more repulsive to me over the years, was this : people want to tell you something at any cost. And if they do, it's hard to stop them. Why exactly, and why exactly to you, remains an enigma. But they are persistent in that, and until you listen to what they have to say, there is usually no salvation for you. Either let them tell everything, or you will be classified as an uneducated weirdo who turns around and leaves in the middle of someone's sentence. Truth be told, I've done that in my life, but I didn't feel good after that. There is a small person living in me who does not allow me to behave the way I would like. And that is why I have listened to so many stories that did not interest me, that sometimes I have the impression that one precious part of my life has gone to it irretrievably, a part that I could spend blissfully doing anything else. At a certain age, all of us, willingly or not, become a dump of other people's stories. They lead some of their lives in us, and as it happens in every other landfill, they emit heavy, unpleasant odors, rot, and occasionally, on their own, catch fire. Because of them, because of all these stories, we can never live a clean, naive, carefree life again. Even if our life is a paradise garden without any worries."
"Those people who write all their emails exclusively in lower case! Oh, how they always annoyed me! There is some badly disguised pretentiousness in their manner, some false modesty, some arrogance that actually says that they are better than others, that they never and nowhere mix with intruders and self-advertisers. They have overcome all that, haven't they, and small letters are enough for them to say what they want, because their words are important in themselves, and they don't need capital letters anymore. These fake epistolary ecologists, convinced that in this way they are acting less aggressively than the rest of humanity, the one that overwhelms you every day with its bold thoughts."
Have you read 'Lakonogi Dan'('Lightfooted Day')? What do think about it?
Isidore is a writer who has just published his new novel. He is busy with the launch of the novel and looking at the reviews, when he receives an email from a stranger. This stranger talks about deep, complex things and Isidore finds the mail interesting but he doesn't respond. But this stranger is persistent and he sends another mail and at some point Isidore replies and a conversation starts. Then Isidore and this stranger decide to meet, and this stranger tells Isidore about someone from Isidore's past, and Isidore is surprised and stunned. He mind goes back to a time when he was eighteen and he was in the middle of a tragic event for the first time in his life. The rest of the story moves between the past and the present as we get introduced to the people in Isidore's life, especially this particular person, and how the past impacts the present and the future and the surprises that are revealed form the rest of the story.
I loved many of the characters in the story. There are many strong women characters in the story who come into Isidore's life, all in different ways, and they all play important parts in the story. There is Maja who first comes in the beginning, and then there is Olga who plays a big part in Isidore's life, and then there is Irma who plays a big role in the story, and then there is Benedetta who makes a brief appearance but who leaves a big impact and then there is Trine who is a wonderful character. It is hard to pick one favourite character because they are all amazing and kick-ass. Then there is Isidore's dad who is a quiet person and doesn't talk much, but there is more to him than meets the eye. One of my favourite characters is a man called Kjetil who appears for a brief while, but who is mysterious and fascinating, and he has some interesting things to say about Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House.
The book is a story of a quest in which the main character travels across time and geography to find meaning and prise out some of life's secrets. It is beautiful and contemplative. Jelena Lengold's prose flows smoothly like a river and there are beautiful passages in every chapter, which her fans have come to expect now. Isidore's sense of humour is cool and stylish and he makes us smile many times. I've shared some of my favourite passages in the comments. The whole book has a musical backdrop and music plays an important role in the story. I loved that aspect of the book. There is a section in the end which has a description of all the music referenced in the story.
A word on the translation. I got the Serbian edition of the book and used Google Translate to translate it and then polished some of the sentences. I've read many essays and articles and book reviews like this, with the help of Google Translate, but this is the first time I'm reading a whole book like this. It was an interesting experience. As English doesn't have gender for inanimate objects, sometimes objects got translated from the Serbian to English as 'he' or 'she'. There were a few other issues. But outside of that, the translation was pretty good. I could follow the story, I could enjoy the humour, and I could catch the beautiful passages. The translation was not perfect, but it was readable. For a software based translation which doesn't involve humans, it was pretty impressive. This opens up a whole new world for me, because many European books are not available in English translation or they take many years to come in English translation. I've been frustrated many times in the past because of this. Now I don't have to be. I need to just get the original edition, translate it myself using software, fine-tune the sentences and I have the book ready to read. I am very excited at this possibility.
I loved 'Lakonogi Dan'('Lightfooted Day'). Can't wait for Jelena Lengold's next book.
I'm sharing some of my favourite passages from the book below. Hope you like them.
"It's been a few days since I've been trying to start a new novel. Still above me, like some heavy clouds, stood all those days, three years to be exact, in which I wrote Lakonogi dan. I would sometimes think of scenes from movies in which the protagonist writes a book. We usually see him at the computer or typewriter, in uncomfortable, impossible poses, sitting on the bed with a laptop on his lap or lying on the floor and writing something in his notebook. Only music is heard, and then the frame occasionally goes to the window, we watch the seasons change through bright music, leaves fall, the writer writes, it snows, the writer writes again, this time in a warm sweater with sleeves which are too long, people have Christmas trees, we understand that it's the New Year, the writer is still writing, a steaming cup of tea is next to him, it's already spring, we see the sun in the park across from his building, because in movies the writer's apartment mostly overlooks some magical park or lake, and not even thirty seconds into the film, he triumphantly types in capital letters THE END in the middle of the last page.
In reality, it's all much different. Time drags on and often nothing happens for hours, except that the windows are occasionally shaken by the vibrations of a tram or some heavy plane that flies over the city. Immersed in that quiet wrestling with the outside world, I sometimes see the lights in the windows go out. The seasons really change, but autumn will last as long as autumn must last, before it turns into winter. Anxious magpies crouch on the bare branches of the trees. In the morning I would be awakened by the cries of children in the streets, the barking of dogs, the ticking of clocks, distant church towers and the poisoned fumes of the city. I would sit at my desk for a while, then I would go to wash the dishes, fry eggs, make coffee. The total senselessness of this empty apartment would sometimes fall on me like a torrent of all the replicas and noises that once filled it. Those were hard days. Boring and tiring."
"What was good is forgotten devastatingly quickly, as if it didn't even exist. Those who break things up should keep that in mind, that terrible truth, that creation takes much longer than breaking up. And therefore we must be guided by this truth before we decide to break up anything in the world."
"And I was convinced that I was telling the truth. The truth, obviously, is not what we naively consider, something unchangeable, provable and factually indisputable. The truth, by all accounts, has its moment, as does everything else. And it lasts for a while, and then it disappears."
"One of the human traits that I couldn't understand and that became more and more repulsive to me over the years, was this : people want to tell you something at any cost. And if they do, it's hard to stop them. Why exactly, and why exactly to you, remains an enigma. But they are persistent in that, and until you listen to what they have to say, there is usually no salvation for you. Either let them tell everything, or you will be classified as an uneducated weirdo who turns around and leaves in the middle of someone's sentence. Truth be told, I've done that in my life, but I didn't feel good after that. There is a small person living in me who does not allow me to behave the way I would like. And that is why I have listened to so many stories that did not interest me, that sometimes I have the impression that one precious part of my life has gone to it irretrievably, a part that I could spend blissfully doing anything else. At a certain age, all of us, willingly or not, become a dump of other people's stories. They lead some of their lives in us, and as it happens in every other landfill, they emit heavy, unpleasant odors, rot, and occasionally, on their own, catch fire. Because of them, because of all these stories, we can never live a clean, naive, carefree life again. Even if our life is a paradise garden without any worries."
"Those people who write all their emails exclusively in lower case! Oh, how they always annoyed me! There is some badly disguised pretentiousness in their manner, some false modesty, some arrogance that actually says that they are better than others, that they never and nowhere mix with intruders and self-advertisers. They have overcome all that, haven't they, and small letters are enough for them to say what they want, because their words are important in themselves, and they don't need capital letters anymore. These fake epistolary ecologists, convinced that in this way they are acting less aggressively than the rest of humanity, the one that overwhelms you every day with its bold thoughts."
Have you read 'Lakonogi Dan'('Lightfooted Day')? What do think about it?
March 2, 2025
Pahuljaska knjiga. Divna.
May 28, 2022
Knjiga uz koju sam sve vreme imala knedlu u grlu, a koja se opet čita lako, baš kao taj lakonogi dan iz naslova, i uz koju sam se, na kraju, ipak mnogo više smešila nego plakala, mada je bilo momenata - uf, još kakvih - od kojih se srce stegne. Jezik doveden gotovo do ritma poezije, osećanja koja prožimaju, roman koji savršeno teče, preplićući ljude, događaje i vremenske ravni lako i bez vidljivih šavova...
March 7, 2023
Čitljiva i lepim jezikom pisana. Dosta zanimljivih opažanja i misli. Ono što mi je zasmetalo i nije bilo dovoljno uverljivo su Isidorove godine kada je bio u vezi sa Irmom i odluka da proputuje Evropom, besciljno i na neodređeno vreme kako bi 'razrešio porodične i životne nedoumice', ali sa svojih svega 18god, kada je jasno da veći deo života (sa svim nedoumicama, ushićenjima i razočaranjima) tek predstoji. Vidimo njega mladog i u kasnijim zrelim godinama (50-te). Veći deo života između se zanemaruje.
Sve u svemu ipak zanimljivo, uz želju da istražim i njena druga dela.
Sve u svemu ipak zanimljivo, uz želju da istražim i njena druga dela.
April 17, 2024
This novel is primarily concerned with questioning oneself, and we can see it as a bildungsroman. In the center of the novel we have Isidor, a 50-year-old writer, but during the novel we often return to the past and follow the events in his life.
The earliest narration begins in his youth, with a sad event that marked his life - the death of his mother. Isidor remains to live with his father, about whom he will talk a lot in the novel, especially due to the fact that his father is not among the living.
Throughout the novel, Isidor talks about his love affairs, especially one that hurt him badly. A bigger part of the novel is about his travels in Europe with special reference to his stays in Italy and Norway.
The plot of the novel arises when Isidor begins to receive e-mails from someone who introduces himself as Marko and who expresses a desire to get to know him and in this way opens a painful wound from the past that will somehow give a closure and clarify some things and actions from the past.
I got acquainted with the style of Jelena Lengold while reading the short stories from the collection "A Fairground Magician", and hence the decision to decide to read the novel as well. As the editor-in-chief of the publishing house "Archipelag" Gojko Božović pointed out in an interview with a daily newspaper , Jelena Lengold narration is "exciting and provocative, seductive and linguistically and stylistically perfect". I completely agree with him. The novel is a quick and easy read and at the end of the novel there is a list of songs that are mentioned in the novel and that I listened to while reading.
The earliest narration begins in his youth, with a sad event that marked his life - the death of his mother. Isidor remains to live with his father, about whom he will talk a lot in the novel, especially due to the fact that his father is not among the living.
Throughout the novel, Isidor talks about his love affairs, especially one that hurt him badly. A bigger part of the novel is about his travels in Europe with special reference to his stays in Italy and Norway.
The plot of the novel arises when Isidor begins to receive e-mails from someone who introduces himself as Marko and who expresses a desire to get to know him and in this way opens a painful wound from the past that will somehow give a closure and clarify some things and actions from the past.
I got acquainted with the style of Jelena Lengold while reading the short stories from the collection "A Fairground Magician", and hence the decision to decide to read the novel as well. As the editor-in-chief of the publishing house "Archipelag" Gojko Božović pointed out in an interview with a daily newspaper , Jelena Lengold narration is "exciting and provocative, seductive and linguistically and stylistically perfect". I completely agree with him. The novel is a quick and easy read and at the end of the novel there is a list of songs that are mentioned in the novel and that I listened to while reading.
December 10, 2023
Odlicno je pocelo, vrlo mi se dopao stil. Medjutim, kako odmicu stranice, javlja se frustracija. Radnje su vremenski izmesane, neka desavanja nelogicna, kao da nisu bas dovoljno promisljena. A onda i sam lik Isidora Krausa, koji je poprilicno sebican, i njegov mu zivot izgleda prazno i besmisleno onako kako ga on dozivljava iznutra, a zapravo je vrlo bogat, i ljudima i desavanjima. Cini se da do njega to ne dopire. Vrhunac je kada na kraju knjige dobija potvrdu o tome ko je zaista Marko, njegova reakcija je skoro pa ravna linija. E, tu je bio zreo za batine! 😉
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews