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Battle Songs
In the 1990s, the unnamed narrator of Battle Songs leaves Yugoslavia with her daughter Sara to Toronto to start a new life. They, along with other refugees, encounter a new country but not a new home. Book editors sell hotdogs, mathematicians struggle to get by on social security, violinists hawk cheap goods on the street. Years after arriving in Canada, when she thinks no one can hear her, Sara still sings in the shower: What can we do to make things better, what can we do to make things better, la-la-la-la.
In true Drndic style, the novel has no one time or place. It is interspersed with stories from the Yugoslav Wars, from Rijeka to Zagreb to Sarajevo—with, as always, the long shadow of the Second World War looming overhead. Her singular layering of details—from lung damage to silk scarves to the family budget to old romances—offers an almost unbearable closeness to the characters and their moment in history. “Wry and kindly, funny, angry, informed and intent on the truth, no voice is quite as blisteringly beautiful as that of Drndic” (Financial Times).
In true Drndic style, the novel has no one time or place. It is interspersed with stories from the Yugoslav Wars, from Rijeka to Zagreb to Sarajevo—with, as always, the long shadow of the Second World War looming overhead. Her singular layering of details—from lung damage to silk scarves to the family budget to old romances—offers an almost unbearable closeness to the characters and their moment in history. “Wry and kindly, funny, angry, informed and intent on the truth, no voice is quite as blisteringly beautiful as that of Drndic” (Financial Times).
- GenresFictionCanadaLiterature
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
9 people are currently reading
348 people want to read
About the author
Daša Drndić
25 books144 followersDaša Drndić (1946-2018) was a distinguished Croatian novelist, playwright and literary critic, author of radio plays and documentaries. She was born in Zagreb, and studied English language and literature at the University of Belgrade. Drndić worked as an editor, a professor of English, and as a TV programme editor in Belgrade. She obtained her doctorate at the University of Rijeka in Croatia, where she later taught. She is the author of thirteen novels including Leica Format (2003), Sonnenschein (2007), Trieste (2011) and Belladonna (2012). Her works have been translated into many languages, and Drndić has won the International Literary Award “Prozart" in 2014, awarded to a prominent author for their contribution towards the development of the literature on the Balkans. Her work has also been shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the inaugral EBRD Literature Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 16, 2022
I discovered a lot of secrets, a lot of combinations, dark, political, religious, ideological, personal, to do with chess; spying, double and triple secret agents from all camps, secret police involved in dirty activities. There was fascism, there was communism and the bugbears of communism. Now, there is, supposedly, none of that, and all the filth of those times has been swept under the carpet. It is here, it is all here, hidden, transformed into democracy, which is not that. Because, for instance, what is sold now as democracy is, in fact, levelling, in fact it is restriction, a great restriction that threatens a whole lot of small restrictions by the police for everyone who does not submit.
Canzone di Guerra is Celia Hawkesworth's 2022 translation of the late Daša Drndić's 1998 novel of the same name.
This LA Review of Books article puts the book in the context of the author's oeuvre (see below) including the (untranslated) 1997 book of memoir, Dying in Toronto. Both books have the protagonist living in exile, with their young daughter, in the Canadian city, escaping the conflicts around the breakup of the Yugoslav federation, although in Canzone di Guerra the narrator is the ficticious Tea Radan.
I wouldn't suggest a reader new to Daša Drndić start here - her novels in translation reach their peak with Trieste, Belladonna and E.E.G., but it is an interesting work nevertheless.
The novel is in a collage form - ostensibly a tale of exile but including recipes for survival under UN aid, a history of Vietnamese pork bellied pigs, a discussion of Sikhism, a guide to behaviour of Yugoslav exiles (particularly from Serbia) in Canada, the questionnaire required to adopt a cat in Canada, lists of historical documents (the list of victims in the later novel is much more powerful), and - perhaps the heart of the novel but not easy for this reader to follow - a family history from around the time of WW2 (when some Croatians were members of the pro-Nazi Ustaše), replete with footnotes, some from the original and some glosses from the translator.
For example from the guide WHAT DO (SOME OTHER) IMMIGRANTS DO IN CANADA AFTER THE BREAK-UP OF SOCIALIST YUGOSLAVIA?
L When they arrive, they ask friends to look after the local money they have from the apartments they sold and they register for social security. (Because social security offices have the right to examine bank accounts and so on.)
2. Every Friday they get together in an Irish pub that has a terrace on its roof with a lot of plants, and they drink Irish beer.
3. When they have something to celebrate, they invite a lot of people and then they feed them well. They serve all manner of things from former Yugoslavia. When it's a matter of food, there's no prejudice, the national question doesn't arise.
...
7. They say that they have come (the men that is, of course) to avoid being mobilised, but on the whole they are over forty (The twenty-year-olds who haven't come have on the whole been killed.)
8. They say that all sides in this war are equally to blame, and when they are told that yes, they are to blame but absolutely not equally, they stop speaking to you.
9. They go to hear bands from their homeland when they play in Toronto because that's a connection with home.
10. Among themselves they speak Serbian, but when they're with you they say they speak Serbo-Croatian so as not to offend you. When you say that you speak Croatian or Bosnian, they say those languages don't exist.
11. They are thrilled with Peter Handke.
The research in to the family/war history, one reminscent of an Alistair McLean novel at times with its double and triple agents and shifting allegiances, is prompted by Radan's relationship with a fellow Croatian exile in Toronto, one that ends when she realises that his Ustaše father may have been responsible for the arrest and death of her anti-fascist mother:
My obsession took me to another time, among other people, on the other side of reason. I studied everything the Robarts Library held on the subject of the Croatian Democratic Party, the Communist Youth organisation, the Communist Party, illegals in Zagreb from 1941 to 1943. In my imagination, wondering whether it was now only my imagination, I walked through the streets of my hometown in a time in which I hadn't been there. I got to know informers, Homeguard officers, the police 'experts' Soprek and Sapinac, the Ustasha police officer Ivan Skunca, then Ivan Sertic, who had prepared the arrests of young people and communists. I followed the movements of Lojzika Pravklek who worked in the 'Gaon' factory, in order to understand how she became an informer. I followed the courier and railway worker Mato Rendulie, who was arrested by the Ustashas and who 'grassed' on his friends, and who disappeared without trace after the war. I imagine Uvanovic, head of the Independent State of Croatia's information service, issuing Cividini's orders, who had been beating people up even in Bedekovies time, and continued in the Jasenovac concentration camp. I see the Ustasha cut-throat kelin in bed with his lover and later holding a child in his arms, singing to it. What kind of ditties is he singing? I see the agent and policeman Kanber beating my mother, her plaits undone; hitting her on the head and face, and her ear hurts and later in life she's afraid that she's going to get facial palsy and that she'll suffocate and in the end that's what happened to her, both the palsy, which distorted her lovely face incurably and the suffocation, which killed her.
And although Tea Radic escaped the violence in the former Yugoslavia in Toronto, she is no starry-eyed newcomer to North America, calling out the ill-treatment of immigrants, their education unrecognised, as well as the bureaucracy of the state. Drndić's UK publishers, Istros Books, were sadly rather sucked into an anti-lockdown then anti-vaccine, conspiracy theory rabbit hole in late 2021. I had wondered at the time what their star author might have made of the situation, and if anything this novel (see the quote that opens my review) makes me suspect she may have been no fan of government imposed mandates, but equally she would not have fallen into the my-enemies-enemy-is-my-friend trap of her publisher who ended up retweeting/liking posts from some very dubious fellow travellers.
For the book: 3 stars albeit more by comparison to the rest of the author's more fully realised works.
Daša Drndić's work since the mid 1990s (per Wikipedia)
Marija Częstohowska još uvijek roni suze ili Umiranje u Torontu (1997), as yet untranslated
Canzone di guerra (1998), translated into English as Canzone di Guerra (2022) by Celia Hawkesworth
Totenwande (2000), as yet untranslated
Doppelgänger (2002), translated into English as Doppelgänger ( 2018) by Celia Hawkesworth and SD Curtis
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Shortlisted for 2019 Republic of Consciousness Prize
Leica Format (2003), translated into English as Leica Format (2015) by Celia Hawkesworth
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Sonnenschein (2007), translated into English as Trieste (2012) by Ellen Elias-Bursać
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Shortlisted for 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
April u Berlinu (2009), as yet untranslated
Belladonna (2012), translated into English as Belladonna 2017, by Celia Hawkesworth
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Winner 2018 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation Prize and was shortlisted for the 2018 EBRD Literature Prize and 2018 Oxford Weidenfeld Prize
E.E.G (2016), translated into English as E.E.G. (2018), by Celia Hawkesworth
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Canzone di Guerra is Celia Hawkesworth's 2022 translation of the late Daša Drndić's 1998 novel of the same name.
This LA Review of Books article puts the book in the context of the author's oeuvre (see below) including the (untranslated) 1997 book of memoir, Dying in Toronto. Both books have the protagonist living in exile, with their young daughter, in the Canadian city, escaping the conflicts around the breakup of the Yugoslav federation, although in Canzone di Guerra the narrator is the ficticious Tea Radan.
I wouldn't suggest a reader new to Daša Drndić start here - her novels in translation reach their peak with Trieste, Belladonna and E.E.G., but it is an interesting work nevertheless.
The novel is in a collage form - ostensibly a tale of exile but including recipes for survival under UN aid, a history of Vietnamese pork bellied pigs, a discussion of Sikhism, a guide to behaviour of Yugoslav exiles (particularly from Serbia) in Canada, the questionnaire required to adopt a cat in Canada, lists of historical documents (the list of victims in the later novel is much more powerful), and - perhaps the heart of the novel but not easy for this reader to follow - a family history from around the time of WW2 (when some Croatians were members of the pro-Nazi Ustaše), replete with footnotes, some from the original and some glosses from the translator.
For example from the guide WHAT DO (SOME OTHER) IMMIGRANTS DO IN CANADA AFTER THE BREAK-UP OF SOCIALIST YUGOSLAVIA?
L When they arrive, they ask friends to look after the local money they have from the apartments they sold and they register for social security. (Because social security offices have the right to examine bank accounts and so on.)
2. Every Friday they get together in an Irish pub that has a terrace on its roof with a lot of plants, and they drink Irish beer.
3. When they have something to celebrate, they invite a lot of people and then they feed them well. They serve all manner of things from former Yugoslavia. When it's a matter of food, there's no prejudice, the national question doesn't arise.
...
7. They say that they have come (the men that is, of course) to avoid being mobilised, but on the whole they are over forty (The twenty-year-olds who haven't come have on the whole been killed.)
8. They say that all sides in this war are equally to blame, and when they are told that yes, they are to blame but absolutely not equally, they stop speaking to you.
9. They go to hear bands from their homeland when they play in Toronto because that's a connection with home.
10. Among themselves they speak Serbian, but when they're with you they say they speak Serbo-Croatian so as not to offend you. When you say that you speak Croatian or Bosnian, they say those languages don't exist.
11. They are thrilled with Peter Handke.
The research in to the family/war history, one reminscent of an Alistair McLean novel at times with its double and triple agents and shifting allegiances, is prompted by Radan's relationship with a fellow Croatian exile in Toronto, one that ends when she realises that his Ustaše father may have been responsible for the arrest and death of her anti-fascist mother:
My obsession took me to another time, among other people, on the other side of reason. I studied everything the Robarts Library held on the subject of the Croatian Democratic Party, the Communist Youth organisation, the Communist Party, illegals in Zagreb from 1941 to 1943. In my imagination, wondering whether it was now only my imagination, I walked through the streets of my hometown in a time in which I hadn't been there. I got to know informers, Homeguard officers, the police 'experts' Soprek and Sapinac, the Ustasha police officer Ivan Skunca, then Ivan Sertic, who had prepared the arrests of young people and communists. I followed the movements of Lojzika Pravklek who worked in the 'Gaon' factory, in order to understand how she became an informer. I followed the courier and railway worker Mato Rendulie, who was arrested by the Ustashas and who 'grassed' on his friends, and who disappeared without trace after the war. I imagine Uvanovic, head of the Independent State of Croatia's information service, issuing Cividini's orders, who had been beating people up even in Bedekovies time, and continued in the Jasenovac concentration camp. I see the Ustasha cut-throat kelin in bed with his lover and later holding a child in his arms, singing to it. What kind of ditties is he singing? I see the agent and policeman Kanber beating my mother, her plaits undone; hitting her on the head and face, and her ear hurts and later in life she's afraid that she's going to get facial palsy and that she'll suffocate and in the end that's what happened to her, both the palsy, which distorted her lovely face incurably and the suffocation, which killed her.
And although Tea Radic escaped the violence in the former Yugoslavia in Toronto, she is no starry-eyed newcomer to North America, calling out the ill-treatment of immigrants, their education unrecognised, as well as the bureaucracy of the state. Drndić's UK publishers, Istros Books, were sadly rather sucked into an anti-lockdown then anti-vaccine, conspiracy theory rabbit hole in late 2021. I had wondered at the time what their star author might have made of the situation, and if anything this novel (see the quote that opens my review) makes me suspect she may have been no fan of government imposed mandates, but equally she would not have fallen into the my-enemies-enemy-is-my-friend trap of her publisher who ended up retweeting/liking posts from some very dubious fellow travellers.
For the book: 3 stars albeit more by comparison to the rest of the author's more fully realised works.
Daša Drndić's work since the mid 1990s (per Wikipedia)
Marija Częstohowska još uvijek roni suze ili Umiranje u Torontu (1997), as yet untranslated
Canzone di guerra (1998), translated into English as Canzone di Guerra (2022) by Celia Hawkesworth
Totenwande (2000), as yet untranslated
Doppelgänger (2002), translated into English as Doppelgänger ( 2018) by Celia Hawkesworth and SD Curtis
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Shortlisted for 2019 Republic of Consciousness Prize
Leica Format (2003), translated into English as Leica Format (2015) by Celia Hawkesworth
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Sonnenschein (2007), translated into English as Trieste (2012) by Ellen Elias-Bursać
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Shortlisted for 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
April u Berlinu (2009), as yet untranslated
Belladonna (2012), translated into English as Belladonna 2017, by Celia Hawkesworth
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Winner 2018 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation Prize and was shortlisted for the 2018 EBRD Literature Prize and 2018 Oxford Weidenfeld Prize
E.E.G (2016), translated into English as E.E.G. (2018), by Celia Hawkesworth
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
September 15, 2023
3,5*
Supratau, kad nė velnio nesupratau, kas dėjosi Jugoslavijoje, kaip ji iro ir kas dėjosi su jugoslavais.
Kroatės rašytojos dokumentinis (pati autorė nemėgsta šio apibūdinimo) romanas apie Kroatiją, jos istoriją nuo Antro pasaulinio iki Balkanų karo, apie holokaustą, emigraciją/imigraciją, kraštutinį nacionalizmą... Labai daug dokumentikos žiauriai apsunkinusios tekstą, nors suprantu, kad ji čia reikalinga. Minimi karo nusikaltėliai, tarp kurių ir lietuvis, sėkmingai pabėgęs į Kanadą.
Patiko įdomus pabėgelių iš Jugoslavijos sugretinimas su vietnamietiškomis Pot-bellied kiaulaitėmis (auginimui namuose) įvežtomis į Ameriką 1980-iais. Reikalaujančios daug dėmesio atvykėlės nuvylė savo šeimininkus ir begalės jų atsidūrė gatvėse.
'[...] Imported animals are forced to live in what is for them an unnatural environment, which often coasts them both their physical and their mental health.'
Man surezonavo dar migracijos tema. 'A lot of books have been written about migration, about leaving one's country, about exile, some stupid, propaganda, some intelligent. But all those books state clearly that migration is both dying and being born, that it is a complex phenomenon, hard to comprehend for anyone who has not experienced it.'
Komplikuotas skaitinys, kliuvinėjau aš už tų begalės man bveik nieko nesakančių pavardžių, bet galiausiai turiu pripažinti, jog patiko. Gal tas subtilus autorės humoro jausmas man čia labai tiko. Rekomenduoju pabandyt ir jums.
Supratau, kad nė velnio nesupratau, kas dėjosi Jugoslavijoje, kaip ji iro ir kas dėjosi su jugoslavais.
Kroatės rašytojos dokumentinis (pati autorė nemėgsta šio apibūdinimo) romanas apie Kroatiją, jos istoriją nuo Antro pasaulinio iki Balkanų karo, apie holokaustą, emigraciją/imigraciją, kraštutinį nacionalizmą... Labai daug dokumentikos žiauriai apsunkinusios tekstą, nors suprantu, kad ji čia reikalinga. Minimi karo nusikaltėliai, tarp kurių ir lietuvis, sėkmingai pabėgęs į Kanadą.
Patiko įdomus pabėgelių iš Jugoslavijos sugretinimas su vietnamietiškomis Pot-bellied kiaulaitėmis (auginimui namuose) įvežtomis į Ameriką 1980-iais. Reikalaujančios daug dėmesio atvykėlės nuvylė savo šeimininkus ir begalės jų atsidūrė gatvėse.
'[...] Imported animals are forced to live in what is for them an unnatural environment, which often coasts them both their physical and their mental health.'
Man surezonavo dar migracijos tema. 'A lot of books have been written about migration, about leaving one's country, about exile, some stupid, propaganda, some intelligent. But all those books state clearly that migration is both dying and being born, that it is a complex phenomenon, hard to comprehend for anyone who has not experienced it.'
Komplikuotas skaitinys, kliuvinėjau aš už tų begalės man bveik nieko nesakančių pavardžių, bet galiausiai turiu pripažinti, jog patiko. Gal tas subtilus autorės humoro jausmas man čia labai tiko. Rekomenduoju pabandyt ir jums.
August 1, 2022
,,Što sam više čitala to sam manje znala. Nitko nije bio posve nevin, nitko nije bio posve kriv; Ni kardinali, ni biskupi, ni pape, ni crkva, ni Vatikan. Ni komunisti."
Pre svega moram istaknuti ogromno razočarenje što sam tek sada uspeo da otkrijem ovu autorku i isto tako istaknem ogromno oduševljenje što sam je ipak na kraju i otkrio. Jer čitati ovakvu knjigu, zaista je vredelo čekanja.
Stil i način na koji je pisala Daša Drndić su me na monete podsetili na eseje koje je tako davno pisala i sama Džoan Didion, u kojima dominira jasnoća izraza, vešto baratanje činjenicama, skupine naizgled ne tako bitnih informacija i trivije o ljudima, koji na kraju dobija svoju ulogu i jasne obrise u onome što autorka stvara.
Daša piše o sebi, svom poreklu, ljudima, svojoj zemlji, rasparčanoj domovini, ali i svojoj novoj "domovini", mnogo "ljubaznijoj", mnogog "naprednijoj", toliko naprednoj da su se pomalo izgubili usled tolike naprednosti.
U knjizi se Daša ne libi da kaže neke stvari koje bi se lako prećutale, lomeći u paramparčad izbledelu sliku o obećanoj zemlji, tako bliskoj a opet tako dalekoj i stranoj, nudeći sam suštinu i realnost.
Svakako da je kritika upućena zemlji domaćinu koja te je primila po malo arogantna, jer niko ne voli nezahvalnog i nesrećnog gosta, nesreća je odlika nezadovoljstva, a to je uvreda i zloupotreba gostoprimsta. Ali kakvo je to gostoprimstvo u kojem te smatraju varvarom i stranim telom pa te moraju učiti da moraš biti čist i moraš prati zube, jer smrad smeta čoveku. Jedno je tvrdoglavo odbijanje i prihvatanje kulture i vrednosti koje postoje i koje ta država baštine a nešto sasvim drugo je kada te država smatra nesposobnim poluprimitivnim bićem kojeg je prihvatila iz žalosti zarad osećanja neke jeftine dobrote, poput nekakvog novog Samarićanina.
Kao neko ko voli da čita i prikuplja razna znanja iz sfere istorije, najriskantnije nauke na Balkanu, saznanja koje je Daša Drndić prikupila tokom svog boravka u Torontu i potom iznela u svojoj knjizi su svakako bila neverovatno otkrovenje, dokazujući time da je ona zaista bila jedno retko biće koje je na ovim prostorima uspela da ostane čovek, pardon žena, nepristrasna u svojoj nameri, odbijajući da se svrsta među dobro čuvene naše i njine.
Na kraju ostajem zapitan, kakva nam to čudna vremena dolaze, kada danas, ponovo moramo da vodimo već vođene bitke, da li se to neki dobro znani, stari duhovi prošlosti ponovo bude ili su ipak one davno izvojevane pobede bile laž.
Na kraju, mogu samo napisati ainisi va la vie, što bi možda francuzi rekli, a složili bi se sa njima i kanađani, makar oni iz Kvebeka, jer oni sigurno razumeju francuski.
5/5 ✨
Pre svega moram istaknuti ogromno razočarenje što sam tek sada uspeo da otkrijem ovu autorku i isto tako istaknem ogromno oduševljenje što sam je ipak na kraju i otkrio. Jer čitati ovakvu knjigu, zaista je vredelo čekanja.
Stil i način na koji je pisala Daša Drndić su me na monete podsetili na eseje koje je tako davno pisala i sama Džoan Didion, u kojima dominira jasnoća izraza, vešto baratanje činjenicama, skupine naizgled ne tako bitnih informacija i trivije o ljudima, koji na kraju dobija svoju ulogu i jasne obrise u onome što autorka stvara.
Daša piše o sebi, svom poreklu, ljudima, svojoj zemlji, rasparčanoj domovini, ali i svojoj novoj "domovini", mnogo "ljubaznijoj", mnogog "naprednijoj", toliko naprednoj da su se pomalo izgubili usled tolike naprednosti.
U knjizi se Daša ne libi da kaže neke stvari koje bi se lako prećutale, lomeći u paramparčad izbledelu sliku o obećanoj zemlji, tako bliskoj a opet tako dalekoj i stranoj, nudeći sam suštinu i realnost.
Svakako da je kritika upućena zemlji domaćinu koja te je primila po malo arogantna, jer niko ne voli nezahvalnog i nesrećnog gosta, nesreća je odlika nezadovoljstva, a to je uvreda i zloupotreba gostoprimsta. Ali kakvo je to gostoprimstvo u kojem te smatraju varvarom i stranim telom pa te moraju učiti da moraš biti čist i moraš prati zube, jer smrad smeta čoveku. Jedno je tvrdoglavo odbijanje i prihvatanje kulture i vrednosti koje postoje i koje ta država baštine a nešto sasvim drugo je kada te država smatra nesposobnim poluprimitivnim bićem kojeg je prihvatila iz žalosti zarad osećanja neke jeftine dobrote, poput nekakvog novog Samarićanina.
Kao neko ko voli da čita i prikuplja razna znanja iz sfere istorije, najriskantnije nauke na Balkanu, saznanja koje je Daša Drndić prikupila tokom svog boravka u Torontu i potom iznela u svojoj knjizi su svakako bila neverovatno otkrovenje, dokazujući time da je ona zaista bila jedno retko biće koje je na ovim prostorima uspela da ostane čovek, pardon žena, nepristrasna u svojoj nameri, odbijajući da se svrsta među dobro čuvene naše i njine.
Na kraju ostajem zapitan, kakva nam to čudna vremena dolaze, kada danas, ponovo moramo da vodimo već vođene bitke, da li se to neki dobro znani, stari duhovi prošlosti ponovo bude ili su ipak one davno izvojevane pobede bile laž.
Na kraju, mogu samo napisati ainisi va la vie, što bi možda francuzi rekli, a složili bi se sa njima i kanađani, makar oni iz Kvebeka, jer oni sigurno razumeju francuski.
5/5 ✨
June 11, 2024
“There were writers who told the children fairy tales which they didn’t believe, because if they had, they would not have drawn those horrors.”
May 20, 2022
This early novel (1998) is based on her time in Toronto with her young daughter in the early 1990s. It contains many of the themes and stylistic elements that she would expand in her later major works, but it is also a sharp critique of the conditions immigrant communities face in Canada, then and now. As Canadians we often like to think that xenophobia is a more recent import, but that is of course, not true. Research and footnoted details are woven into the story, but it remains compulsively readable throughout, with a sense of personal warmth and humour despite the hardships the narrator and her daughter face.
Longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2022/05/20/no...
Longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2022/05/20/no...
June 1, 2022
3.75* Some more early Drndić. Next onto Trieste.
February 10, 2023
Of her six novels translated from Serbo-Croatian into English, Battle Songs is Daša Drndić’s earliest. Translator Celia Hawkesworth is no stranger to Drndić’s oeuvre, having also recomposed her Doppelgänger, Leica format, Belladonna, and EEG. If Canzone di guerra is the work of a novelist beginning to hit her stride, its English incarnation as Battle Songs is clearly the work of a distinguished translator, one who has lived thoughtfully with her subject’s prose, form, and themes.
In Battle Songs Drndić explores the horrors of Balkan history and the ways in which those horrors shape the lives of individual refugees. Her main character, Tea, has recently relocated to Toronto from Rijeka to escape the chaos of crumbling Soviet Yugoslavia. She supports her daughter by taking on degrading gig work and struggles to assimilate not only to her new country, but also to the complex, contradictory immigrant community she finds there.
We thought Canada was a country of great possibilities. I don’t know why no one told us the truth.
Read the full review at Blathering Struldbrugs
In Battle Songs Drndić explores the horrors of Balkan history and the ways in which those horrors shape the lives of individual refugees. Her main character, Tea, has recently relocated to Toronto from Rijeka to escape the chaos of crumbling Soviet Yugoslavia. She supports her daughter by taking on degrading gig work and struggles to assimilate not only to her new country, but also to the complex, contradictory immigrant community she finds there.
We thought Canada was a country of great possibilities. I don’t know why no one told us the truth.
Read the full review at Blathering Struldbrugs
November 22, 2018
Priče koje priča autorka su mi posebno bliske jer sam i sama odrasla u porodici koja je u više navrata zbog ratnih okolnosti morala da se seli.
Iako priče slušam celog života, nikada na njih neću reagovati ravnodušno, nego će mi uvek biti dirljive.
Ovo delo cenim ne samo zbog autobiografskih elemenata, niti zbog bliskosti sa temom, nego i zbog osećaja za povesne elemente i potrebe da se povuče paralela između stanja u državama pred dolazak novog društvenog režima onda (oko ‘45) i posle (oko ‘95). Praćenje pada i rasta našeg društvenog uređenja pokazuje se i u dubokim razlikama u načinu života i ophoda ljudi jedni prema drugima, te u potrebi da nađu nekad postojeću sigurnost u drugoj zemlji.
Onome ko planira da piše ili ko piše će ovo delo takođe biti od koristi zbog preplitanja lične ispovesti, povesne dokumentacije i drugog što ovo delo čini posebnim i vrednim čitanja.
Iako priče slušam celog života, nikada na njih neću reagovati ravnodušno, nego će mi uvek biti dirljive.
Ovo delo cenim ne samo zbog autobiografskih elemenata, niti zbog bliskosti sa temom, nego i zbog osećaja za povesne elemente i potrebe da se povuče paralela između stanja u državama pred dolazak novog društvenog režima onda (oko ‘45) i posle (oko ‘95). Praćenje pada i rasta našeg društvenog uređenja pokazuje se i u dubokim razlikama u načinu života i ophoda ljudi jedni prema drugima, te u potrebi da nađu nekad postojeću sigurnost u drugoj zemlji.
Onome ko planira da piše ili ko piše će ovo delo takođe biti od koristi zbog preplitanja lične ispovesti, povesne dokumentacije i drugog što ovo delo čini posebnim i vrednim čitanja.
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December 13, 2024Zasad mi je bolje Umiranje u Torontu, ali obožavam njenu neposrednost. Iako previše očigledno, poređenje sa svinjama mi nije izlišno, i Dunjin pogovor na kraju izdanja Partizanske knjige baš lepo sve zaokružuje.
Edit godinu dana kasnije: nemam pojma koje je poređenje sa svinjama u pitanju, ali nema teme koja me nije zabolela u ovoj knjizi. Ipak mi je omiljeno raskrinkavanje Kanade.
Edit godinu dana kasnije: nemam pojma koje je poređenje sa svinjama u pitanju, ali nema teme koja me nije zabolela u ovoj knjizi. Ipak mi je omiljeno raskrinkavanje Kanade.
January 15, 2022
“Moja zemlja samo je jedna tužna, zatucana i zaostala pokrajina civilizacije, europske, koja je ionako na izmaku”, navedem im riječi jednog našeg velikog i slavnog pisca, ali oni to, naravno, ne znaju.
April 10, 2020
Nisam mislila da bi mi se ikad dokumentacija o uzgoju svinja mogla svidjeti prekodirana u književno djelo, no poslije dovršavanja čitanja ove knjige, mogu zaključiti da je upravo umetanje takvih citata ono što čini ovu knjigu zanimljivom i drugačijom u odnosu na ostalu (post)ratnu književnost.
Osim citatnosti knjiga je u prvome djelu obilježena ispovijestima različitih ljudi koji su iz različitih pobuda otišli iz ratom pogođenih zemalja bivše Jugoslavije. Tako roman više nalikuje dramskome tekstu, nego romanesknome, a mene oduševljava baš tim performativnim potencijalom.
Osim citatnosti knjiga je u prvome djelu obilježena ispovijestima različitih ljudi koji su iz različitih pobuda otišli iz ratom pogođenih zemalja bivše Jugoslavije. Tako roman više nalikuje dramskome tekstu, nego romanesknome, a mene oduševljava baš tim performativnim potencijalom.
July 19, 2025
I just love Daša Drndić. Her writing cannot be categorized; it’s something totally other and miscellaneous. It’s not really narrative, but is; and then it’s memoir but also extensively footnoted; and also epistolary and historiography. It's all these quite simultaneously and harmoniously. Drndić scrutinizes Balkan nationalisms, from what it’s like speaking Croatian in Zagreb with a Serbian accent to the oppression and bloodshed under Ustaše fascist rule, and the decades later return of Ustaša sympathies. She describes the experience of dislocation from a once (seemingly) unified country that has fractured across ethnic lines and is at war with itself/each other (Jugoslavija), only to arrive in a polite albeit pathologically unaffordable, cold (both senses), and bureaucratic nation (Canada). I love her wryness and I wish her voice was still among ours, especially with everything going on right now.
May 11, 2022
Full video review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wmVI...
November 5, 2023
Booksa bookclub #2
March 25, 2023
Incredible. This will be something I come back to read again for the writing and the pure humanness of the storytelling. The cover quote is the best summary: incendiary bleakness.
November 28, 2020
Another masterpiece from Dasa Drndic.
This is the book of short stories but there are two main stories permeate each other. One from 1940s and another from 1990s.
It's storytelling that doesn't give you the answer but linger with all those questions.
Pig farming part is so well written and almost enjoyable and definitely very educational.
Dasa shows again her great mind, her excellent prose, her life experience and her intellect that goes beyond anybody's imagination.
Great news, Istros Books submitted application to English PEN to translate this book into English yesterday. Good luck.
This is the book of short stories but there are two main stories permeate each other. One from 1940s and another from 1990s.
It's storytelling that doesn't give you the answer but linger with all those questions.
Pig farming part is so well written and almost enjoyable and definitely very educational.
Dasa shows again her great mind, her excellent prose, her life experience and her intellect that goes beyond anybody's imagination.
Great news, Istros Books submitted application to English PEN to translate this book into English yesterday. Good luck.
March 6, 2023
Picked this up on a whim from a local indie and it ended up being one of those rare books that alters how you see the world.
I don’t know much about the Balkans, especially not before the war in the 90s, but Drndić manages to give a history of the Balkans during WWII, as well as so much more. This is a genre bending novel, featuring long stretches of nonfiction style facts, footnotes, interviews, poems, and a lot of humor. The protagonist (probably based on Drndić herself but with a different name) moves in the 90s to Canada with her daughter, and we see how hard that was for Balkans refugees in the West, including the hypocrisy of Canadians. There’s an entire chapter where refugees are eventually compared to pigs, as Drndić says people in the West care about rescued pigs with names but not people with names.
I also want to mention that Drndić is so notable because she refused to alter her native tongue of Serbo-Croatian during her life, which led to a lot of strife with both countries, but she stuck to her language, which I admire.
Overall, highly recommend this book. It will likely challenge you, but in the best way.
I don’t know much about the Balkans, especially not before the war in the 90s, but Drndić manages to give a history of the Balkans during WWII, as well as so much more. This is a genre bending novel, featuring long stretches of nonfiction style facts, footnotes, interviews, poems, and a lot of humor. The protagonist (probably based on Drndić herself but with a different name) moves in the 90s to Canada with her daughter, and we see how hard that was for Balkans refugees in the West, including the hypocrisy of Canadians. There’s an entire chapter where refugees are eventually compared to pigs, as Drndić says people in the West care about rescued pigs with names but not people with names.
I also want to mention that Drndić is so notable because she refused to alter her native tongue of Serbo-Croatian during her life, which led to a lot of strife with both countries, but she stuck to her language, which I admire.
Overall, highly recommend this book. It will likely challenge you, but in the best way.
January 18, 2023
Originally published in 1998, this does read like notes towards the later, greater novels, like Trieste et al. But it burns with the same outrage, humour, humanity and laser-like focus on displacement, disorientation, and the presence everywhere of shallow and profound evil. If you want to know how hard it is for refugees of the Yugoslavian wars to find dignified work and to adopt a cat in Canada, this is your book.
February 2, 2024
Really struggled through this one and reading other reviews it seems I may have started on the wrong book from the author. Although it is well written and full of eccentric characters I just found it too chaotic and at times really boring. It's a moment of history for us now that at the time of writing was very much real, the repercussions still being felt of course. I just found it hard to read
October 21, 2023
An unusual, embittered work of fiction/nonfiction
January 2, 2024
3 stars because I couldn’t get into the writing style even though I think there were poignant critiques of the West and the refugee/immigrant experience
February 14, 2024
Kolaž porodičnog, izbeglištva, Kanade, a podosta i o NDH.
Teško varim.
Teško varim.
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July 30, 2025Not For Me
October 30, 2025
Writing this just so I remember: I read this in one sitting in Split, right after spending the earlier half of the day seeing sites related to Jewish and partisan history there. This book blew me away much more than I expected it to and I’ll remember it forever.
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