Reviews
Croatian Nights: A Festival of Alternative Literature by Borivoj Radaković, Tony White, Matt Thorne
rosseroo's review
3.0
I picked this anthology up because I've enjoyed the work of several of the British contributors (especially Ben Richards, Tony White, and John Williams) and also because I spent a few weeks in Croatia on my honeymoon, traveling up the Dalmatian coast. Since that trip, I've been curious as to what kind of fiction is coming out of the new Croatia, so this collection of "alternative literature" written during 2003-2004 seemed to fit the bill. The slim, 200 page book contains 19 stories contributed by nine British and nine Croatian writers (most of whom had not previously had any work translated into English).
The literary festival which gave birth to this collaboration is notably anti-nationalist in tone, and thus the stories are generally dark slices of life that steer clear of any explicit political or historical material. While this is an admirable separation of art and politics, it also has the effect of somewhat diluting the stories' setting. Only Niall Griffiths and Ben Richard's stories give the reader any true sense of place. In general, the Croatian stories tend to be rather domestic affairs, about relationships, family, and sex. They're not bad, but they feel like they could have come out of almost any urban writer's workshop in the world. Without broader cultural knowledge or context from the reader, there's little that makes them notably "Croatian" -- which is perhaps the point.
The literary festival which gave birth to this collaboration is notably anti-nationalist in tone, and thus the stories are generally dark slices of life that steer clear of any explicit political or historical material. While this is an admirable separation of art and politics, it also has the effect of somewhat diluting the stories' setting. Only Niall Griffiths and Ben Richard's stories give the reader any true sense of place. In general, the Croatian stories tend to be rather domestic affairs, about relationships, family, and sex. They're not bad, but they feel like they could have come out of almost any urban writer's workshop in the world. Without broader cultural knowledge or context from the reader, there's little that makes them notably "Croatian" -- which is perhaps the point.
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