Summary
Stevo Grabovac: After the Party
A novel about a father, a novel about a crime, a novel about a family, a novel about friendship, a novel about growing up, a total novel! With the theme of duplicity, as big as it is in our literature, as we read in Danilo Kiš after all, the writer frames thematically different segments that make this book a cross-section of one life. Moments illuminated in this way are framed by the duality of father and son, the figure of the first writer and the one who inherits – a gift, a writer's sensitivity and a legacy, an order to confront injustice with an open heart and a single typewriter. After the party, although compositionally designed in five parts, begins with one sentence, one motto, an indispensable and essential quote that gives color and sets the tone for the entire narrative: "And then the storm of shit begins". That's what Roberto Bolanjo once said and irrevocably illuminated the direction for another writer. And Steve Grabovac's storm is big and terrible in an attempt to deconstruct memory, a series of memories (or apparitions) that, when finally summoned, save and at the same time expose the consciousness to its impotence.
And in this novel, the reader will recognize everything that makes Steve Grabovac a unique regional writer - simple but great lyricism, an infinite heart, a breadth of mind to illuminate every thing before it is condemned, the inability to trap a person in despondency and narrow-mindedness of war and post-war narratives. Stevo Grabovac once again managed to express all our sorrows, mental dead ends, love and loneliness, with such sincerity and unpretentiousness, with such ease of expression that is easier to feel than to explain.
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