When the slippers do not fit any more

Vesna Maric: Bluebird. London: Granta, 2009.

Reviewed by Simona Hevešiová

In: Ars Aeterna - Art in Memory, Memory in Art, Vol. 1, No. 2 / 2009, ISSN 1337-9291, pp. 123-4.

In 1992, a war breaks out in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Motivated by ethnic and religious differences, the conflict affected the households of millions of people. Zlata Filipović, an eleven-year-old girl living in Sarajevo, records the changing pace of her life in her diary. What starts as the ordinary hobby of a carefree teenager soon turns into a terrifying and poignant account of the horrors of the war. The skiing trips, MTV charts, and chats with her friends are supplanted by shelling, and hiding in dark cellars. Zlata’ s Diary, published in 1993 (translated into Slovak in 1994), has become an international bestseller, with Zlata referred to as the Anne Frank of Sarajevo. The very form of the diary enabled Zlata to record her immediate emotions and worries as the world she had known disappeared in front of her eyes. The personal and the public intermingle, and the reader is provided with a first-hand account of the war conflict.

Fifteen years later, Vesna Maric, who is only four years older than Zlata, revisits her recollections of the conflict in her memoir Bluebird, published by Granta this year. The book opens with Vesna’s memory of TV footage depicting demonstrations in Sarajevo; suddenly, a young student is shot by a sniper and becomes the first official victim of the war. Those who expect to find other bloody accounts of the war will be, however, disappointed. Unlike Zlata Filipović, who remained in Bosnia until December 1993, Vesna fled her hometown Mostar soon after the war started. The memoir thus consists primarily of her experiences as a refugee struggling in a new environment. Maric provides hardly any background information or historical-political context for the war; therefore, some readers might feel a little bit lost at the beginning. At first sight, this lack of context may seem like a defect, weakening the message of the book by not depicting the core of the conflict. Yet Maric’s strength lies elsewhere.

Instead of presenting a mere chronological retelling of her personal experience, Bluebird consists of short episodic narratives which introduce Vesna’s fellow refugees and her new English acquaintances. At the age of sixteen, Vesna and her older sister boarded a charity bus heading for Penrith in the UK for safety. The four-day journey itself represented a remarkable spectacle exposing her tragicomic co-passengers: Dragan, “a factory manager and an amateur poet” (p. 30), who fell in love with a lady who never left her house; the 52-year-old Gordana, resembling Xena, the Warrior Princess, who announces that she is pregnant; the doctor’s wife who keeps smoking despite her heart problems; and the interpreter Esma who goes mad during the journey. Piteous moments are followed by grotesque ones, as the women fight for charity fur coats in a church or dress themselves in their finest clothes, thus contradicting the usual bedraggled image of refugees.

To be labelled as a refugee and to live as one is definitely not easy. Deprived of her home, her family, her language, the feeling of security, and even the diacritics in her surname, Vesna has to start anew. Slowly, she integrates into English society and finds new friends; her life finally becomes filled with casual activities – smoking, drinking, dating, studying… From time to time, letters from her father and friends or visits from other refugees remind her of the atrocities happening in her homeland.

After four years of waiting, Vesna is finally granted official refugee status. The news is received with relief; despite the fact that Hull (the city that she moved in) “will in future be voted the worst place to live” (p. 212), she likes her new home and her new life. The idea of living in Bosnia again is frightening. Yet as soon as she obtains her new papers, Vesna embarks on the journey home. Coming home is probably the most touching chapter of her memoir. Switching suddenly to second person narration, Vesna describes how it feels to come back home after the definition of home has been forcibly reedited. “It is difficult to grip on the time that has passed. Everything has been frozen in your memory since you left and now everything is different.” (p. 219) And the old slippers under her bed, symbolically, do not fit anymore.

Bluebird offers a remarkable reading, delightful and humorous despite its gloomy subject matters. At the same time, it succeeds in planting some pressing questions in one’s mind.

One World, One Voice

One World: A Global Anthology of Short Stories. Oxford: New Internationalist, 2009.

Reviewed by Simona Hevešiová

In: Ars Aeterna - Art in Memory, Memory in Art, Vol. 1, No. 2 / 2009, ISSN 1337-9291, pp. 121-2.

This ambitious anthology published by New Internationalist unites the writings of twenty three authors coming from fourteen different countries. Some of them, like the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jhumpa Lahiri or the internationally acclaimed Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, are probably well known by readers all over the world. Some names might be new but are nonetheless equally talented. Despite such a wide range of authors whose stories, naturally, discuss diverse topics, the whole collection speaks with one voice. It is a powerful voice that cannot be overlooked nor ignored.

One of the most impressive stories included in the collection is Kelemo’s Woman written by the Nigerian writer Molara Wood. It presents a moving story of Iriola, whose life is determined by her lover’s political activism. The story challenges our notions of fidelity and self-esteem when one is faced with the question of survival. The title of the story stresses Iriola’s position right from the beginning – she is deprived of her name, i.e., of her identity. She is defined as an obedient companion of her dominant partner who is actively involved in the present political turmoil of their country. As Iriola says: “My role in the struggle ahead was mapped out for me. I knew the drill. I would support as the loyal partner to the courageous, self-sacrificing activist.” (p. 22)

Molara Wood employs vivid imagery in order to create impressive parallels between the country and Iriola – both fighting for survival. The opening scene depicts Iriola’s and Kelemo’s lovemaking which is interrupted by the sound of Newsflash announcing the coup d’état. The private and the public mingle uncompromisingly; the intimate sphere is violated once again. The deformed and blurred images of deserted towns occupied by soldiers, produced by the old television set, reflect Iriola’s fatigue. For four years she has been living a “dicey, precarious life” to which she was “vicariously sentenced” (p. 20).

Yet, there are moments when Iriola wonders how it would feel to be her own woman. Recalling her mother’s deathbed wish, she decides to take her life in her own hands. The price to be paid for her liberation and independence is, however, too high. Since it cannot be achieved without a humiliating submission to other men, Iriola’s victory at the end is rather pyrrhic.

Similarly, Growing My Hair Again written by Chika Unigwe presents a story of another strong and intelligent woman. Following the murder of her abusive husband, Nneka has to take part in a mourning ritual overlooked by her domineering mother-in-law. Yet the procedure, requiring an ostentatious emotional involvement, contrasts deeply with her true feelings. The marriage, in which Nneka had to submit to her violent husband and suppress her personality, belongs to the past now and she savors her newly-gained freedom. The subdued emotions finally erupt in an uncontrollable explosion of laughter which marks the beginning of a new era in her life.

A large number of the narratives depicts human struggles for survival in difficult financial times: Ovo Adagha’s story Homeless provides a touching portrayal of a family that is forced to move into a slum. A demolition deprives them even of their dilapidated shack and leaves the family helplessly on the street. In Leng Lui is for Pretty Lady Elaine Chiew introduces the life story of Alina, who is working as an amah for a rich Honk Kong couple. Separated from her family, Alina has to cope with her abusive employers. Since the loss of the job is out of question, she is not able to defend herself and thus has to cope with their inappropriate behaviour.

Other stories discuss issues of alienation (both cultural and personal), identity, maturity, initiation, or assimilation. It is quite interesting that most of the stories are written as first person narratives, thus manifesting the oral traditions of these countries and contributing to the mysterious effects of storytelling.

Despite the unique experiences and cross-cultural differences among the involved countries, the anthology succeeds in eliminating the borders between them by joining the narrative voices in unison. The introductory words of Ovo Adagha and Molara Wood support this intention: “[…] regardless of our differences or the disparities of our stories, we are united by our humanity.” It is obvious that the stories in the collection have been chosen with great care, and they will surely resonate in the reader’s mind long after the reading is finished.

Ars Aeterna Vol. 1, No. 1 / 2009

Across cultures / across centuries - acknowledging the difference

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

A word from the editor - Alena Smiešková

Interview with Halla Beloff - Mária Kiššová

The Old South in Popular Culture - Jozef Pecina

Mary Austin’s Crossing Boundaries - Peter Kopecký

“The Dangers of Foreign Smells”: Olfaction and Immigrant Mobilities in Pomegranate Soup by Mar­sha Mehran -Marzena Kubisz

Rushdie’s Claim For Hybridity In His Non-Fiction Works - Titus Pop

Exiles on the road: The role of cinematic journeys in the creation of new structures of belonging and cultural knowledge - Tanja Franotović

Multiculturalism and a Search for Identity in Span­ish Film Production after the Fall of Francoism - Petra Pappová

Pardoning Unpardonable - “Smiling Discrimination” in Canada - Jana Javorčíková

Reflections on Education in a Multicultural Environment - José Antonio Ávila Romero

Cosmas – Across Cultures - Petr Kopál

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