Reading Books

[Rambling story as a preview.]
Last year, I was in a used bookstore with a friend. He was looking for old or interesting-looking books for some reason. Browsing the literature section, a cover caught my eye. The dust jacket (for that's what it turned out to be) was deliberately done in an old-looking, semi-ornate manner. I pulled it out and showed it to him. He thought is was neat, but nothing worth getting. I read the words on the cover.
They stated that the book had both male and female editions, with only 17 lines different, but in a crucial way. The copy in my hands was the male edition. I read the first pages of the introduction. Those pages were interesting - enough for me to buy the book.
Strangely enough, the novel stayed on my desk, unread but nagging, for over a month. When I felt motivated enough to get to work on it, it blew my mind. I read it in two or three days (slow for me) and still had the barest glimpse of the extent of the work. Even so, the individual parts of it were enough to keep my thoughts busy until now. Its name was The Dictionary of the Khazars, from which I have gained my moniker.

Has anybody read this book, or, indeed, anything else by the Yugoslavian author Milorad Pavic?
If not, you may just want to. And don't feel bad if you let a book like this sit unread for a month.

(Pavic has a website at www.khazars.com.)

you can come to terms and realize, you're the only one who cannot forgive yourself -Pearl Jam

I've read the book about four times and still feel i need to read it another hundred times before familiarity begins to set. I think I might treat it like a study exercise the next time i read it and take note of the portals, how particular characters, symbols and scenes inter-relate between each of the three sections. I would have to say that he's one of my most favoured authors. The guy is a genius, even better than that, a magician! Other fine works by Milorad Pavic are "Landscape Painted With Tea", "Inner Side Of The Wind" and "Last Love In Constantinople" he also has some short stories written on his Khazar website. The book comes across as though it's 'breathing'. You can look into it from so many different angles and views, as mentioned by Pavic himself "it's a book that can be approached similar to that of a statue". It's multilayered para-textual play seems to defy physical possiblity. How anyone could have written a book like this I have no idea. What he writes at the beginning of the book is quite interesting also "...it can be read in an infinite number of ways. It is an open book, and when it is shut it can be added to: just as it has its own former and present lexicographer, so it can acquire new writers, compilers, and continuers."
Not only have i read the book four times i've bought the book about six times, two hardcover versions and four paperback. I've also a photocopied version in the Serbian language. That was individualy copied, page by page, while i was working on the nullarbor plain, a desolate, arid, and very dry place and once an inland ocean. A great place to be reading "Dictionary of the Khazars. The book, a copied version from a fill in cook at the camp site i was working at, he, a Bosnian refugee was the one that got me onto the writing of Pavic. On one of his breaks he brought back the female version of the book in the 'latin' form of the serbian language. At times i kind of imagined that he was Yusuf Masudi and i Avram Brankovic. Hunting and being hunted in our dreams!

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This post was edited by zerpau on Mar 25, 2003.

If you are that fascinated by Yugoslav writters, try reading "The Bridge On The Drina" by Ivo Andric, it's a good book, in fact, the author recived the nobel prize for literature for it!
As for Milorad Pavic, try reading "Landscape Painted With Tea".
If you would like more Yugoslav Authors to be recomended, ask...

Vladimir, student od economics

Hey Vladimir,

have you read any books by Svetislav Basara and if so what are they like? also i'm interested in one particular book called "fama o biciklistima" or something like that. i was wondering if you knew anything about the book and if there is an english translation, for my Serbian isn't the best. though i'd still be interested in getting the book in the serbian language.
i got chatting with a person about Milorad Pavic and especially his book "...khazars" and they said if you like Pavic's stuff you'll like Basaras works. so i guess if anyone is compared to Pavic it's gotta be a good thing, and has gotta be looked into...

also, before i forget. i've got "the bridge on the drina"... have read a little but still yet to properly read. seems very fascinating. i was actually surprised to find out that Ivo Andric was Croatian. was wondering if this is true? and if so seems very interesting. i hear that his books are great also! i guess 500 yrs under Ottoman occupation amongst Austro-Hungarian, has gotta take it's toll!

you be good Mr Vlad

and send my regards to Belgrade

zerpau

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