Small Victory Of Serbian Satire: Bojan LJubenović on his new collection of stories "Nothing is funny"
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Loading... - Logan Devine
- 23 Aug 2022
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The book has that name because I wanted to be fair to my readers, who are used to expecting mostly humorous reading from me. There is humor in this book, but only as an indispensable spice, the "main dish" is still satire, bitter, strong and murderous. Readers' reactions that reach me are mostly reduced to one sentence: "I don't know whether to laugh or cry."
This is how, extremely openly, our excellent satirist and long-time editor of the legendary column "TRN" in "VeÄernji novosti" Bojan LJubenović, presents his new book, which remains at the top of the list of the most read editions of "Laguna" for weeks.
- However, a more important question than whether there is more humor or satire in the book is: whether there is truth in it or not. I think there is, and that it has been well received by readers precisely because of the exposed truth - says LJubenović, although Dr. Ratko Božović claims in the review: "No one needs the truth - emphasizes the creator of this book. Indeed, our truths are incredible, mindless and incomprehensible. The bare truth acts as a helpless cry, as an apparition in the dark night, as a sight. The truth is perceived as a lie. The lie replaced the truth because that is how the bluffers of social and political life presented it."
When the editor asked him for satirical stories, in the midst of the greatest demand for the novel "If it were better, it wouldn't work", the writer, as he says, thought that there was not even a millimeter of chance that a book of satirical stories would repeat such a success. For years, it did not happen that satirical stories reached the center of interest, because they were underestimated by everyone, publishers, booksellers, critics... However, reality denied the author and dispelled his skepticism: although this collection appeared almost four months ago, it is still among the ten best-selling books in Serbia and has already seen four editions, which is proof that people love and appreciate satire if it is presented to them in the right way.
- This is a real small miracle for this literary genre and I am very happy about it, finally some injustices that Serbian satire has been suffering for decades are beginning to be corrected. I have always claimed that our aphorisms, satirical stories and poems are a better part of the entire Serbian literature, this is one small but valuable victory, I have no doubt that there will be more because we have excellent authors - our satirist points out, and reveals that the heroes of his stories are ordinary people we meet on the street every day: Read More…
