Raskomadana vremena

The book is a kind of literary testament of Rade Kovačević – a man who spent his entire life in literature, criticism and education, and who died in 2024. Under the pseudonym Edgar F. Smith (which he used for prose since the 2000s), he collected essays, diary entries, fragments and thoughts that were created over decades, culminating in this collection. The title – shattered times – perfectly describes the core: the world is torn apart, values ​​are torn, time is broken between the past and the future that does not come.

The author does not write linearly; the book is a mosaic – from quotes by Benjamin Franklin (“either write something worth reading or do something worth writing”) to reflections on art, literature, politics and morality, to personal memories of war, transition and the loss of ideals. Kovačević dissects media banality, the superficiality of contemporary culture, the decline of humanism and the silent suffering of the intellectual in a society that no longer values ​​depth. There is no pathos; the style is precise, ironic, sometimes bitterly humorous, with a touch of old school – erudite, but never arrogant.

This is not just a criticism of the times; it is also an attempt to rescue meaning through writing – because, as one of the motifs says, words can be a refuge in chaos. The book is intimate, almost confessional, but also universal: it speaks to anyone who feels alienated in a "dismembered" era.