Dugovečnost: komendija del arte
Svetislav Basara, Serbian writer and columnist, in the novel Longevity: comendia del arte creates an unusual allegory about Serbian habits, today and forever, through grotesque humor and satire.
The story takes place in the Frankfurt Zoo, where two guest workers – a bitter critic of turbo-nationalism Nastasijević and a crazed patriot Maslać – feed monkeys and have endless dialogues full of hyperbole, fantastic family stories and perverted historical episodes.
The center is Nastasijević's aunt Jelena, a long-lived survivor of several regimes: two kingdoms, two socialist Yugoslavias, FRY and SCG. Her son, the protagonist's father, converts to Islam and becomes Sulejman, while the grandfather saves Tito. The stories expand to references to Andrić, Krleža, Tito and Branko Radičević, presented absurdly: Balkan peoples "steal" Turkish culture, while Turks do manual labor in Germany. Travels through Vienna and Paris, unclear family connections and poetic explanations mix into a hilarious but painful comedy.
The topics are the Serbian national character, patriotism as an obsession, communism, historical distortions and the absurdity of war: "In Serbia, nobody ever dies, but neither does he live in the true sense of the word." Basara criticizes the school system that teaches hatred, the politics of destruction and the cycle of conflict where the grave is the only home. Irony and sarcasm dissect mentalities, celebrating and mocking the Balkan soul in the style of commedia dell'arte – laughter through tears, proof of Basara's genius.
One copy is available
