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Serbian -- Price iz hada by Zdravko Krstanovic
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Zdravko Krstanovic. Price iz hada. Belgrade. Strucna Knjiga. 1993. 69 pages.
The war in the former Yugoslavia is engendering an ever-growing body of literature. Most of it is of a political or propagandistic nature, but some is artistically acceptable, even though the necessary perspective is still lacking. The collection of short stories Price iz hada (Tales from Hades) is a case in point. Zdravko Krstanovic (b. 1950), a native of Dalmatia who now lives and works in Belgrade, has written poetry, fiction, plays, and criticism. His first book of stories, more precisely short-short stories or even sketches, is about the devastating effects of the war on people--on all the people, though mostly on the Serbs. The author relates case after case of bestiality that is incomprehensible to a modern man. A good illustration can be found in the introductory sketch, "A Child."
I am lying in a Belgrade hospital (Emergency Center). I am a refugee. My body, after the escape from the prison in Split, is in total collapse./Next to me lies a student, Zoran M. from Loznica. As a reservist, he fought a whole month in Banija as a gunner on a 105 mm howitzer. /He tells me the story of a soldier M.T. from his unit, who heard someone whining in a corn patch. He arrived at the spot from where the whining was coming and he saw a child with his hands and legs cut off. His eyes had been gouged out. /But the child was still alive./ M.T. is now in a mental asylum.
Almost every story packs a similar punch. In a style that is frighteningly direct and goes straight for the guts, Krstanovie achieves the purpose of making the reader feel (comprehension is out of the question) the full dimensions of this insane war. It...