Between exile and asylum

by Predrag Matvejević

"A collection of letters, written by a most extraordinary and yet typical representative of the East European intelligentsia, sent from Moscow, Mostar, and more recently Paris and Rome, where the author has lived since leaving war-torn Bosnia." Matvejevic first went to the USSR in 1972, as a guest of the Writers' Union, and described to his father the land that Matvejevic senior had not seen since leaving Odessa in 1921 (and that he would never see again in his lifetime). He chronicles the dissolution of the USSR, its final twenty years of existence, from the unique vantage point of a semi-insider - a half-Russian, non-aligned (Yugoslav) dissident intellectual rooted in the public debates and artistic life of both Western, Eastern and Central Europe. This story, moreover, parallels the simultaneous dissolution of Yugoslavia, to which the narrator refers increasingly as the book nears its end.

Genres: Nonfiction

Paperback

First published December 31, 2004

About the author

Predrag Matvejević was born in Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the time part of The Kingdom of Yugoslavia) to a Croatian mother and a Ukrainian father. He was a writer and scholar who taught at universities in Zagreb, Paris and Rome. He is best known for his 1987 non-fiction book Mediterranean: A Cultural Landscape, a seminal work of cultural history of the Mediterranean region.

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bilo mi je tesko citati ovu zbirku pisama i eseja koje je Matvejevic pisao za vrijeme i nakon rata u bivsoj Jugoslaviji. Njegove rjeci su budile tugu i dizale u meni onu potisnutu nevjericu da se taj rat stvarno dogodio i sto je u njemu sve napravljeno. Naravno, meni je najgore citati o tome sto je moj narod lose napravio. Koliko god je Matvejevic jasan ko u cijeloj prici ima najvecu odgovornost, toliko mi to nije neka velika ni utjeha ni opravdanje.
Narocito sada, dvadeset i nesto godina nakon rata, kada je Hrvatska propala. I ekonomski i moralno. I ne znam sto je od toga dvoje teze gledat. Nacionalizam nas je vratio stotine godina nazad. Patriotizam se dobro naplatio i naplacuje. A katolicka crkva kao da je presjekla sve veze s katolicizmom i pliva u mulju ustastva i zenomrziteljstva. Mrziteljstva uopce. Imam osjecaj da nekin 90% hrvatskih katolickih svecenika, biskupa i kardinala nije ni osnovnu skolu zavrsilo. Jedino i vrlo uspjesno sire govor najgore mrznje. Nemaju puno dodirnih tocaka ni sa svojom vjerom ali ni sa covjecnosti. Takva je izgleda i velika vecina vjernika.
Tako da ne znam sto mi je bilo gore citajuci Matvejevica: prisjecati se ili gledati rezultat ludila.

"Cim tko manje uci i zna, time je bjesniji Hrvat ili Srbin" To je napisao Vatroslav Jagic Franji Rackom 1890. 129 godina kasnije, gle cuda, to smo i empirijski dokazali na najgori moguci nacin.