IRENA VRKLJAN, THE LAST VOYAGE TO VIENNA/ POSLJEDNJE PUTOVANJE U BEČ (BOOK REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION)
Hello! Today I'm back with a book review. About a month ago, I reviewed and praised a novel Marina or About Autobiography by Croatian author Irena Vrkljan. This particular novel has had a lasting effect on me, so I tend to think quite highly of its author. Best know for non-linear poetical autobiographical novels, Irena Vrkljan was an authentic writer with an unique voice. She lived and worked both in Croatia and Austria (Vienna). Irena died last year, but her artistic legacy survives. Today I'll review another of Vrkljan's novels, but this time a crime novel. I was quite curious the first time I came across The Last Voyage to Vienna. Now, Irena is not the kind of writer I would expect to write a crime novel, mostly because her writing style is quite poetical and artistic. I was surprised by how easily she switched genres. Indeed, Irena Vrkljan managed her transition to crime writing quite well. I think this proves that crime novels can be written in many styles- and still be an enjoyable and rewarding read. As someone who enjoys reading both 'serious' literature and crime novels, I'm always happy to see established authors venturing into the crime genre.
Zdravo! Evo me natrag s ogledom knjige. Prije otprilike mjesec dana napisala sam pohvalni ogled za roman Marina ili o autobiografiji hrvatske spisateljice Irene Vrkljan. Zapravo je ovaj roman na mene ostavio trajan dojam, pa sam sklona dosta visokom mišljenju o njegovoj autorici. Najpoznatija po nelinearnim poetskim autobiografskim romanima, Irena Vrkljan bila je spisateljica jedinstvenog glasa i rijetke autentičnosti. Živjela je i radila u Hrvatskoj i Austriji (Beč). Irena je umrla prošle godine, ali je njezina umjetnička ostavština još uvijek tu da u njoj uživamo. Danas ću podijeliti svoj ogled za još jedan roman Irene Vrkljan, ali ovaj put se radi o krimiću. Bila sam prilično znatiželjan kad sam prvi put naišla na Posljednje putovanje u Beč. Irena nije spisateljica od koje bi očekivala da napiše krimić, ponajviše zato što je njezin stil pisanja prilično poetičan i umjetnički. Iznenadilo me kako je lako promijenila žanrove. Doista, Irena Vrkljan je prilično dobro ostvarila svoj prijelaz na pisanje krimića. Mislim da ovo dokazuje da se kriminalistički romani mogu pisati u puno stilova – a da pritom budu ugodni i korisni za čitanje. Kao netko tko voli čitati i 'ozbiljnu' literaturu i kriminalističke romane, uvijek sam sretna vidjeti etablirane autore koji se upuštaju u žanr kriminalističkog romana.
THE FAUX FUR STOLE- HERE, THE SKATER DRESS-HERE, THE POINTY BOOTS-HERE, THE FISHNETS HERE |
While reading The Last Voyage to Vienna, I kept having this deja vu feeling. After a while, I had finally realized (and confirmed with the help of goodreads) that I read this novel back in 2012. I even reviewed it on my old goodreads profile. Well, that was a while ago! Still, some details obviously stayed in mind, hence the deja vu. Anyway, I didn't mind rereading this novel. I enjoyed the second read just as much as the first one. Moreover, my views and impressions about this novel are still very much the same as the first time around. In this reading, I focused more on the detective Leo, but the rest of the story was just as touching as the first time I read it. This is not a typical crime novel, and it is not packed with events. It's more poetical and nostalgic then exciting, but I liked it all the time. The atmosphere of an ancient European capital, once a seat of an Empire now long gone ( Vienna ) was wonderfully captured. I would recommend it to the fans of Irena Vrkljan because the style of writing is definitely hers alone.
POSLJEDNJE PUTOVANJE U BEČ, KRIMINALISTIČKI ROMAN IRENE VRKLJAN
"Was he an old-fashioned man? Probably. Let his associates call him that. He easily forgave it because he did not know, even if he wanted to, how to embark on this all encompassing race with new times. His devotions were probably the devotions of yesterday, he loved the damp and dark courtyards of his city, he looked gladly into the dim lights of old shops and shop windows; the plastic packaging of goods and the constant playing of hits in large supermarkets were unpleasant to him, and the anonymity there made him a strange, everyday person, he was a stranger there, someone who did not know the prices or various special offers."
FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR: *
Vrkljan, Irena, Croatian writer and translator (Belgrade, August 21, 1930 - Zagreb, March 23, 2021). She studied archaeology and German studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. She studied film (directing) at the Academy of Film and Television in Berlin. She was the editor of the television show Portraits and Encounters (1960-71), for which she wrote about seventy screenplays. She lived and worked in Berlin as a professional writer and translator, and in 2014 she returned to Zagreb. She won the Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Her literary work began in the age of circles with surrealist poetry (Scream is Only Silence, 1954; Parallels, 1957; Things Already Far Away, 1962; The Age of Friendship, 1963; Room, That Terrible Garden , 1966), and in that period she translated works by German authors with Z. Golob (EM Remarque, Wolfgang Ott, HW Richter, Karl Aloys Schenzinger, etc.). After going abroad, she continued to publish poetry, which evokes nostalgia for the homeland and loneliness (In the Skin of My Sister, 1982). In the early 1980s, she began publishing autobiographical prose. The novel Silk, Scissors (1984), as a combination of autobiography and developmental novel, with rhetoric and topics close to women's writing, brings an inventory of one's own intimacy, highlighting the female subject's search for identity and obsessive pursuit of self-affirmation. The novel Marina or About a Biography (1987) deals with the connections between art and life. By presenting the biographies of three women - Marina Tsvetaeva, the narrator herself and her friend Dora - she used other people's lives and experience in proclaiming her own, private obsessions. In the novel Before the Red Wall (1994), she focuses on examining the chaotic effects on reality and all aspects of humanity in the 1990s. The themes of the search for identity, self-recognition in others, the female instinct for liberation, memories of the dead are also conveyed in the novels The Berlin Manuscript (1988), Dora, This Autumn (1991), Green Socks (2005) and Sister as Behind Glass (2006) . She brought intimate essayist prose based on the theme of love in the book Our Love, Our Diseases (2004). In The Diary of Forgotten Youth (2007) she spoke about the cultural liveliness of Zagreb in the 1950s and 1960s, and with the novel Silk Disappeared, Scissors Remained (2008) she almost lyrically framed the key moments of her prose, autobiographical expression. She approached the forms of epistolary discourse in the novels Letters to a Young Woman (2003) and Letters in a Letter (with Jasna Horvat, 2008), and tried her hand at the crime novel genre (The Last Journey to Vienna, 2000; Death Comes with the Sun, 2002). The book Women and This Crazy World (2010) is a collection of seven stories about seven different women from different parts of the world. The collection of poems I Walk Through the Room (2014) is a combination of the author's poems and essays by literary critics and theorists who have followed her work. She also published the novel Farewell and Sinking (2012) and autobiographical records Protocol of One Farewell (2015). *
Vrkljan, Irena,
*Vrkljan, Irena. Hrvatska enciklopedija, mrežno izdanje. Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža, 2021. Pristupljeno 3. 2. 2022. <http://www.enciklopedija.hr/Natuknica.aspx?ID=65508>.
Lindo look, me parece un libro interesante. Gracias por la reseña. Te mando un beso.
ReplyDeleteGracias
DeleteThat extract byou've shared makes me very interested in reading The Last Voyage to Vienna, I'm loving Irena Vrkljan's writing style and Leo's dislike of modernity and his seeking out of the older side of things sounds like me!
ReplyDeleteLooking very elegant in your black outfit. xxx
He was a charming protagonist.
DeleteHola Ivana, hope everything is going well on your side!
ReplyDeleteI am happy to see you again with new content over here! As usual you discovered me something brand new because this is the first time I hear about Irena Vrkljan. At the beginning I thought you were going to recommend some of her poetry work but then you came out with a book about crime and suspense. It is incredible to see (after reading a little bit more about her in the biography you shared) that Irena studied a lot of different things: from archeology to languages to film and many other things. I guessed that helped to build all these scenarios when characters and stories could feel really complex, don't you say? At least I can say that from the things that you shared with us in this post.
I hope this book is easy to find in Spanish, but if not English could be a good option!
By the way I liked how you styled the post with your look in black, feels like a whole concept with the main topic of the book!
Pablo
www.HeyFungi.com
Yes, she was a fascinating person and artist. I'm sure you would enjoy her writing.
DeleteThanks for your review:)
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome.
DeleteThanks for sharing with us.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment.
DeleteGlad your back! Always so fashionable too! Lovely outfits! Oh, nothing like a crime story that gives you a good idea what the locals are up to. Fabulous review! Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteSo cool! Great you found that book again! Such a creative icon! Love the dress in this post! Great coat too! Fabulous hair, too! Very good to see your lovely post! All the best to a beautiful weekend.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a book I would love to read, Ivana, so thanks for the introduction! You are really good at writing these reviews, by the way. Glad to see you blogging again, and I hope you're feeling a bit better. Stunning outfit, too! xxx
ReplyDeleteI remember your review of Marina or About Autobiography and how much you enjoyed that book and how you read it a few times. Of course it makes sense that you would seek out other works when you enjoy the style and voice of a certain author. The Last Voyage to Vienna sounds very intriguing. The lead character of detective sounds like one I would like and the whole plot around the family secret is really compelling. I will have to see if this book is available in the US.
ReplyDeleteYour review makes me very curious about this writer! I love crime writing with an artistic interpretation. I think it's an engaging style particularly if the author is, as you said, a poetical writer. I wonder if it is available in English! You look beautiful in the photos and the crime book cover is startlingly cheery! :) xo
ReplyDeleteI have reread the same book many times. But you seem to pick up different things the second time, I think??
ReplyDeleteXOOX
Jodie
www.jtouchofstyle.com
Lovely to see another review from you. It sounds really good too. xx
ReplyDeleteGlad you're back and in style, both in terms of your outfit and your book review, which is always perfect and full of details! You read so much that you didn't even remember that you had read the book ahahah!! You are a walking library!!!
ReplyDeletexoxo
marisasclosetblog.com
Oh very nice style darling
ReplyDeleteI like your black outfit with the printed tights! It's good you enjoyed this book even though crime novels aren't really my thing! Thank you for sharing your review :)
ReplyDeleteHope you're having a great weekend :) We went to a birthday party yesterday which was fun.
Away From The Blue
That novel seems so great, and your review is always exciting!! I would love to read it. It is so inspiring that she wrote the crime novel although her style is poetical and artistic. Anyway, your both outfits look so elegant, and the cape is so gorgeous on you<3
ReplyDeleteakiko
<3
DeleteSounds like a book that I will love! Ahhh I love your outfit!
ReplyDeleteMarie
https://theflowerduet.blogspot.com/
Thank you dear. :)
DeleteI am very curious about this book - I love this kind of stories. Vienna is on my list of places that I want to visit so much.
ReplyDeleteI like so much your outfit- so mysterious <3
Thank you! I would love to visit Vienna too.
DeleteI am very curious to read this novel! You make it sound so interesting and absolutely up my alley! it's just WOW
ReplyDeleteThanks
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