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

THE LAST VOYAGE TO VIENNA, A CRIME NOVEL BY IRENA VRKLJAN

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

Čitajući Posljednje putovanje u Beč, stalno sam imala taj deja vu osjećaj. Nakon nekog vremena konačno sam shvatila (i potvrdila uz pomoć goodreadsa) da sam ovaj roman pročitala još 2012. Čak sam i napisala ogled na svom starom goodreads profilu. Pa to je bilo prije dosta vremena! Ipak, neki detalji su očito ostali u glavi, pa otuda i taj deja vu osjećaj. U svakom slučaju, nije mi nimalo smetalo  ponovno pročitati ovaj roman. U drugom čitanju sam uživala jednako kao i u prvom. Štoviše, moji stavovi i dojmovi o ovom romnu i dalje su isti kao i prvi put. U ovom sam se čitanju više usredotočila na detektiva Lea, ali ostatak priče bio je jednako dirljiv kao kad sam je prvi put pročitala. Ovo nije tipičan kriminalistički roman i nije prepun događaja. Više je poetičan i nostalgičan nego uzbudljiv, ali mi baš zato toliko i cijelo vrijeme sviđao. Atmosfera drevne europske prijestolnice, nekad sjedišta Carstva koje je sada davno nestalo (Beč), bila je prekrasno uhvaćenima. Preporučila bih ovaj roman ljubitejima Irene Vrkljan jer je njezin stil pisanja definitivno samo njezin.

"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."

"Je li on bio staromodan čovjek? Vjerojatno. Neka ga samo suradnici tako zovu. On je to lako opraštao jer se nije znao, makar je to želio, upustiti u tu posvemašnju utrku s novim vreme­nom. Njegove ljubavi bile su vjerojatno ljubavi od jučer, on je volio vlažna i tamna dvorišta svog grada, gledao je rado u mutna svjetla starih trgovina i izloga; plastična pakiranja robe i neprestano sviranje šlagera u velikim samo­poslugama bijahu mu neugodni, a tamošnja anonimnost činila je i od njega jednu čudnu, svakodnevnu osobu, on je ondje bio stranac, netko tko uopće ne poznaje cijene niti razne akcijske ponude."

The Last Voyage to Vienna is an interesting crime story with a dose of nostalgia and sadness that, it seems to me, defines the writing of Irena Vrkljan. The author immersed herself in the form of a crime novel without losing her recognizable writing style. The protagonist is an old-fashioned Viennese detective, who like all detective heroes, is shrewd and intelligent. However, the detective protagonist is also adorned with sensitivity. The novels opens with a murder mystery- a young woman is found dead. Although the investigators of the young woman's death are two men, a detective and his logical minded and modest assistant, the story revolves mostly around women. One family secret and a set of women's destinies. Mothers, daughters, sisters, cousins, half-sisters - the relationship between a family, its history and their life stories will be revealed as the culmination approaches, and that is (like in every crime novel) the capture of the perpetrator. Wonderfully written, this nostalgic crime novel is simply perfect for those looking for a different (more artistic) take on noir writing. 

Vrlo čitljiv i zanimljiv krimić s dozom neke nostalgije i sjete koja, kako mi se čini, karakterizira pisanje ove spisateljice. Irena je u formu kriminalističkog romana uronila bez da izgubi svoj prepoznatljivi stil pisanja. Protagonist je bečki detektiv starog kova, kao i svi detektivi junaci, pronicav i inteligentan,a krasi ga i osjećajnost. Roman počinje ubojstvom koje treba riješiti- mlada žena je pronađena mrtva.

Iako su istražitelji smrti mlade žene dva muškarca, detektiv i njegov logički i samozatajni pomoćnik, priča se najviše vrti oko žena. Jedna obiteljska tajna i koloplet ženskih sudbina. Majke, kćeri, sestre, sestrične, polusestre- odnosi između jedne obitelji, njena povijest i njihove životne priče otkriti će se kako se bliži kulminacija, a to je u svakom krimiću hvatanje počinitelja. Prekrasno napisan, ovaj nostalgičan kriminalistički roman je savršen za one koji traže drugačiji (više umjetički) pristup pisanju krimića. 

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). *

ZA ONE KOJI ŽELE ZNATI VIŠE  O SPISATELJICI*

Vrkljan, Irena, hrvatska književnica i prevoditeljica (Beograd, 21. VIII. 1930 – Zagreb, 23. III. 2021). Studirala arheologiju i germanistiku na Filozofskom fakultetu u Zagrebu te režiju na Akademiji za film i televiziju u Berlinu. Bila je urednica televizijske emisije Portreti i susreti (1960–71), za koju je napisala sedamdesetak scenarija. Živjela je i radila u Berlinu kao profesionalna književnica i prevoditeljica, a 2014. vratila se u Zagreb. Dobitnica je Nagrade »Vladimir Nazor« za životno djelo 2005. Književno stvaralaštvo započela je u doba krugovaša poezijom nadrealističke tematike (Krik je samo tišina, 1954; Paralele, 1957; Stvari već daleke, 1962; Doba prijateljstva, 1963; Soba, taj strašni vrt, 1966), a u tom je razdoblju sa Z. Golobom prevodila djela njemačkih autora (E. M. Remarque, Wolfgang Ott, H. W. Richter, Karl Aloys Schenzinger i dr.). Nakon odlaska u inozemstvo i dalje je objavljivala poeziju, u kojoj se iščitavaju nostalgija za domovinom i osamljenost (U koži moje sestre, 1982). Početkom 1980-ih počela je objavljivati autobiografsku prozu. Roman Svila, škare (1984), kao kombinacija autobiografije i razvojnoga romana, retorikom i topikom bliskima ženskom pismu, donosi inventuru vlastite intime, stavljajući u prvi plan potragu ženskoga subjekta za vlastitim identitetom i opsesivnu težnju za samopotvrđivanjem. Roman Marina ili o biografiji (1987) bavi se vezama umjetnosti i života. Podastrvši biografije triju žena – Marine Cvetajeve, same pripovjedačice i njezine prijateljice Dore – tuđe je živote i iskustvo iskoristila u proklamiranju vlastitih, privatnih opsesija. U romanu Pred crvenim zidom (1994) usredotočuje se na ispitivanje kaotičnih učinaka na zbilju i sve aspekte humaniteta 1990-ih. Teme potrage za identitetom, prepoznavanja sebe u drugima, ženskoga nagona za oslobađanjem, sjećanja na mrtve prenose se i u romanima Berlinski rukopis (1988), Dora, ove jeseni (1991), Zelene čarape (2005) i Sestra, kao iza stakla (2006). Intimnu esejističku prozu sazdanu od temata ljubavi donijela je u knjizi Naše ljubavi, naše bolesti (2004). U Dnevniku zaboravljene mladosti (2007) progovorila je o kulturnoj živosti Zagreba 1950-ih i 1960-ih, a romanom Svila nestala, škare ostale (2008) gotovo je lirski uokvirila ključne trenutke svojega proznoga, autobiografskog izričaja. Formi epistolarnoga diskursa približila se u romanima Pisma mladoj ženi (2003) i Pismo u pismu (s Jasnom Horvat, 2008), a okušala se i u žanru kriminalističkoga romana (Posljednje putovanje u Beč, 2000; Smrt dolazi sa suncem, 2002). Knjiga Žene i ovaj suludi svijet (2010) zbirka je sedam priča o sedam različitih žena s različitih dijelova svijeta. Pjesnička zbirka Koračam kroz sobu (2014) spoj je autoričinih pjesama i eseja književnih kritičara i teoretičara koji su pratili njezin opus. Objavila je i roman Rastanak i potonuće (2012) te autobiografske zapise Protokol jednog rastanka (2015).*

*Vrkljan, Irena. Hrvatska enciklopedija, mrežno izdanje. Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža, 2021. Pristupljeno 3. 2. 2022. <http://www.enciklopedija.hr/Natuknica.aspx?ID=65508>.