Incentives - Neue Literatur aus Österreich

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[ Buchtipp von Aleksandra Rekar ] Already with her first short stories, which were published in diverse literary journals in Slovenia and other countries in the 1990s, Polona Glavan showed great promise. And in 2001 she lived up to expectations with her first novel, Noč v Evropi (A Night in Europe), about young backpackers who travel through Europe by train. The entire story takes place within ten hours. Its protagonists are in a difficult phase of their lives: their youth is over, but they are not ready or hardy enough for life’s first blows. Defeat or failure is often what affects us most at this age. The novel is one of those rare works that is well received by readers and critics alike. In 2004, with her second book, a collection of short stories entitled Gverilci (Guerillas), Polona Glavan shows herself to have matured as an author. These stories are well thought out: intimate tales about individual lives that also reveal the unpleasant moments of existence, but show neither too much nor too little social commitment. They are moving, without being unnecessarily sentimental. For instance, she tells of three jobless men who decide to give their never-ending hours off some meaning by taking tourists to a hidden beach; and of a young hairdresser whose father one day knocks at her door, long after he has become a stranger to her; or of a boy who takes refuge in numbers to escape his aggressive mother. Other stories deal with taboo subjects: incest between a brother and sister, or the suicide attempt of a young woman whose world has collapsed following the death of her child. There’s also a young couple who are incapable of communicating, an old man who has an unusual way of dealing with loneliness – and a wide range of topics that remain when the big issues have been exhausted. Moreover, Polona Glavan writes elegantly: lively, deftly, sometimes with restraint, but never sparsely. Gverilci is a sophisticated work, and the author knows exactly when less is more, and when not. Her second novel, which is eagerly awaited in Slovenia, will be released soon.

[ Info ] Glavan, Polona: Gverilci. (original language: slovenščina) Beletrina, Ljubljana, 2004 . ISBN: 961-6446-80-0.