A stunning struggle

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This article was published 16/03/2024 (916 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“A series of unforeseen events” — this chilling phrase describes the challenges a couple face as they struggle with their relationship and are simultaneously buffeted by political winds beyond their control in Love Novel, a gripping, heartbreaking novella by Ivana Sajko, a Berlin-based Croatian writer, theatre director and performer.

A married couple with a toddler are caught in the economic collapse that follows an unnamed war, but which recalls the Croatian War of Independence from Yugoslavia, which was waged from 1991-1995. They lost their youth to the conflict and are left with a muddled state of mind over who their enemies were and how their loyalties were rewarded.

They are also impoverished, without consequential work, a family or societal safety net. The child’s constant needs receive an automated, perfunctory response rather than parental fostering. Blame replaces empathy and their mutual spite supplants the dream of stability and a future. The young adults turn their backs on each other rather than reaching out. As their tangled thoughts unwind, the basis for their relationship is revealed.

Sajko’s taut, innovative writing has a pounding tempo; she unleashes a stream of consciousness that combines all the hopes, regrets and resentments competing in the minds of her characters. She switches verb tenses within sentences to show the turmoil in their minds as their thoughts race back and forth in time, a continual analysis of past missteps that led them to their present calamity. Every word has been chosen carefully so much more will be inferred as the narrative advances.

Neither character is named — they represent so many people who have fallen into similar circumstances.

In other times, these two might have been able to forgive, to find the good in each other and nurture a family. But on top of the numbness and disruption caused by the war, they deal with problems that threaten relationships everywhere — social and housing insecurity, gender inequality and alcoholism. Still, like real life, there is macabre humour to be found in the shambles of their lives.

Each character travels their twisted journeys in concise chapters that fill in the gaps as the story inches along. He’s a Dante scholar and failed novelist who takes his frustration out in the bottle and by avoiding responsibility. He embarrasses himself repeatedly by raging in front of the child, “who doesn’t understand that it bears no blame for the short circuit between (his) expectations and actual impossibilities.” His car is a crucial possession — a symbol of masculinity, an escape and a lifeline to possibility.

She dreamed of becoming an actor, but was reduced to dressing as an amusement park caricature. Her response to being confined with all the responsibilities for the child is to become obsessive-compulsive, a perfectionist in her tiny apartment — the only world where she has control.

Importantly, they each grieve at their inability to maintain their dignity, to even come near fulfilling their personal aspirations. Miscommunication becomes the norm as they scramble to keep their apartment and to provide for the child, while pretending to the neighbours that everything is okay. Afraid to acknowledge their weaknesses, they harden their attitudes toward each other.

Stuck in their male/female roles, they perceive it a weakness to cross the divide. Without the time to reflect — to figure out how they got that way — they cannot reconsider, regroup and go forward. Instead, they continually prove the axiom “Your own people will always hurt you most deeply” as a measure of success.

Like many couples caught in an endless cycle of fighting, breaking up and reconciling, these two want nothing more than to see the other leave, yet they cannot stay apart. Misery is their preferred enjoyment. For two people who don’t see eye to eye on anything, they are on the same wavelength.

There’s no whisking through this short text. A note from translator Mima Simic says it took her a year to translate this 95-page story; each sentence was so filled with meaning and grief that she had to step away, sometimes for weeks.

Sajko is also an academic and an editorialist. Her theatrical and written works deal with socio-political themes — some drawn from her own life’s experiences and explore moral and practical issues, often from a female perspective. A prolific playwright, she’s received numerous awards, including the French Chevalier Medal of Arts and Letters. The German translation of Love Novel received an International Literature Award and was shortlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award.

Where did we go wrong? That timeless question is brilliantly probed through great writing and a compelling story rooted in real events and real life.

Harriet Zaidman is an award-winning writer for young people and a freelancer living in Winnipeg.