Tuesday, August 21, 2012

my cathedral.

this is the first time i am publicly mentioning a book i published six years ago. i am not sure why i have been so reticent. there is a lot in it that wanted out in the open, and then when the book came out, i mostly kept quiet about it. there were even times when i wondered whether i should have published it at all. not because i am ashamed of writing a dilettante piece of mock non-fiction, or because i disclosed many personal feelings in it, revealing perhaps even the things that i did not know i was revealing, but perhaps because i have changed in the meantime, changed to the extent that some of the things written there are in no way applicable to me any longer. of course, there's still too much of me in it.

the book is a description of one month, march 2001, that i spent in turku, a town in finland. in the story i tried to follow several strands - my inexplicable closeness to scandinavia, some haunting childhood memories, relationships with family members and partners, hospital experiences, introspection, etc. i think i have have fairly accurately and minutely touched upon many burning issues in my life. however, years have passed since then, and i have moved along.

the point of me unearthing this topic now is that i am publishing another title by the end of this year. it is a very different text, a fictionalized story about the demons of filip andrich. the book will be very short, probably under 100 pages, and the title will be 'the wire and the pyramid'. it took me six years to start promoting my stuff. isn't it progress?

10 comments:

  1. Is your book "my cathedral" anywhere to be found, bought, downloaded?

    ReplyDelete
  2. the thing is it's not in english but in serbo-croatian. if you can read it, i have copies of it at home.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is a great progress indeed... And it's about time :-)
    I honestly didn’t expect it to be so open because I always thought I could never reveal my feelings that way. However, it helped me a lot at the time and it is definitely worth reading.
    I’m also looking forward to your new book. It seems attractive ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. thanks for this. i needed to purge my own demons in the first text, but i am doing it in the second one, too, as you will see ;) only i wouldn't call it a book, but rather a booklet :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have the priviledge to be in possession of My Cathedral :-). Beautiful book, recommend it heartily. Janko, my respects to you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've only recently discovered your blog Janko and I really enjoy reading it. Many thanks for giving us this pleasure. Looking forward to 'The Wire and the Pyramid'.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you, N., that is so nice to hear.

    ReplyDelete
  8. People do change, this way or another.
    My Cathedral is an art expression of what you were Janko at certain point in your life (and what has remained in you until now, of course). I believe this is the reason enough for you not to wonder at all whether you should have published it or not.
    Long live the art! :)

    ReplyDelete