5.0 von 5 Sternen
The cloth unravels at the edges, 22. Juni 2000
Von Ein Kunde
Rezension bezieht sich auf: Elegy for Kosovo: Stories (Gebundene Ausgabe)
Kosovo unraveled before our eyes in the ending years of the twentieth century. In ELEGY FOR KOSOVO, Ismail Kadare takes us back to the Field of the Blackbirds in 1389 to explain when, as the Russian proverb goes, the cloth began unraveling at the edges. There, Albanians, Bosnians, Romanians and Serbs loosely unite under Serbian Prince Lazar to fight the invading Ottoman Emperor, Murad I.
The author presents peninsular residents as quarrelsome types. Things get out of hand only when the newest kid on the block makes the fight ugly. Such happens, from the Albanian perspective, with the invading Slavs in the 5th to 7th centuries and the conquering Muslims in the 14th century.
Known for hospitality to guests, invited or otherwise, the peninsular fighters let the Ottomans get to the battlefield first. The peninsular battle campers then throw a loud party with much drinking and musical bickering while the Ottomans get a good night's sleep. The next day, the peninsular troops lose, and their leaders either hightail it home or become slaughtered captives.
The peninsular history draws on an old oral epic tradition, so minstrels are among the battle's surviving witnesses. They wander north, where only a Great Lady recognizes that the Greek-credited civilization cradling Europe is still among the peninsular fugitives. Accompanying them part of the way, a runaway Turk aspires to three faiths, and just as the three religions fertilize the peninsular killing fields, he too loses his life.
The diverse peninsular peoples never agree to one name for their homeland until the Ottomans call them Balkans. This is the apple of discord left by the Ottomans, along with the buried blood and intestines of their sultan. Kadare suggests that the blood feud can only stop by everyone starting anew. This echoes his autobiographical ALBANIAN SPRING, at the end of which he quotes the first known Albanian language published poem, the 16th century DIRGE, by Lek Matrenga, who asks for mercy since wrongs are everywhere.
Norman Maclean suggests in A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT that we can be so personally involved in facts that we need fiction for perspective. Thus, all of Kadare's novels make the Albanian mysteries familiar. ELEGY FOR KOSOVO in particular prepares readers to go tackle the non-fiction works, available through Amazon Books, which help to understand Balkan turmoil.
Helfen Sie anderen Kunden bei der Suche nach den hilfreichsten Rezensionen
War diese Rezension für Sie hilfreich? Ja
Nein
