Yolk - Softcover

Novakovich, Josip

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1555972292 ISBN 13: 9781555972295

Publisher: Graywolf Press, 1995

Synopsis

Yolk is a reflective and sometimes bizarre collection of stories by Croat writer-in-exile Josip Novakovich. Incorporating themes of unrequited love, obsession, war, faith, displacement, and death rituals, Novakovich's singular style reveals his affection for paradox and absurdity. Set primarily in Eastern Europe, these folktales also display Novakovich's unique social critique and dry wit. But more than the topicality gives the work its weight: the characters in Yolk touch on the universals of human experience-- the sublime as well as the base. The stories carry an odd notion of decay and infirmity, sexual peculiarity, and disturbed characters, all under the guise of a "once upon a time" innocence.

Many readers were recently introduced to Novakovich with Graywolf's publication of Apricots from Chernobyl, a collection of spirited narratives that the Hungry Mind Review called "a terrific achievement ... a celebration of life."

About this title

From the Back Cover

"If I told you the best short story you are going to read this year was about growing up Protestant in Yugoslavia, would you believe me? Try Josip Novakovich before you doubt." --Boston Globe

"One of the best young writers at work in America today. " --Toby Olson

Yolk is a reflective and sometimes bizarre collection of stories by Croat writer-in-exile Josip Novakovich. Incorporating themes of unrequited love, obsession, war, faith, displacement, and death rituals, Novakovich's singular style reveals his affection for paradox and absurdity. Set primarily in Eastern Europe, these folktales also display Novakovich's unique social critique and dry wit. But more than the topicality gives the work its weight: the characters in Yolk touch on the universals of human experience-- the sublime as well as the base. The stories carry an odd notion of decay and infirmity, sexual peculiarity, and disturbed characters, all under the guise of a "once upon a time" innocence.

Many readers were recently introduced to Novakovich with Graywolf's publication of Apricots from Chernobyl, a collection of spirited narratives that the Hungry Mind Review called "a terrific achievement ... a celebration of life."

From Booklist

Novakovich, a native of Croatia who migrated to the U.S. at age 20, offers his second collection of stories to be published this year, following Apricots from Chernobyl. In prose that evokes a pervasive sadness punctuated by sudden violence, Novakovich wrestles with varieties of alienation: loneliness, unpopular spirituality, the psychological dissociation of the emigre, and generational misunderstanding. In "Dresden," for example, a man rejects his father for the father's Nazi past and is in turn rejected by his own son for his earlier Communist sympathies. Some of the stories deal with the current war in the Balkans: "Honey in the Carcase" tells of an old man who tries to keep his beehives functioning near a battleground, while, in "Hats and Veils," a previously secularized Muslim refugee from Croatia embraces conservative Islam upon moving to Vienna, wearing the veil when she ventures out of her home. These stories can be difficult to read because the emotions are so raw and so visible, but the power of the writing is undeniable. George Needham

About this edition

• Publisher: Graywolf Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1555972292
• ISBN 13: 9781555972295
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224